THE ART OF GOING TO BED.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 5567, 16 May 1896, Page 3

THE ART OF GOING TO BED.

Mr Ernest Hart, D.C.L. is lecturing in London on the "Art of Living." He thinks that at the end of 5000 years very few of us understand the elementary principles of comfort and health, and then treats of what seems the not too complicated subject' of going to- bed. The management of " the bedroom and the art of gohig to bed' would' seem to be very simple matters upon which some rational principles and comfortable and healthy customs might be expected to prevail. Let us see if this is so. Take the case of the average well-to-do Englishman. He leaves in the winter a warm, welllighted, and perhaps sumptuously furnished room, and ascends through a cold staircase to a room of which the temperature is not determined, and is very apt to be below 60deg. ' If he is thoughtful and what is called self-indulgent, he will have the room warmed by a fire or a gas. stove. This is, however, by no means a universal rule, and is frequently reserved only for the heads of the establishment or for what are called delicate people. The room is rarely well or conveniently lighted, and the fittings are commonly centuries behind our modern knowledge. It is only here and there that hot and cold water are laid on, or that the lighting can be without effort shifted from the dressing table to the bad head, and controlled from a convenient place near the bed. . The clothing is then removed, and the unhappy person puts on something which is called a "nightgown," a sorb of linen or cotton sack with sleeves, which leaves the lower limbs and feet more or less uncovered, and at once makes a man an uncomfortable and ridiculous object. It is the clothing of the primeval savage.

The bed is a ridiculous contrivance, having the worst of all coverings, linen sheets, the foster mothers of^ rheumatism, and the worst of all material for contact with the skin. To counterbalance its defects and increase the miseries, a superabundant mass of blankets and quilts is imposed, and to prevent . any comfortable or free movement of the limbs these are " tucked in " around the edges, constituting a huge set of swaddling clothes such as only savages now employ even for children. The fire, if ever it is lighted, is generally allowed to become extinct, and those who have passed their day in warm rooms often spend the night in a chamber in which the temperature is not much above freezing-point.- /

The reasonable practice would require, first, that for the present hideous and ridiculous nightgown pyjamas of various degrees of warmth or thinness should be provided. The present bedstead? and bed clothing should bo altogether discarded, and two light eiderdowns like the Indian resai or the Japanese futon should be substituted. Night socks should be. worn of a texture suited to the season. Near the couch should be provided a book shelf with the favourite books. Everybody can jinake his own selection of wellknown and 'well-worn, and therefore not too exciting, authors. The couch should be supplied with a convenient head-rest, which falls forward at a touch. By the bed should be one lever, which controls the gas, fire; and temperature, and one which controls the light, either a Byepass bed light or an electric light, as may be most convenient. The" room should be kept at a temperature which never falls below 60deg, and in another part of it should be placed a long "deck; chair," with cushions to which, if the sleeper grows restless, he can easily transfer himself and repose at any angle. That is how to go to bed rationally and healthily, prepared for the emergencies of the night, whether of sleeplessness or household accident.