The house of life : human physiology, with its applications to the preservation of health for use in classes and popular reading / by F. Fenwick Miller.

  • Miller, Florence Fenwick, 1854-1935.
Date:
1878
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The house of life : human physiology, with its applications to the preservation of health for use in classes and popular reading / by F. Fenwick Miller. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    to rest No definite time can be laid down for the night’s rest of any and every person, inasmuch as it is a matter dependent upon constitution and habits. Eight hours is about the time required by most healthy adult persons; but some find that they need only six or seven hours. On the other hand, little babies sleep almost constantly, and children require more sleep than adults. In fine, the time needed for sleep is as much as can be spent in complete unconsciousness, and as enables the individual to rise from his pillow with bright eyes, a clear head, a decent temper, and good spirits—in other words, in health—neither self-indulgently wasting precious time in semi-unconsciousness, nor falling into the great mistake of supposing that to take less than enough sleep is a praiseworthy habit. Sleep is the food of the brain. I shall give rather a long extract upon this point from the eminent “ Mad Doctor,” the late Forbes Winslow, be- cause it is one upon which he spoke with authority:— “There is no fact more clearly established in the physiology of man than this—that the brain expends itself and its energies during the hours of wakefulness, and that these are recuperated during sleep. If the re- cuperation does not equal the expenditure, the brain withers—this is insanity. Thus it is that in early Eng- lish history people who were condemned to death by being prevented from sleeping always died raving maniacs; thus it is also that those who are starved to death become insane—the brain is not nourished, and they cannot sleep. The practical inferences are three :—First, those who think most, who do most brain-work, require most sleep. Second, time ‘ saved ’ from necessary sleep is infallibly destructive to mind, body, and estate. Third, give yourselves, your children, servants, all who are under you, the fullest amount of sleep they can take.” Mental overwork often takes the form of neglect of sleep; one who wishes to master a subject begrudges