The Royal Road to Health; Or, the Secret of Health Without DrugsTyrrell, Chas. A. (Charles Alfred)
Science
The Royal Road to Health; Or, the Secret of Health Without Drugs
Tyrrell, Chas. A. (Charles Alfred)
Enema; Health; Health -- Popular works; Health promotion; Hygiene
First, regularity in the hours of rising and retiring, namely,
regulating the minimum period to be devoted to sleep. There is much
conflict of opinion as to the amount of sleep necessary for the
average adult. We have in mind an old saying which runs as follows:
"Six hours' sleep for a man, seven for a woman, and eight for a fool."
This is somewhat arbitrary, and, moreover, is not in harmony with
physiological law. In the first place, no hard and fast rule can be
laid down that will cover all cases. Apart from the difference of sex,
there are temperamental conditions which vary with every case. We are
decidedly of the opinion that eight hours' sleep is necessary for the
adult individual. It has been affirmed by some authorities that the
more the individual sleeps the longer he will live, which is a
perfectly rational claim, in view of the fact that night is Nature's
repair time, when she is busy at work replacing the ravages committed
by wear and tear during the day. It is a well known fact that nearly
all growth takes place during sleep.
Again, it is a fact not generally known that the heart receives no
nourishment during the period of contraction, owing to the pressure
upon the arteries which supply it with nutriment. It is only during
the infinitesimal pause between the contractions that these arteries
can carry blood to the heart tissue; hence during sleep the heart-
beats differ from those of our waking hours, being fewer in number,
and with a more decided pause between. Now, the heart being to the
body what the mainspring is to a watch, the necessity of affording it
ample time for recuperation becomes apparent.
Having stated that eight hours' sleep is the minimum amount for the
individual, the question of regularity presents itself, and this
should be understood to refer especially to the time of rising, which,
unless the individual is in ill health, should be at 6 A. M. This not
only proves invaluable in economizing time, but paves the way for
regularity in eating, which we will now consider.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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