Sleep after Dinner.

Te Aroha News, Volume VI, Issue 324, 12 December 1888, Page 6

Sleep after Dinner.

The ci.stoin of napping after dinner is so familiar to many by occasional indulgence* and appears to be so natuial, that it does nob readily occur to us to question what may he its influence on the simultaneous process of digestion. That it does in a vary ing degico modify that process for the tiruo being is very likely. There is also reason to believe that its influence in this respect is not entirely advantageous, bub rather t.he reverse. A certain drowsiness or languor is* doubtless natural to the work of digestion, and miy be taken as a fair indication of its activity. ]b represents the diversion of a portion of the blood from outlying tissues, including the brain, to tne alimentary mucousmembrane. Iti& therefore simply a consequence of change which are essential to digestion. Under ordinary cucumstnnces the soporific influence thus brought about is nob » powerful s ,one. It is cisily overcome by attention to any matter of interest sufficient to occupy without exciting the mind, though it may also, under the favouring of the rest, leisure, and reeumbencN, as readily result in sleep. When, however, the tendency to sleep regularly follow? a meal, and is well marked, wo must look for its explanation in other than strictly natural causes. Perhaps there has been gome excess in the amount of the food consumed. Perhaps the fluid taken, if a ■stimulant, is acting a? a gentle intoxicant. The prevalence of after-dinner sleep among the elderly again has probably something to do with the fact that the diversion of blood already referred to is more strongly felt when {he cerebral blood vessels have Idst something of thoir elasticity, and with it of their n utritive value.. The effect of actual sleep upon dige&tion cannot bo immediately helpful. During sleep/ the activity, not only of the nervous -system, but of "every nipanand tis&uc moro.or lefes, is lessened, r lhe heaiii be.itb with a more languid stroke, the thinking brain paus.es fora time in its , work of. observation and decision, and the stomach in like manner lingers over it> allotted ta^k. So that whatever benefit, if any, results from the redoubled energy oi the latter organ after the ? short period? of inaction, and from the chemical action oi digestive juices on the food during it 3 continuance, the,,poiiod of sleep is mainly. one of passive and sluggish changes. No theory is complete unless it imply some ,plan of application." Amongr+he practical issues doducible, from^these observations weniay note that persons who sleep, after, eating, must allow for this interval, of rest infixing iho hour of fcho next meal, and tjiat a\Os considerable 'amount of should be taken, o> n't Jensb three or four hour's before 1 ©tiring to rest£ l ->/"-' - , v ,. , v",; ~ j '■"; _„