BLESSED SLEEP

Korero (AEWS), Volume 2, Issue 10, 22 May 1944, Page 18

BLESSED SLEEP

What is sleep ? How does it happen ? Well, theories abound, but there’s no sure knowledge. Some say that sleep is caused by temporary anaemia of the brain ; others that during the day you pile up stores of poison or toxin which drive you to sleep. That doesn’t fit in very well with the afternoon nap that you don’t really need. Some think that there’s a centre in our brain which controls our sleep, and so on. One word on insomnia. It’s not so common or so important as its victims believe. The hours of wakefulness seem long and the person who swears he hasn’t slept a wink is often telling, quite innocently, a little white lie. Insomnia doesn’t usually damage mind or body. It isn’t the cause of mental disorder, though it may sometimes be found in mental illness. How much sleep do you need ? Human beings differ, and thank goodness they do. Certainly their needs of sleep are different, and many take too much. Habit plays a big part. Each person must find out for himself what he really needs. Some one once said that a genius needs seven, an intelligent man eight, and a fool needs more. Well, I must be daft, for I like nine. Children, of couse, need much more sleep than adults so abundant is their use of energy by day. Between four and five they need on average some ten to twelve hours sleep ; between eleven and sixteen about ten hours’. — The 8.8.C.’s Radio Doctor, in a recent broadcast.