Wear and Tear; Or, Hints for the OverworkedMitchell, S. Weir (Silas Weir)
Science
Wear and Tear; Or, Hints for the Overworked
Mitchell, S. Weir (Silas Weir)
Mental fatigue
"I am not aware," writes a physician of distinction, "that, until a few
years ago, I ever felt any sense of fatigue from brain-work which I
could refer to the organ employed. The longer I worked the clearer and
easier my mental processes seemed to be, until, during a time of great
sorrow and anxiety, I pushed my thinking organs rather too hard. As a
result, I began to have headache after every period of intellectual
exertion. Then I lost power to sleep. Although I have partially
recovered, I am now always warned when I have done enough, by lessening
ease in my work, and by a sense of fulness and tension in the head."
The indications of brain-tire, therefore, differ in different people,
and are more and more apt to be referred to the thinking organ as it
departs more and more from a condition of health. Surely a fuller record
of the conditions under which men of note are using their mental
machinery would be everyway worthy of attention.
Another reason why too prolonged use of the brain is so mischievous is
seen in a peculiarity, which is of itself a proof of the auto-activity
of the vital acts of the various organs concerned in intellection. We
sternly concentrate attention on our task, whatever it be; we do this
too long, or under circumstances which make labor difficult, such as
during digestion or when weighted by anxiety. At last we stop and
propose to find rest in bed. Not so, says the ill-used brain, now
morbidly wide awake; and whether we will or not, the mind keeps turning
over and over the work of the day, the business or legal problem, or
mumbling, so to speak, some wearisome question in a fashion made useless
by the denial of full attention. Or else the imagination soars away
with the unrestful energy of a demon, conjuring up an endless procession
of broken images and disconnected thoughts, so that sleep is utterly
banished.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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