THE NEED FOR SLEEP.

Hawke's Bay Tribune, Volume XIII, Issue 19, 5 January 1923, Page 7

THE NEED FOR SLEEP.

NECESSARY LOURS IN BED.

Whether one is or middleaged, present conditions demand from us all strenuous sendees. It is important therefore to consider this question hi an enlightened manner. How much sleep do we get ? Have we tried

io i\ ckou it up? and how far does this nurmai sleep lall short, or exceed, that prescribed by science. As most young folks have to be at business between 8 o’clock and 9.3 o—some earlier —it follows that i o’clock, or perhaps 6.30, is the usual hour of awakening. That, if you went to sleep at 11. o’clock, would give you eight or nearly eight hours of sleeep. The question now arises :—Are eight hours of sleep enough for workers between the ages of 20 and 45? Science says they are not enough. Jhe duration of sleep in all healthy adults should be nine hours. Here is Dr. Clement Duke’s table, showing the hours of sleep necessary through the various ages of life—an interesting compilation:— Aoove 19 years, 9 hours'; 19 years, 9} hours; 17-19 years, 10} hours; 15-17 years, 10} hours; 13-15 years, 11 hours; 10-13 years, 11 hours; 9-10 years, llj hours; 8-9 years, 12 hours; i-8 years. 12} hours; 6-7 years, 13 hours; 5-6 years, 14 hours; 3-4 years, 16 hours; 4-5 years, 15 hours; 2-3 years, 18 hours; 1-2 years, 20 hours; birth to 1 year, 23 hours.

Dr. Ash, in his book, “Middle Age Health and Fitness,” says that four hours’ sleep constitutes the absolute, minimum for people forty years of age and over. He also hazards the opinion that the best sleep is got before 2 o’clock in the morning. It is, oi course, all very well for doctors to dogmatise, but in regard to the hours of sleep, as in most other things, “what is one man’s meat may. be another’s poison.” The best test is, not how manv hours you have slept, but what kind of sleep you have had, and how you feel on awakening. If your sleep has been of a satisfactory kind and adequate, you will awake feeling fresh and alert. It it possible to have too much sleep as too little. If you awake feeling tired and sleepy, then, obviously, you have not had enough. On the other hand, if you seldom feel reinvigorated by. your sleep you are not well. Your internal organs are not functioning as they should. It is time you took yourself to task. 'The problem for active people of both sexes is how to make the most- of the summer evenings, discharge social duties, and family obligations as well, and at the same time secure a clear eight hours’ interval for sleep.