WHEN NIGHTS ARE COLD

New Zealand Herald, Volume LI, Issue 15646, 27 June 1914, Page 6 (Supplement)

WHEN NIGHTS ARE COLD

THE OPEN WINDOW.

We all talk a good deal about the value of fresh air in summer, but nowadays, when winter's grip is on the land, we sit closo over fires, and talk, of tho virtues of warm air rather than of any other. AU summer wo slept outside, but the starry sky doesn't seem nearly so alluring in June as rn January ! That's a pity. On clear, frosty nights the stare twinkle as never they do in summer's languid heat. Don't he a shirker and close your window at nights just becausoJt's frosty. Your health and looks will suffer for it in the long run.

Do you know what it is to wake up in the morning feeling dull and headachy, as if your sleep had dono you no good? To yawn over your breakfast, and go off to work feeling shivery, cross, and tired? If you do, you may take it that more than likely you feel so " done up" because you are sleeping in bad air,

"But I always sleep with my window open!" you exclaim. " That's an old story. 1 should never think of having both door and window closed; it would be like Bleeping in a box, with no ventilation at all.

Yes,-it is true that most people, nowa. days, realise that bedroom windows should bo kept open. They do keep thorn openabout five or six inches at the top. But how many people's bedrooms are as fresh, in the morning, as tho outside air? And yet that is how they should be if we want to be really refreshed by our sleep. There is only ono way to do this—have the window open as wide as it will go, , top and bottom, however cold it is. "Cut I should freeze you say. Why should you? Breathing' cold air does not mako you cold. Put another blanket on the bed, and go to bed warm, and you will stay warm and coßy though the wind is fanning your cheeks with its cold breath. The Right Kind ; .of Bedclothes. Ventilation needs to bo a great deal freer and more thorough during tho night than during the day, bocause at night our bodies are giving oft" moro poisonous gases than during the day. In sleep, the human engine, as it were, cleans itself, and gets rid of the waste products accumulated in working hours. To get thorough ventilation there should be two openings, one to admit the fresh air, and ono to let tho bad air cscapo; that is why the window should bo open top and bottom. A word about bedclothes. Have as many blankets as you need to keep you warm, but never sleep under a cotton quilt or counterpane, It is heavy without being warm, and is not porous enough to let tho air and moisture pass through, as a blanket does. The beloved eiderdown has, alas! the samo drawback, unless it has plenty of ventilation holes in it. When one thinks that practically onethird of one's life is spent in sleep, it becomes evident that it is not mere " faddiness,' 1 but common-flense, to Fee that wo havo the right sort of conditions, and to pay some attention to our bedrooms and bedclothes.