HOW LONG SHOULD WE SLEEP?

Evening Star, Issue 11278, 27 June 1900, Page 8

HOW LONG SHOULD WE SLEEP?

A hard and fast law cannot be laid down as to how long we-should sleep, but there seems to be a unanimity, says ' Hand'and Heart/ among the doctors that the number of hours devoted to sleep should be eight. At whatever hour a man retires he should have his sleep out. Seven hours is probably sufficient for most men, but to take much less than this is a. mistake that soon punishes itself. Of course, much depends on the quality as well as the quantity of the sleep. The mini with the healthy niind and body is himself corweious when he has had enough of " Nature's soft nurse," and everyone should be careful not to over-indulge in the "chief nourisher of life's feast," for it then ceases to " balm of hurt minds." It is worthy of note that many of the men who have lived to a. great age, rind many of those who havo become distinguished, were in the.habit of retiring early and rising curly. , Franklin said: '"'He who rises late may trot all day, and not have overtaken his business at night." Dean Swift declared that he " never' knew any man come to greatness and eminence who lay in bed of k morning."' Buffon «»id that his love of sleep robbed him of. a good deal of time, and to overcome the habit he gave his servant a crown every time he made him rise at six. To this servant he said, he was " indebted for ten or a dossen of the-volumes of my works. - ' Peter the Great always rose before daylight, whether at the docks as a ship's carpenter, at the anvil as a blacksmith, or on the throne of Russia. " I am," said he. " for making my life as long as I can, and therefore sleep as little as possible." Doddridge attributed, the production of his ' Commentary,' and most of his other .writings, to the " difference between rising at five and at seven o'clock in the morning for tie space of forty years." He further added: "Supposing a. man to go to bed at the same hoar at night, this is nearly equivalent to the addition of ten years to a man's &»? :■■■■■■■-. '