SLEEP.
General remarks. Hints to fathers.--SEC. 1. Proper hours for repose.
Dark rooms. Noise.--SEC. 2. Place for sleeping. Sleeping
alone--reasons.--SEC. 3. Purity of the air in sleeping rooms.--SEC. 4.
The bed. Objections to feathers. Other materials.--SEC. 5. The covering
of beds. Covering the head.--SEC. 6. Night Dresses. Robes.--SEC. 7.
Posture of the body in sleep.--SEC. 8. State of the mind.--SEC. 9.
Quality of sleep.--SEC. 10. Quantity of sleep.
Not a few persons consider all rules relative to sleep as utterly
futile. They regard it as so much of a natural or animal process, that
if we are let alone we shall seldom err, at any age, respecting it.
Rules on the subject, above all, they regard as wholly misplaced.
Those who entertain such views, would do well, in order to be
consistent, to go a little farther; and as breathing and eating and
drinking--nay, even _thinking_--are natural processes, deny the utility
of all rules respecting _them_ also. Perhaps they would do well,
moreover, to deny that rules of any sort are valuable. But would not
this have the effect to bar the door perpetually against all human
improvement? Would it not be equivalent to saying, to a half-civilized,
because only half-christianized community--Go on with your barbarous
customs, and your uncleanly and unthinking habits, forever?
But I have not so learned human nature. I regard man as susceptible of
endless progression. And I know of no way in which more rapid progress
can be made, than by enlightening young mothers on subjects which
pertain to our physical nature, and the means of physical improvement.
Not for the _sake_ of that perishable part of man, the frame, but
because it is nearly in vain to attempt to improve the mind and heart,
without due attention to the frame-work, to which mind and heart, for
the present, are appended, and most intimately related.
Let it be left to fathers to study the improvement of hounds and horses
and cattle, and at the same time to think themselves above the concerns
of the nursery. We may, indeed, read of a Cato once in three thousand
years, who was in the habit of quitting all other business in order to
be present when the nurse washed and rubbed his child. But our passion
for gain, in the present age, is so much more absorbing and
soul-destroying than the passion for military glory, that we cannot
expect many Catos. Oh no. All, or nearly all, must devolve on the
mother. The father has no time to attend to his children! What belongs
to the mother, if she can be duly awakened, may be at least _half_ done;
what belongs to the father, must, I fear, be left undone.
I am accustomed to regard every day--even of the infant--as a miniature
life. I am, moreover, accustomed to consider mental and bodily vigor,
not only for each separate day, but for life's whole day, as greatly
influenced by the circumstances of sleep; the HOUR, PLACE, PURITY OF THE
AIR, THE BED, THE COVERING, DRESS, POSTURE, STATE OF THE MIND, QUALITY,
QUANTITY, AND DURATION.
SEC. 1. _Hour for Repose._
Generally speaking, the night is the appropriate season for repose; but
in early infancy, it is _every_ hour. I have already spoken of the vast
amount of sleep which the new-born infant requires, as well as of many
other circumstances connected with it, requiring our attention. Suffer
me, however, to enlarge, at the risk of a little repetition.
What time the infant is awake, should be during the day. It is of very
great importance, in the formation of good habits, that he should be
undressed and put to bed, at evening, with as much regularity as if be
had not slept during the day for a single moment. It is also important
that he be permitted to sleep during the whole night, as uninterruptedly
as possible; and that when he is aroused, to have his position or
diapers changed, or to receive food, it should be done with little
parade and noise, and with as little light as possible. All persons, old
as well as young, sleep more quietly in a dark room, than in one where a
light is burning.
I am well aware that the course here recommended, may be carried to an
excess which will utterly defeat the object intended, since there are
children to be found, who are so trained in this respect, that the
lightest tread upon the floor will awake, and perhaps frighten them. But
this is an excess which is not required. All that is necessary during
the night, is a reasonable degree of silence, in order to induce the
habit of continued rest, if possible. In the day time, on the contrary,
fatigue will impel a child to sleep occasionally, even in the midst of
noise. I am not sure that the habit of sleeping in the midst of noise is
not worth a little pains on the part of the mother. Nor is it improbable
that a habit of this kind, once acquired by the infant, might ultimately
be extended to the night, so that over-caution, even in regard to that
season, might gradually be laid aside.
Dr. North, a distinguished medical practitioner in Hartford, Conn.,
confirms the foregoing sentiments; and adds, that he deems it an
imperious duty of those parents who wish well to their infants, to form
in them the habit of sleeping when fatigued, whether the room be quiet
or noisy. With his children, no cradles or opiates are needed or used.
SEC. 2. _Place._
For some time after its birth, the infant should sleep near its mother,
though not in the same bed. The bedstead should be of the usual height
of bedsteads, and should be enclosed with a railing sufficient to secure
the infant from falling out, but not of such a structure as to hinder,
in any degree, a free circulation of the air.
The reasons why a child ought to sleep alone, and not with the mother or
nurse, are numerous; but the following are the principal;
1. The heat accumulated by the bodies of the mother and child both, is
often too great for health.
2. The air is too impure. I have already spoken of the change in the
purity of the air which is produced by breathing in it. It is bad
enough for two adults to sleep in the same bed, breathing over and over
again the impure air, as they must do more or less, even if the bed is
very large;--but it is still worse for infants. Their lungs demand
atmospheric air in its utmost purity; and if denied it, they must
eventually suffer.
3. But besides the change of the air by breathing, the surface of the
body is perpetually changing it in the same manner, as was stated in the
chapter on Ventilation. Now a child will almost inevitably breathe a
stream of this bad air, as it issues from the bed; and what is still
worse, it is very apt, in spite of every precaution, to get its head
covered up with the clothes, where it can hardly breathe anything else.
This, if frequently repeated, is slow but certain death;--as much so as
if the child were to drink poison in moderate quantities.
Let me not be told that this is an exaggeration; that thousands of
mothers make it a point to cover up the beads of their infants; and that
notwithstanding this, they are as healthy as the infants of their
neighbors. I have not said that they would droop and die while infants.
The fumes of lead, which is a certain poison, may be inhaled, and yet
the child or adult who inhales them may live on, in tolerable health,
for many years. But suffer he must, in the end, in spite of every effort
and every hope. So must the child, whose head is covered habitually
with the bed clothing, where it is compelled to breathe not only the air
spoiled by its own skin, but also that which is spoiled by the much
larger surface of body of the mother or nurse.
But I have proof on this subject. Friedlander, in his "Physical
Education," says expressly, that in Great Britain alone, between the
years 1686 and 1800, no less than 40,000 children died in consequence of
this practice of allowing them to sleep near their nurses. I was at
first disposed to doubt the accuracy of this most remarkable statement.
But when I consider the respectability of the authority from which it
emanated, and that it is only about 350 a year for that great empire, I
cannot doubt that the estimate is substantially correct. What a
sacrifice at the shrine of ignorance and folly!
It should be added, in this place, both to confirm the foregoing
sentiment, and to show that British mothers and nurses are not alone,
that Dr. Dewees has witnessed, in the circle of his practice, four
deaths from the same cause. If every physician in the United States has
met with as many cases of the kind, in proportion to his practice, as
Dr. D., the evil is about as great in this country as Dr. F. says it is
in Great Britain.
If a child sleeps alone, it cannot of course be liable to as much
suffering of this kind as if it slept with another person; though much
precaution will still be necessary to keep its head uncovered, and
prevent its inhaling air spoiled by its own lungs and skin.
4. There is one more evil which will be avoided by having a child sleep
alone. Many a mother has seriously injured her child by pressure. I do
not here allude to those monsters in human nature, whose besotted habits
have been the frequent cause of the suffocation and death of their
offspring, but to the more careful and tender mother, who would sooner
injure herself than her own child. Such mothers, even, have been known
to dislocate or fracture a limb![Footnote: There may be instances where
the debility of an infant will be so great that the mother or a nurse
must sleep with it, to keep it warm. But such cases of disease are very
rare.]
To cap the climax of error in this matter, some mothers allow their
infants to lie on their arm, as a pillow. This practice not only exposes
them to all or nearly all the evils which have been mentioned, but to
one more; viz. the danger of being thrown from the bed.
A young mother, with whom I was well acquainted, was sleeping one night
with her infant on her arm, when she made a sudden and rather violent
effort to turn in the bed, in doing which she threw the child upon the
floor with such violence as to fracture its little skull, and cause its
death.
Enough, I trust, has now been said to convince every reasonable young
mother, where absolute poverty does not preclude comfort and health,
that her child ought never to be permitted to sleep in the same bed with
her; but that it should be placed on a bedstead by itself at a short
distance from her, and properly guarded from accidents--and above all,
from inhaling impure air.
At a suitable age, a child may be removed from the nursery to a separate
chamber. Here, if the circumstances permit, it should still sleep by
itself; and if the bedstead be somewhat lower than ordinary, and the
room be not too small, it will need no watching.
Perhaps this may be the proper place to say that there are more reasons
than one--and some of them are of a moral nature, too--why a child
should continue to sleep alone, after it leaves the nursery. Nor is it
sufficient to prohibit its sleeping with younger persons, and yet crowd
it into the bed with an aged grandfather or grandmother, or with both.
There is no excuse for a course like this, except the iron hand of
necessity. And even then, I should prefer to have a child of mine sleep
on the hard floor, at least during the summer season, rather than with
an aged person.
Let it not be supposed I have imbibed the fashionable idea that it is
_peculiarly_ unhealthy for the young to sleep with the old. I know this
doctrine has many learned advocates. And yet I doubt its correctness. I
believe that the manners and habits of the old may injure the young who
sleep with them, and I know that they render the air impure, like other
people. But I cannot see why the mere circumstance of their being _old_
should be a source of unhealthiness to their younger bed-fellows. Still
I say, that there are reasons enough against the practice I am opposing,
without this.
Some parents allow dogs and cats to sleep with children. Others have a
prejudice against cats, but not against dogs. The truth is, that they
both contaminate the air by respiration and perspiration, in the same
manner that adults do. And aside from the fact that they are often
infested by lice and other insects, and addicted to uncleanly habits,
they ought always to be excluded, and with iron bars and bolts, if
necessary, from the beds of children. But of this, too, I have treated
elsewhere.
SEC. 3. _Purity of the Air._
The general importance of pure air has been mentioned. I have spoken of
the elements of the atmosphere in which we live, of the manner in
which it may be vitiated, and the consequences to health. I have
shown--perhaps at sufficient length--the impropriety of washing, drying,
and ironing clothes in the room where a child is kept; of cooking in the
room, especially on a stove; of suffering the floor or clothes,
particularly those of the child, to remain long wet, in the room; of
smoking tobacco, using spirits, burning oil with too long a wick, &c.
All which has thus been said of the purity of the air of the nursery
generally, is applicable to that of all sleeping rooms. It is an
important point gained, when we can secure a nursery with folding doors
in the centre, so as, when we please, to make two rooms of it. In that
case, the division in which the bed is, can be completely ventilated a
little before night, and thus be comparatively pure for the reception of
both the mother and the child.
Shall the windows and doors where a child sleeps, be kept closed; or
shall they be suffered to remain open a part or the whole of the night?
This must be determined by circumstances. If there are no doors but
such as communicate with apartments whose air is equally impure with
that in which the child is, it is preferable to keep them closed. If the
windows cannot be opened without exposing the child to a current of air,
it is perhaps the less of two evils, not to open them.
But we are not usually driven to such extremities. In some instances,
windows are constructed--and all of them ought to be--so that they can
be lowered from the top. When this is not the case, something can be
placed before the window to break the current, so that it need not fall
directly upon the child. Closing the blinds will partially effect this,
where blinds exist.
I have known many an individual who was in the habit of sleeping with
his windows open during the whole year, and without any obvious evil
consequences. Dr. Gregory was of this habit. But if adults--not trained
to it--can acquire such a habit with impunity, with how much more safety
could children be trained to it from the very first year. Macnish says,
"there can be no doubt that a gentle current pervading our sleeping
apartments, is in the highest degree ESSENTIAL TO HEALTH."
This consideration--I mean the impurity of sleeping rooms, even after
every precaution has been used to keep them ventilated--affords one
of the strongest inducements to going abroad early in the morning
(especially when there is no other room which either adults or children
can occupy) while the nursery or chamber is aired and ventilated. The
utility of _rising_ early, I hope no one can doubt; but some have doubts
of the propriety of going abroad, till the dew has "passed away." Such
should be reminded, by the foregoing train of remarks, that early
walking may be a choice of evils; and that if it _is_ on the whole
advantageous to adults, it cannot be less so to children. And as soon as
the sun has chased away the vapors of the night, if the weather is
tolerable, most children should be carried abroad.
SEC. 4. _The Bed._
This should never be of feathers. There are many reasons for this
prohibition, especially to the feeble.
1. They are too warm. Infants should by all means be kept warm enough,
as I have all along insisted. But excess of heat excites or stimulates
the skin, causing an unnatural degree of perspiration, and thus inducing
weakness or debility.
2. When we first enter a room in which there is a feather bed which has
been occupied during the night, we are struck with the offensive smell
of the air. This is owing to a variety of causes; one of which probably
is, that beds of this kind are better adapted to absorb and retain the
effluvia of our bodies. But let the causes be what they may, the effects
ought, if possible, to be avoided; for both experience and authority
combine to pronounce them very injurious.
3. Feather beds--if used in the nursery--will inevitably discharge more
or less of dust and down; both of which are injurious to the tender
lungs of the infant.
Mattresses are better for persons of every age, than soft feather beds.
They may be made of horse hair or moss; but hair is the best. If the
mattress does not appear to be warm enough for the very young infant, a
blanket may be spread over it. Dr. Dewees says that in case mattresses
cannot be had, "the sacking bottom" may be substituted, or "even the
floor;" at least in warm weather: "for almost anything," he adds, "is
preferable to feathers."
Macnish, in his "Philosophy of Sleep," objects strongly to air beds, and
says that he can assert "from experience," that they are the very worst
that can possibly be employed. My theories--for I have had no experience
on the subject--would lead me to a similar conclusion. A British
writer of eminence assures us that the higher classes in Ireland, to a
considerable extent, accustom themselves and their infants to sleep on
bags of cut straw, overspread with blankets and a light coverlid; and
that the custom is rapidly finding favor. I have slept on straw, both in
winter and summer, for many years, yet I am always warm; and those who
know my habits say I use less _covering_ on my bed than almost any
individual whom they have ever known.
I have no hostility to soft beds, especially for young children and feeble
adults, could softness be secured without much heat and relaxation
of the system. On the contrary, it is certainly desirable, in itself,
to have the bed so soft that as large a proportion of the surface of
the body may rest on it as possible. But I consider hardness as a
much smaller evil than feathers.
It is worthy of remark how generally physicians, for the last hundred
years, have recommended hard beds, especially straw beds or hair
mattresses, to their more feeble and delicate patients. This fact might
at least quiet our apprehensions in regard to their tendency on those
who are accustomed to them in early infancy.
Some writers on these subjects appear to doubt whether, after all that
they say, they shall have much influence on mothers in inducing them to
give up feather beds for their infants. But they need not be so
faithless. Multitudes have already been reformed by their writings; and
multitudes larger still would be so, could they gain access to them. It
is a most serious evil that they are often so written and published that
comparatively few mothers will ever possess them.
The pillow, as well as the bed, should be rather hard; and its thickness
should be much less than is usual, or we shall do mischief by bending
the neck, and thus compressing the vessels, and obstructing the
circulation of the blood. But on this subject I will say more, when I
come to treat on "Posture."
The child's bed should not be placed near the wall, on account of
dampness. There is also, during the summer, another reason. Should
lightning strike the house, it will be much more apt to injure those who
are near the wall than other persons; as it seldom leaves the wall to
pass over the central part of the room.
Curtains are not only useless, but injurious. They prevent a free
circulation of the air. Everything which has this tendency must be
studiously guarded against, in the management of infants.
Nothing is more injurious to the old or the young than damp beds and
damp covering. It behoves, especially, all those who have the care of
infants, to see that everything about their beds is thoroughly dry. The
walls and clothes should also be dry; and wet clothes should never be
hung up in the room. By neglecting these precautions, colds,
rheumatisms, inflammations, fevers, consumptions, and death, may ensue.
Many a person loses his health, and not a few their lives, in this way.
The author of this work was once thrown into a fever from such a cause.
Warming the bed is, in all cases, a bad practice. While in the nursery,
if the air be kept at a proper temperature, there will be no need of it;
after the child is assigned to a separate chamber, its enervating
tendency would result in more evil than good. It is better to let the
bed became gradually heated by the body, in a natural and healthy way.
No person, and above all, no infant, should be suffered to sleep in a
bed that has been recently occupied by the sick. The bed and all the
clothes should first be thoroughly aired. Could we see with our eyes at
once, how rapidly these bodies of ours fill the air, and even the beds
we sleep in, with carbonic acid and other hurtful gases and impurities,
even while in health, but much more so in sickness, we should be
cautious of exposing the lungs of the tender infant, in such an
atmosphere, until everything had been properly cleansed, and the
apartments properly ventilated.
SEC. 5. _The Covering._
The covering of the bed should be sufficiently warm, but never any
warmer than is absolutely necessary to protect the child from
chilliness. The lightest covering which will secure this object is the
best. Perhaps there is nothing in use that, with so little weight,
secures so much heat as what are called "comfortables."
The clothes should not be "tucked up" at the sides and foot of the bed
with too much care and exactness. For when the bed is once warmed
thoroughly with the child's body, the admission of a little fresh air
into it, when he elevates or otherwise moves his limbs, can do no harm,
but _may_ do much of good, in the way of ventilation. I deem it
important, moreover, to inure children very early to little partial
exposures of this kind.
Those mothers who, from over-tenderness, and want of correct information
on the subject, pursue a contrary course, and consider it as almost
certain death to have a particle of fresh air reach the bodies of their
infants during their slumbers, are generally sure to outwit themselves,
and defeat their very intentions. For by being thus tender of their
children, it often turns out that whenever the mother is ill, or when on
any other account she ceases to watch over them--and such times must,
in general, sooner or later come--they are much more liable to take cold
or sustain other injury, should they be exposed, than if they had been
treated more rationally.
I knew a mother who would not trust her children to take care of their
own beds on retiring to rest, as long as they remained in her house,
even though they were twenty or thirty years old. But they had no better
or firmer constitutions than the other children of the same
neighborhood.
Hardly anything can be more injurious than covering the head with the
bed clothes; and yet some mothers and nurses cover, in this way, not
only their own heads, but those of their children. I have elsewhere
shown how impure the air is, which is imprisoned under the bed clothes.
I hope those mothers who are willing to destroy _themselves_ by covering
up their heads while they sleep, will at least have mercy on their
unoffending infants.
SEC. 6. _Night Dresses._
The grand rule on this point is, to wear as little dress during sleep as
possible. Some mothers not only suffer their infants to sleep in the
same shirt, cap, and stockings that they have worn during the day, but
add a night gown to the rest. No cap should be worn during the night,
any more than in the day time. Or if the foolish practice has been
adopted for the day, it should be discontinued at night. It is enough
for those adults whose long hair would otherwise be dishevelled, to wear
night caps, and subject themselves, as they inevitably do, to catarrh
and periodical headache. Children's heads should have nothing on them by
night; nor even by day, except to defend them from the rain or the hot
rays of the sun.
The stockings, too, should be wholly laid aside at night, unless in the
case of those who are feeble, apt to have their feet cold, or
particularly liable to bowel complaints. Such may be allowed to sleep in
their stockings, but not in those which have been worn all the day.
Indeed, neither children nor adults should ever wear a single garment in
the night which they have worn during the day. The reason is, that there
are too many causes of impurity in operation while we sleep, without our
wearing the clothes in which we have been perspiring during the
day-time--and which must be already more or less filled with the
effluvia of our bodies.
It is a very easy thing to have a loose night gown to supply the place
of the shirt we have worn during the day; and if nothing else is
convenient, a spare shirt will answer. But both a night gown and shirt
should never be admitted, especially in warm weather. The garment to
supply the place of the shirt during the night, may be of calico in the
summer, and of flannel in the winter.
The collar and wristbands of this night dress should be loose; and the
whole garment should be large and long. No article of dress should ever
press upon our bodies, so as in the least to impede the circulation; and
for this reason it is, that writers on physical education have inveighed
so much against cravats, straps, garters, &c. This caution, so important
to all, is doubly so to young mothers, on whom devolves the management
of the tender infant.
When the child has been perspiring freely during the evening, just
before he is undressed, or when he has just been subjected to the warm
bath, it may be well to use a little care in undressing and exchanging
clothes, to prevent taking cold;--though it should ever be remembered,
that those children who are managed on a rational system will bear
slight exposures with far more safety, than they who have been managed
at random--sometimes, indeed, with great tenderness, but at others,
wholly neglected.
SEC. 7. _Posture of the Body._
In early infancy, children who are not stuffed rather than fed, may
occasionally be permitted to sleep on their backs, especially if they
incline to do so. But it will be well to encourage them to sleep on one
side, as soon as you can without great inconvenience.
The right side, as a general rule, is preferable; because the stomach,
which lies towards the left side, is thus left uncompressed, and
digestion undisturbed. I would not, however, require a child to lie
always on the right side, but would occasionally change his position,
lest he should become unable to sleep at all, except in a particular
manner.
I have said elsewhere, that the head ought to be a little raised,
especially if the child is liable to diseases of the brain. But this
remark, rather hastily thrown out, requires explanation.
There is so much blood sent by the heart to the head and upper parts of
the system of infants, as to predispose those parts, especially the
brain, to disease. In a horizontal position of the body, there is more
blood sent to the brain than when the body is erect. This will show the
reader, at once, that if the infant is peculiarly exposed to diseases
of the brain--and it certainly is so--he ought to remain in a horizontal
posture as little as possible, except during sleep; and that even then
it is desirable to make his bed in such a manner as to elevate the head
and shoulders as much as we can without compressing the lungs, or
obstructing the circulation in the neck.
I recommend, therefore, to raise the head of an infant's bedstead a
little higher than the foot; though not so much as to incline him to
slide downwards into the bed, for that would be to produce one evil in
curing another.
Sir Charles Bell thinks that the common disease of infants called
_diabetes_, arises from their being permitted to sleep on their backs;
and that by breaking up the habit of lying in this position, and
accustoming them to lie on their sides, we shall prevent it. I doubt
whether the effect here referred to, is ever the result of such a cause.
Still I am as much opposed to the _habit_ of sleeping on the back, as
Sir Charles Bell. It is quite injurious to free respiration.
Closely allied to the subject of bodily position in general, is the
state of particular organs; especially the stomach and the senses. I
have already intimated that in order to have an infant sleep quietly, it
is desirable to darken the room. This is the more necessary, where
infants are unnaturally wakeful. In such cases, not only light should
be excluded from the eye, but sounds from the ear, odors from the
nostrils, &c. A remarkably full stomach is in the way of going quietly
to sleep, whether the person be old or young. Neither infants nor adults
ought to take food for some time previous to their going to sleep for
the night. Great bodily heat, as well as too great cold, is also
unfavorable. If too hot, the temperature of the infant should be
somewhat reduced by exposure to the air; if too cold, it should be
raised in a natural, healthy, and appropriate manner.
SEC. 8. _State of the Mind._
In giving directions how to procure pleasant dreams, Dr. Franklin
mentions as a highly important requisition, the possession of a quiet
conscience. A wise prescription, no doubt.
But infants, as well as adults, in order to sleep quietly, should have
their minds and feelings in a state of tranquillity. The youngest child
has its "troubles;" and it is highly important, if not indispensable, to
_healthy_ sleep, that the mother take all reasonable pains to remove
them before sleep is induced.
We sometimes hear about children crying themselves to sleep, as if it
were a matter of no consequence; and sometimes, as if it were, on the
contrary, rather desirable. But is the sleep of an adult satisfying, who
goes to bed in trouble, and only sleeps because nature is so exhausted
that she cannot bear the protracted watchfulness any longer? Why then
should we expect it, in the case of the infant?
I know an excellent father who is so far from believing this doctrine,
that he silences the cries of his child by the word of command--and
believes that in so doing, he promotes both his health and his
happiness. He would no more let him cry himself to sleep than he would
let him cough himself to sleep; though both crying and coughing, in
their places, may be and undoubtedly are salutary.
Whatever may be the age and circumstances of an individual, he ought to
retire for rest with a cheerful mind. All anxiety about the future, all
regret about the past, all plans even, in regard to the business or
amusement of the morrow, should be kept wholly out of the mind. We
should yield ourselves up to the arms of sleep with the same quietude as
if life were finished, and we had nothing more to do or think of.
SEC. 9. _Quality of Sleep._
The soundness, as well as other qualities, of sleep, differs greatly in
different individuals; and even in the same night, with the same
individual in different circumstances. The first four or five hours of
sleep are usually more sound than the remainder. Hardly anything will
interrupt the repose of some persons during the early part of the night,
while they awake afterwards at the slightest noise or movement--the
chirping of a cricket, or the playing of a kitten.
In profound sleep, we probably dream very little, if at all; but in
other circumstances, we are constantly disturbed by dreaming, and
sometimes start and wake in the greatest anxiety or horror.
Nightmare is generally accompanied by dreams of the most distressing
kind. We imagine a wild beast, or a serpent in pursuit of us; or a rock
is detached from some neighboring cliff, and is about to roll upon and
crush us; and yet all our efforts to fly are unavailing. We seem chained
to the spot; but while in the very jaws of destruction, perhaps we
awake, trembling, and palpitating, and weary, as if something of a
serious nature had really happened.
In the case of nightmare, it is more than probable that we fall asleep
with our stomachs too heavily loaded with food, or with a smaller
quantity of that which is highly indigestible. Or it may sometimes arise
from an improper position of the body, such as disturbs the action of
the stomach or lungs, or of both these organs. Lying on the back, when
we first go to sleep, is very apt to produce nightmare.
But distressing dreams often follow an evening of anxious cares,
especially if those cares preyed upon us for the last half hour; and
also after late suppers, even if they are light--and late reading. Hence
the injunctions of the last section. Hence, too, the importance of
taking our last meal two or three hours before sleep, and of engaging,
during these hours, in cheerful conversation, and in the social and
private duties of religion. Family and private worship, in the evening,
are enjoined no less by philosophy than they are by christianity; and
every young mother will do well to understand this matter, and train her
offspring accordingly.
"That sleep from which we are easily roused, is the healthiest," says
Macnish. "Very profound slumber partakes of the nature of apoplexy." I
should say, rather, that a medium between the two extremes is
healthiest. Profound apoplectic sleep, I am sure, is injurious; but
that from which we are too easily roused cannot, it seems to me,
be less so. Thus, I have often gone to sleep with a resolution
to wake at a certain hour, or at the striking of the clock;
and have found myself able to wake at the proposed time, almost
without one failure in twenty instances where I have made the trial. But
my sleep was obviously unsound, and certainly unsatisfying. The desire
to awake at a certain moment or period, seemed to buoy me above the
usual state of healthy sleep, and render me liable to awake at the
slightest disturbance. Were it not for sacrificing the ease of others,
it would be far better, in such cases, to rely upon some person to wake
us, instead of charging our own minds with it.
The quality of our sleep will be greatly affected by the quantity. But
this thought, if extended, would anticipate the subject of our next
section; so easily does one thing, especially in physical education, run
into or involve another. I will therefore, for the present, only say
that if we confine ourselves to a smaller number of hours than is really
required, our sleep becomes too sound to be quite healthy, as if nature
endeavored to make up in quality, for want of due quantity. On the
contrary, if we attempt to sleep longer than is really necessary to
restore us, the quality of our sleep is not what it ought to be; for we
do not sleep soundly enough.
The silence and darkness of the night tend to induce sleep of a better
quality than the noise and activity of day. It is unquestionably
desirable that children should be able to sleep, at least occasionally,
without absolute quiet. And yet such sleep cannot be sufficiently sound
to answer the purposes of health, if frequently repeated.
Hence it is, perhaps--at least in part--that the maxim has obtained
currency, that one hour of sleep before midnight is worth two afterward.
The comparison has probably been made between the quiet and darksome
hours of evening and those which followed daybreak, when light, and
music, and bustle conspire, as they should, to make us wakeful. No
person can sleep as soundly and as effectually, when light reaches his
closed eyes, and sounds strike his ears, as in darkness and silence. He
may sleep, indeed, under almost any circumstances, when fatigue and
exhaustion demand it; but never so profoundly as when in absolute
abstraction of light, and complete quiet.
SEC. 10. _Quantity._
On this point much might be said, without exhausting the subject. But I
have already observed that infants, when first born, require to sleep
nearly their whole time. As they advance in years, the necessity for
sleep; however, diminishes, until they come to maturity, when it remains
for many years nearly stationary. In advanced age, the necessity for
sleep again increases, till we reach the extremest old age, or what is
usually called second childhood, when we again sometimes sleep nearly
the whole time.
I have already remarked that much might be said on this subject; but I
do not think that the present occasion requires it. If the suggestions
which are made in the chapter on "Early Rising" should receive the
attention I flatter myself they merit, I do not believe children would
often sleep too long. If, on the contrary, they are suffered to lie late
in the morning, and then sit up late in the evening, all healthful
habits and tendencies will he so deranged or broken up, that nature, in
her indications, will by no means prove the unerring guide which she is
wont to do in other circumstances.
A few thoughts here, on the quantity of sleep required by the young
after they approach maturity, may not be misplaced.
Jeremy Taylor thought that for a healthy adult, three hours in
twenty-four were enough for all the purposes of sleep. Baxter thought
four hours about a reasonable time; Wesley, six; Lord Coke and Sir Wm.
Jones, seven; and Sir John Sinclair, eight. These were the _theories_ of
men who were all eminent for their learning, and most of them for their
piety. How far their _practice_ corresponded with their theories, we are
not, in every instance, told.
But to come to the practice of several persons who have been
distinguished in the world. General Elliot, one of the most vigorous men
of his age, though living for his whole life on nothing but vegetables
and water, and who at sixty-four had scarcely begun to feel the
infirmities of old age, slept but four hours in twenty-four. Frederick
the Great of Prussia, and the illustrious British surgeon, John Hunter,
slept but five hours a day. Napoleon Bonaparte, for a great part of his
life, slept only four hours; and Lord Brougham is said to require no
more. Others, in numerous instances, require but six hours. But there
are others still, who consume eight.
The conclusion--in my own mind--is, that with a good constitution and
active habits, men may habituate themselves to very different quantities
of sleep. Still I think that six hours are little enough for most
persons; and if a child, on arriving at maturity, is not inclined to
sleep much longer than that, I should not regard him as wasting time.
Most persons, it appears to me, require six hours of sound sleep in
twenty-four;--I mean between the ages of twenty and seventy.
Macnish is the most liberal modern writer I am acquainted with, in his
allowance of time for sleep. Speaking of the wants of adults he
says--"No person who passes only eight hours in bed can be said to waste
his time in sleep." Yet he obviously contradicts himself on the very
same page; for he says expressly, that when a person is young, strong
and healthy, an hour or two less may be sufficient. But an hour or two
less than eight hours reduces the amount to seven or six hours. And
taking the whole period of life, to which he probably refers--say from
eighteen to forty--into consideration, there is a very considerable
difference between six hours and eight hours a day. If six hours are
"sufficient," it cannot be right to sleep eight hours.
Let us here make a few estimates. If six hours are sufficient for sleep
between the ages of eighteen and forty, he who sleeps eight hours a day,
actually loses 16,060 hours--equal to nearly two whole years of life, or
about two years and three quarters of time in which we are usually
awake. This, in the meridian of life, is not a small waste. Permit it to
every person now in the United States, and the sum total of wasted time
to a single generation, would be 25,649,098 years--equal to the average
duration of the lives of 854,970 persons. The value of this time, as a
commodity in the market, at a low estimate--only forty dollars a
year--would be over A THOUSAND MILLIONS of DOLLARS! And its value, for
the purposes of mental and moral improvement, cannot be estimated except
in ETERNITY!
Every young mother must derive from these considerations a motive to
discourage all unnecessary waste of time in sleep; while no one, as I
trust, will forget that to sleep too little is also dangerous to health,
and prejudicial to the general happiness.