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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    are a physiological necessity for the average boy, it can hardly be seriously maintained that it is encouraging sloth to give it. Might it not just as well be argued that to give wholesome and sufficient food is encouraging gluttony, a comforting doctrine to those who do not care to face a difficult problem, but hardly one which is likely to satisfy parents or the boys themselves. It is an equally unsatisfactory argument that short hours of sleep are a process of selection and lead to the survival of the fittest. This pre-supposes that the fittest are those who happen to need the least sleep, an wholly fallacious argument, as we all know, since those who are the least affected by a scanty allowance of brain rest during their years of growth, are often the dull heavy boys, whilst the keen, sensitive, intelligent boys, are the ones to suffer. A Master of one of the large Public Schools, and one in which the hours of sleep are comparatively good, writes : “ The hours of rest could profitably be somewhat lengthened. ... I am inclined to think that specially in the case of the clever boys this increase of rest would increase the intellectual effi- ciency.” Again I have been told that to allow boys to lie in bed after the hour of 6.30, which seems specially hallowed by tradition, is to encourage them in habits of idleness. This entirely depends on the hour at which the boys can get to sleep. It is no use burning the candle at both ends. To give a new version of an old proverb :— Late to bed and early to rise, Is neither physiological nor wise. I believe in boys getting up early after a sufficient number of hours of sleep, but not before ; to allow them in the summer, when they have more play as well as their full allowance of work, to get into the habit of going to bed late is not defensible. The Medical Officer