On the hours of sleep at public schools : based on an inquiry into the arrangements existing in forty of the great public schools in England, and others in the U.S.A. : a paper read before the Association on May 11, 1905 / by T.D. Acland.

  • Acland, Theodore Dyke, 1851-1931.
Date:
1905
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: On the hours of sleep at public schools : based on an inquiry into the arrangements existing in forty of the great public schools in England, and others in the U.S.A. : a paper read before the Association on May 11, 1905 / by T.D. Acland. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.

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    Officer has for many years strenuously advocated the necessity for giving the boys up to sixteen years of age ten hours’ sleep, a small boy of thirteen was placed in a dormitory in which the prefects’ lights were not out and the dormitory was not quiet until 10.30, the boys being roused again at 6.15, giving in fact only 7f hours of quiet. It is generally held that an average of about eight hours’ sleep is good for adults after they have attained their full development, and during the best years of their active work. Some, of course, require less ; some few require more. It is largely a matter of idiosyncrasy. There is much practical and some experimental evidence on this point. One distinguished member of our pro- fession, a man of great physical strength, whose intellectual power was recognised by all who knew him, when under the full stress of work, often required, and took, ten. Another tells me he cannot do with less than eight and a half and another nine. Eight hours’ sleep seems to be a reasonable average for an adult when engaged in active work. It is admitted by all, that the growing boy needs more sleep than the adult man. It cannot, therefore, be unreasonable to ask that boys who are just emerging out of childhood, when they are working and playing harder than ever before, should have fuller hours of sleep than those which might well be granted to a hard-worked man. “Truth,” as Ruskin says, “is not to be discerned by the uneducated senses.” A clear perception of what is needed must depend upon previous knowledge and the exercise of trained observation. Those who have the care of growing boys ought not to be satisfied that long hours of work and strenuous play, combined with short hours of sleep, are desirable for them, without careful inquiry, nor without taking counsel with those who have the opportunity of looking a few years ahead, and who