HOW MUCH SLEEP?

Evening Post, Volume CIV, Issue 1, 1 July 1922, Page 12

HOW MUCH SLEEP?

LONDON SPECIALIST'S ADVICE. Sir Robert Armstrong Jones, am expert in mental1 diseases, addressing the Public League of Health, in London' on "Fatigue and. Sleep," said that if kept free from -undue fatigue the heart could be counted on to work for 70, 80, or 120 years. Touching sleep, he said that the soundest-sleep was said, to be during the ■first hour or two. "The enterprising .burglar" knew that, and generally paid his Visits accordingly. The bedroom should not be 'too warm, nor the bed Clothes too heavy. The temperature should be 60deg., or, perhaps, 2deg. under. There was a. club in London "where the temperature was kept at that figure, arid the members slept all tha afternoon. Asked how Jong one should •sleep, Sir Bobert said that for a boy of ■preparatory school age from 7 to 7 wap a very good time, right tip to 15, but for. ■elderly people he would reverse the old saying eight, for a man, nine Jor a woman, and1 ten^ for a fool—he would make it ten for a woman, nine for. a •mail, and eight for a fool. . For the middle-aged1 four hours- was often enough—:Herschel, for example, took only ■four.- • : ' The very generous* allowance of sleep called for by Sir Robert ArmstrongJones, says- the London Daily Telegraph's medical correspondent, in commenting on the lecture, raises the question <is to whether most active persons ircally do get enough time in bed. Ten hours for a woman andi nine, for a man is a substantial advance on the popular idea of eight hours for sleep out of every twenty-four; but the eminent lecturer said/lt should be eight hours for a fool, iwhich leaves many of us in an unpleasant dilemma ! ]?or few brain-workers ■remain asleep for nine hours,, although in future many wild not dare to confess to 'their alleged folly. As a matter of fact, many of those who have used their, brains actively and ■with success up to advahced ago have)' found that so long as they kept themselves in good health . generally they needed much less sleep as yeS*s went by; arid there is much that points to future generations sleeping lees than we do today. The test of sufficient -sleep lies not so much in the actual number of hours one lies -unconscious, as in the general state of Sfealth; it may be a. bore to wake in the early hours of the morning, but it as, not necessarily dangerous to. our w'ell'being. Undoubtedly quite .as ' manyrr'probably far. more—individuals suffer injury from worrying about sleep as through definite want Of sufficient rest" at TiJght; and this because it is deeply 'rooted.in the popular .mind that a series of-bad nights means "something wrong with t'tio brain." 'This is a bogey thatwants firmly dealing with, as.it is always" frightening numbers of;, nervous persons into poor health. If weight is maintained, the mind clear; and digestion good-., why worry about sleep if only a lew hours are obtained each night? It 'is largely a matter of individual constitution, and rigid rules about sleep are deceptive;' if1' not dangerous. One person gets as mitch benefit out of -an habitual five hours' sound-, sleep'as many another derives irom eight or nine hours' lighter slumber, for, quality pi sleep is as ini•portant as:quantity,, a point that is often overlooked. '.-■■.■;

. Again, it is difficult to see on what grounds the average healthy woman 'should be advised to take an hour's sleep more than the.average man; indeed, it might be suggested that the former, leading on the'whole a. less strenuous life, really should get up .earlier, which, as a (matter of fact; she does in a million or ' co households every morning. On the other handl, it is doubtful if children cap have too much sleep; up to 12 years of age, at any Tate, they may well be allowed to sleep twelve hours. .Whilst they slc&p Nature proceeds i steadily and wonderfully, quickly with all. those complex adjustments and developments that .gradually transform the 'child into the grown-up man or woman. At all costs the children's nights should foe auiet, free from all 'disturbances,, and dasting\the roiind of the clock.