TO-DAY'S HEALTH NOTE

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume LV, Issue 17238, 19 April 1930, Page 12

TO-DAY'S HEALTH NOTE

WHEN YOU NEED A REST

Rest i.s one of the simplest and most easily attained of all the requirements of health, yet it is one which, unfortunately, is,commonly unfulfilled.

The human machine cannot maintain u perpetual and unceasing activity. Regular pauses arc essentia] in order that the body tissues may undergo repairs, and that the expended energy may be replaced. The heart, the pivot of life, rests for a fraction of a second after every boat, and should this period of rest be encroached upon, as often happens in valvular disease,, exhaustion of the heart muscle or heart failure inevitably ensues. Herein lies an object" lesson.

Though sleep is the body's chief means of ensuring periodic rest, this happening does not absolve us from the need for rest in the course of our daily activities. Practical psychologists have shown that spells of work unbroken by regular rest pauses are unsatisfactory from the point of view of quantity and quality of production.

For children sufficient rest is of vital importance. An excessive display of energy should be checked, for it leads to an over-tiredness which is dangerous to health, Wise parents should insist on rogulaT pause.s riming the day, particularly after meals.