MORE SLEEP.

Tuapeka Times, Volume V, Issue 229, 20 June 1872, Page 9

MORE SLEEP.

A writer expresses himself as follows in the ." Independent " on the necessity of sound sleep and plenty of it : — " We have' all been educated to believe that the time given to the bed is lost, and that we gain all the hours we steal from it. Children have been taught that prompt rising in the morning is a beautiful thing. lam not sorry, therefore, that one of the medical faculty, Dr. Hall, has the good sense to tell the world that children, under the age of eighteen, and old and feeble people (and he might as well have said eveiybody), need ten hours sleep ; and that bouncing suddenly out of bed in the morning is as hurtful as it is disagreeable ; that fifteen or twenty minutes spent in gradually waking up, stretching the limbs, and letting the blood slowly resume its wonted circulation, is time well spent. For the sudden sending of the blood to the heart is a severe shock, and the, person who gets up in this hasty and reckless manner is certain to be drowsy at raid day, unless he or she be an editor or a belle, aDd does not get up till afternoon. I concur in this — in fact, I always knew that it was true ; and think further that pulling anybody out of bed ought to be a State's prison offence, and that conviction for it could be had before any of our ordinary sleepy juries — if they were wide-awake enough to hear the evidence. The instinct of children against early, and especially sudden, rising is well founded ; and it is pleasant to have the learned faculty confirm a long and growing conviction, that it is no sin to lie in bed until the second bell rings. It is the experience of the majority of people that the most delicious moments of the whole day are those when they ought to get up and do not. Hereafter let them linger in this delightful borderland with a quiet conscience. No man can be at his best in any hour unless he has given as many hours to solid sleep as his system requires. The demands of business and the exaction of society keep most of us out of bed unmercifully, and in time we get jadedly used to the unnatural life, and take credit to ourselves that we do with the fewest hours of sleep. It is a great mistake. There have been great men who were able to accomplish a great amount of work with little sleep ; but we may be snre that, if we want to be great men, or what is more important in this day, great women, we shall reach the goal by being good sleepers. That was an honourable epitaph on the Dutchman's tombstone — 'He vas a gut sleeper.' It will not be said of many of this nervous excited generation. — " Chicago Tribune."