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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    more sleep still is imperative, as is also the case in cold weather. The long hours of work demanded of the younger children, with the short time allowed for sleep, could not be continued if the scheme were in force all the year round, as there would be no children left at the school. The vacations save a complete breakdown.” He concludes by saying: “ It is both unwise and unnatural to arrange suitable hours of work and sleep for the seniors in schools, to which juniors have to conform with serious injury to their present and their future.” “According to Dr. Clouston there is a decreasing degree of staying power manifest during the last thirty years (i.e.t since the Education Act of 1870) on the part of the brain, to the extent of about 40 per cent. It is a question for us all to consider, what share, if any, schools have in this terrible fact with the excessive hours of work in the early years of childhood, and totally inade- quate amount of sleep during the same period of life.” 1 Dr. Hyslop, Senior Physician to Bethlem Royal Hospital and King Edward’s Schools (London and Witley) is not less emphatic. “ My experience in Bethlem,” he says, “tells me that the question of sleep is worthy of our most serious attention. ... 90 per cent, of these cases admitted to Bethlem since the year 1820 have suffered from insomnia. “ That one of the essentials of life (as sleep is) should be so prone to be disordered is significant that there is a fault in our economy, and this fault seems to arise from the fact that few, if any, of those who have charge of our boys and girls pay any attention to the cultivation of the habit of sleep.2 ' Sleep in relation to Education by Clement Dukes, M.D., F.R.C.P., Physician to Rugby School, Author of “Health at School.” Fourth edition, Rivingtons, 1905. 2 During the discussion on this paper, Dr. G. H. Savage, Consult- ing Physician to Guy’s Hospital, late Medical Superintendent of Bethlem Royal Hospital, spoke strongly to the same effect.