Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 67.djvu/425

Rh waking suffer from morning confusion and headache; in short, are far less refreshed by their slumber and require longer to acquire waking balance than frail beings whose sleep is shallow, interrupted and seemingly insufficient.

All these facts and reasonings from vascular tone constitute a long, somewhat technical, story; suffice it to say that, in order to secure comfortable natural sleep there is demanded a careful regulation of blood supply and distribution. Where a careful regulation of life fails to accomplish this, help must be sought of a wise physician, who will promptly determine what is amiss. The difficulty may be found to be due to faulty skin action, cold extremities, intestinal accumulations, or visceral poisons, organic derangements, a weak heart, an overtired body, an overwrought brain or other physical disorders, the province of the physician. Interference with matters out of the realm of our experience is usually followed by punishment. Among the most dangerous things a person can do is to take a shot in the dark in medical procedures, swallowing medicines on blind guesses. Damage must almost inevitably result, first by deranging digestion, perhaps already at fault, and next achieving stupor, not true sleep, or encouraging the brain to demand meretricious, unsuitable soporifics.

While it is most desirable that sleep should be taken in regular amounts, at a suitable time, and this during the hours of darkness and continuously, still it is possible that various habits may be formed, seemingly peculiar, which suffice for ordinary requirements. These may be acquired to meet some temporary demand, or become habitual for years. For instance, mothers of young babies commonly form the habit of sleeping and waking readily and frequently, and yet continue to enjoy excellent health. Trained nurses acquire even more complex, yet systematic, habits of sleep and wakefulness; a regular irregularity, yet productive of little or no exhaustion, at least for a time. Persons engaged in diverse strenuous occupations secure a power of seizing sleep when they can get it, notably sailor men by 'watches' of four hours each, twice a day.

Sleep, being the chief restorative agency for the consciousness, the desideratum is chiefly to achieve enough repose in sufficient completeness to effect repair of brain cells and other centers of energy. In those whose lives are full of repeated and emphatic demands upon them for concentration of attention, the habit of taking short naps is found to be most refreshing and invigorating. Many physicians, some lawyers, and other professional men who pursue literary work, find it satisfactory to secure a brief sleep some time during the day, often in the middle of operations, when an opportunity offers. Thus a short sleep in a chair, or preferably lying down on the back on a bench or lounge, will rejuvenate the powers and permit intellectual work far