Maintaining Health (Formerly Health and Efficiency) Part 27

Not only the homes, but public places, such as street cars, theaters, schools and churches are too often poorly ventilated. Sleeping, or rather dozing in church is so common that it is a matter of jest. My experience has been that drowsiness comes not from the dullness of sermons, but from the impossibility of getting a breath of good air in many churches.

Please remember that exhaled air is excretory matter, and that it is both unclean and unwholesome to consume it over and over again.

Draughts do not cause colds. Cold air does not cause colds. Wet clothes do not cause colds: These things may be minor contributory factors, but the body must be in poor condition before one can catch cold. Colds are generally caught at the table. Lack of fresh air also helps to produce colds, as well as other diseases.

The tendency in our country is to heat buildings too much. Europeans are both surprised and uncomfortable when they first enter our dwellings or public meeting places. The temperature in a dwelling should not be forced above seventy degrees Fahrenheit by means of artificial heating.

The temperature required depends very much upon one's mental att.i.tude and habits. Those who take enough exercise have good circulation of the blood in the extremities, and therefore do not need so much artificial heat. The best heating is from within.

CHAPTER XXIV.

SLEEP.

A young baby should sleep almost all the time, and it will if intelligently cared for. Overfeeding is the bane of the baby's life and is the cause of most of its restlessness. The first few months the baby should be awake enough to take its food, and then go to sleep again. As it grows older it sleeps less and less.

There is no fixed time for an adult to sleep. The amount varies with different individuals. The idea is quite prevalent that eight hours nightly are necessary. This may be true for some. Many do very well on seven hours' sleep, and even less. The great inventor, Thomas Edison, is said to have had but very little sleep for many years, and it is reported that when interested in some problem he would miss a night or two. Yet he has lived longer than the average individual and is now in good health. Very few have done as much constructive work as he. Many other prominent people have been light sleepers.

As people grow older they require less sleep than they did in youth. It is not uncommon for septuagenarians to sleep but five hours nightly.

Although we can not say how much sleep any individual may require, each person can find out for himself, and this is much better than to try to live by rules, which are often erroneous.

Those who live as they should otherwise and select a definite hour for retiring and adhere to it, except on special occasions, get all the sleep that is necessary. They awake in the morning refreshed, ready to do a good day's work.

During sound sleep all conscious endeavors cease. The vital organs do only enough work to keep the body alive. The breathing is lighter, the circulation is slower and in sound sleep there is no thinking. This letting up in the great activity of body and mind gives an opportunity for the millions of cells, of which the body is composed, to take from the blood what is needed to restore them to normal. During the day many of these cells become worn and weary. At night they recuperate. Hence undisturbed sleep is very important.

Many believe that "early to bed and early to rise" is the proper way, that the hours of sleep before midnight are more refreshing and invigorating than those after. This is merely a belief, perhaps a good one. Early retiring leads to regularity, which is very desirable. Late retiring often means loose mental and physical habits. Those who are regular about their time of retiring and live well otherwise feel refreshed whether they go to bed early or late. Children should always retire early, otherwise they do not get enough sleep. The night is the natural sleeping time for most creatures, as well as for man. This is a heritage of ages. There was no artificial illumination during the stone age. Man could do nothing during the darkness, so he rested. However, those who must work at night find no trouble in sleeping during the day.

The tendency among men is the same as among animals, to sleep more in winter than in summer, not that more sleep is required, but because the winter nights are longer.

Children should go to bed early. They require more sleep than adults because of the greater cell activity. Also, children who stay up late generally become irritable and nervous.

It is not well to eat immediately before retiring. The sleep following a late meal is generally interrupted, and there is not that feeling of brightness and clearness of mind, with which one should awake, next morning.

Lunching before going to bed is a bad habit. Some believe they must have an apple, or perhaps a gla.s.s of milk, before retiring, for they think that this will bring sleep. The body should not be burdened with extra food to digest during the sleeping hours. This time should be dedicated to the restoring of the body, and the blood contains ample material.

Dreaming is largely a bad habit. A normal individual rarely dreams, and then generally following some imprudence. Dreams begin in childhood and are then due princ.i.p.ally to excessive food intake. As a producer of nightmares overfeeding has no equal. During adult life dreaming is caused by bad physical and mental conduct, plus the habit which was formed in childhood. Fear, anger, worry, stimulants, too much food, impure air and too warm clothes are some of the causes that produce dreams. Like other bad habits, dreaming is difficult to overcome once it is firmly established. The cure consists in righting one's other bad habits and in not thinking about the dreams. A sleep that is disturbed by dreams is not as sound as it should be and consequently not as refreshing as normal sleep. The conscious mind is not completely at rest and, the subconscious mind is running riot. Normal sleep is complete unconsciousness. This is the sleep of the just and must be earned.

Before retiring all the clothes worn during the day should be removed.

The night apparel should be light--cotton, linen or silk. The bed should be comfortable, but not too soft. There should be enough covering to keep the sleeper comfortably warm, but not hot. Those who cover themselves with so many quilts or blankets that they perspire during the night are not properly refreshed. It prevents sound sleep and makes the skin too sensitive. It reduces a person's resistance to climatic changes. The feet should be kept warm, even if necessary to put artificial heat in the foot of the bed. During cold weather the feet and the legs should have more covering than the rest of the body. From the waist up the covering should be rather light.

Sound sleep is dependent on relaxation of mind and body. Those who live the day over after going to bed do not go to sleep quickly or easily.

This habit should be overcome. Do business at the business place, during business hours, if you would have the mind fresh. There are days so full of cares that the night does not bring mental relaxation, but those who have begun early in life to practice self-control find these days growing fewer as the years roll by. When they learn their true relationship to the rest of humanity, to the universe and to eternity, they are generally willing and able to let the earth rotate and revolve for a few hours without their personal attention. They realize that worry and anxiety waste time and energy.

Many complain that they can not sleep. This they repeat to themselves and to others many times a day. At night they ask themselves why they can not sleep. They do it so often that it becomes a powerful negative suggestion frequently strong enough to prevent their going to sleep. It is an obsession. Real insomnia exists only in the mind of the sufferer.

Every physician, sooner or later, has experience with people who say that they can not sleep. The doctors who give such patients sleeping powders or potions make a grave mistake. These drugs are taken at the expense of some of the physical structures, and the day of settlement always comes. Perhaps it will find the patient with bankrupted nerves or a failing heart. To be effective, the size of the dose must be increased from time to time. At last the result will be some disease, either physical or mental.

Those who insist that they "do not sleep at all," or that they sleep "but a few minutes" each night, sleep a few hours, but they make themselves believe that they do not sleep. We are compelled to sleep, and even those who "do not sleep at all" can not remain awake indefinitely.

Those who are troubled with the no-sleep obsession will soon realize that they sleep as well as others if they cease thinking and talking so much about the subject. I have seen people suffering from this bad habit recover in one week. Those who have been taking drugs to induce sleep generally have a few bad nights when they give them up, after which the nervous storm subsides and sleep becomes normal. All drugs should be discarded. The physician who understands more about the working of nature than about the giving of drugs will have the best success in these cases. Soothing sleep always comes to people possessed of a controlled mind in a healthy body.

If the day has been exhausting and the nerves are so alive and wrought up that sleep will not come, do not allow the mind to delve into worry about it. Do not say to yourself: "I wish I could sleep. Why can't I sleep?" Such fretful thinking produces mental tension, which drives sleep away. Instead, say to yourself: "I am very comfortable. I am having a refreshing rest. It does not matter whether I sleep or not." By all means relax the body. Choose a comfortable position and remain quiet, having the muscles relaxed. It is remarkable how soon a relaxed body brings tranquility to a disturbed mind. Let a man in pugnacious mood relax his face and his fists and in a very short time his anger vanishes. It makes no difference whether a person sleeps eight hours on a certain night. If he is fairly regular about going to bed he will get enough sleep. Those who realize this truth do not complain of insomnia.

Most people who think much have an occasional night when an idea takes such strong possession of the brain and demands so forcibly to be put into proper shape, that they can not sleep. Under such circ.u.mstances it is as well to to get up and work out the idea. Three or four nights like that in the course of a year will do no harm.

People rarely sleep well when lying on the back. If the theory of evolution is correct, we were not intended to lie on our backs during sleep. A good position is to lie on the right side, the right leg being anterior to the left, both being flexed. Another position that is restful to many is to lie on the abdomen, the arms extended away from the body.

The breathing should be entirely nasal. It will not be nasal if there is obstruction in the nose. A healthy person who breathes through his mouth at night must use autosuggestion to overcome the habit. He should suggest to himself, "I will breathe through the nose; I will keep my lips together." If he persists in this, closes the mouth when he goes to sleep, in time the mouth-breathing will cease, and with it the disagreeable habit of snoring. The harmfulness of mouth-breathing is explained in another chapter.

At all times the bedroom should be well ventilated. Some people are in the habit of sleeping in unventilated bedrooms, but upon rising in the morning they throw the windows open and give the room a good airing. The ventilation does not do much good except when there is someone in the room. During the day the bedroom could be closed with very little harm ensuing, though it is best to have it sunned and aired as much as possible.

The sleeping porch is excellent. Outdoor sleeping is all right and it is not a modern fad. Where Benjamin Franklin got his information I do not know, but he has this to say about outdoor sleeping: "It is recorded that Methusaleh, who, being the longest liver, may be supposed to have best preserved his health, that he slept always in the open air; for when he had lived five hundred years an angel said to him: 'Arise, Methusaleh, and build thee an house, for thou shalt live five hundred years longer.' But Methusaleh answered, and said: 'If I am to live but five hundred years longer, it is not worth while to build me an house; I will sleep in the air as I have been used to do.'" This may partly account for some of his many years. His alleged conversation with the angel indicates that he was a man of equanimity.

Under ordinary circ.u.mstances those who sleep indoors should have one sash of window fully open for each person in the chamber, or more. It is well to have plenty of fresh air, but it is not best to sleep in a draught. When the wind is blowing through the windows it is not necessary to have them wide open, for an aperture of four inches will then give as much fresh air as a sash opening in calmer weather.

It is best to get up promptly upon awakening in the morning. Remaining in bed half asleep is productive of slothfulness. Too much sleeping and dozing make one dull.

Those who overeat require more sleep than moderate people. The sluggishness and sleepiness following a too heavy meal are familiar to all. Animals that do not get food regularly, but are dependent on the vicissitudes of preying for their nourishment, often gorge themselves so that they can not stay awake, but fall into a stupor, which may last for days. Man, who is generally a.s.sured of three meals a day, has no excuse for this form of self-abuse, but unfortunately he practices it too often. It is a gross habit, one in which people of refinement will not continue to indulge.

Young children should take a nap each day. They are so active that they need this rest. Adults can with profit take a short nap, not to exceed thirty minutes, after lunch. Those who are nervous owe it to themselves to take a nap. Those who use the brain a great deal will find the midday nap a great restorer. If sleep will not come, they should at least close their eyes and remain relaxed for a short time. A long nap makes one feel stupid.

Those unfortunate people who are addicted to various enslaving drugs, such as cocaine and morphine, often are very light sleepers. They are deteriorating physically, mentally and morally. Such people are ill and are no guides to the needs of healthy people.

Coffee drinking is a destroyer of sound sleep. At first the coffee seems to soothe the nerves, but in a few hours it has the opposite effect. The habitual use of coffee helps to bring on premature nervous instability and physical degeneration.

Sleep is self-regulating. If we are normal otherwise we need give the subject no thought except to select a regular time to go to bed and get up promptly in the morning upon awaking.

It is easy to drive away sleep. Those who wish to enjoy this sweet restorer at its best must be regular.

CHAPTER XXV.

FASTING.

Fasting is one of the oldest of remedial measures known to man, not only for the ills of the body, but for those of the soul. Oriental lore and literature make frequent reference to fasts. From the Bible we learn that Moses, Elijah and Christ each fasted forty days, and no bad effects are recorded.

Addison knew the value of fasting and temperance. He wrote that, "Abstinence well-timed often kills a sickness in embryo and destroys the seeds of a disease." Unfortunately, he did not live as well as he knew how. Hence his brilliant mind had but a short time in which to work and the world is the loser.

Our own great philosopher, Benjamin Franklin, had the same knowledge, for he wrote, "Against disease known, the strongest fence is the defensive virtue, abstinence."

There is much prejudice against fasting, because people do not understand what fasting is and what it accomplishes. Fasting is not starving. To fast is to go without food when the body is in such condition that food can not be properly digested and a.s.similated. To starve is to go without food when the body is in condition to digest and a.s.similate food and needs nourishment.

It is quite generally believed that if food is withheld for six or seven days the result will be fatal. Under proper conditions one can go without food for two or three months. Perhaps most people could not do without food for the latter period, but fasts of that duration are on record. Fat people can live on their tissues for a long time before they are reduced to normal weight, and slender ones can live on water for an extended period.

Prolonged fasts should not be taken unless necessary, and then they should be taken under the guidance of someone who has had experience and is possessed of common sense. If a person is fearful or surrounded by others who instill fear into him, he should not take a prolonged fast.

The gravest danger during the fast is fear. It takes many weeks to die from lack of food, but fear is capable of killing in a few days, or even in a few hours. The healer who undertakes to direct fasts against the wishes of the patient's friends and relatives, who have more influence than he has, injures himself professionally and throws doubt upon the valuable therapeutic measure he advocates.