Youth and Sex: Dangers and Safeguards for Girls and Boys — John Shaqi
Youth and Sex: Dangers and Safeguards for Girls and BoysScharlieb, Mary
Science
Youth and Sex: Dangers and Safeguards for Girls and Boys
Scharlieb, Mary
Adolescence; Child psychology; Moral conditions; Sex (Psychology); Sexual ethics; Youth
Sleep.--Amongst the most important of the factors that conduce to
well-being both of body and mind must be reckoned an adequate amount
of sleep. This has been made the subject of careful inquiry by Dr.
Dukes of Rugby and Miss Alice Ravenhill. Both these trained and
careful observers agree that the majority of young people get far too
little rest and sleep. We have to remember that although fully-grown
adults will take rest when they can get it in the daytime, young
people are too active, and sometimes too restless, to give any repose
to brain or muscle except during sleep. In the early years of
adolescence ten hours sleep is none too much; even an adult in full
work ought to have eight hours, and still more is necessary for the
rapidly-growing, continually-developing, and never-resting adolescent.
It is unfortunately a fact that even in the boarding schools of the
well-to-do the provision of sleep is too limited, and for the children
of the poor, whose homes are far from comfortable and who are
accustomed to doing pretty nearly as their elders do, the night seldom
begins before eleven or even twelve o'clock. It is one of the saddest
sights of London to see small children dancing on the pavement in
front of the public-houses up to a very late hour, while groups of
loafing boys and hoydenish girls stand about at the street corners
half the night. There is little wonder that the morning finds them
heavy and unrefreshed, and that schoolwork suffers severely from want
of the alert and vigorous attention that might be secured by a proper
night's sleep.
Great harm is done by allowing children to take work home with them
from school; if possible, the day's work should finish with school
hours, and the scanty leisure should be spent in healthy exercise or
in sleep.
Overcrowding.--In considering the question of adequate sleep it
would be well to think of the conditions of healthy sleep.
For sleep to be refreshing and health-giving, the sleeper ought to
have a comfortable bed and an abundant supply of fresh air.
Unfortunately the great majority of our people both in town and
country do not enjoy these advantages. In both town and country there
is a great deficiency of suitable dwellings at rents that can be paid
with the usual rate of wages. In consequence families are crowded into
one, two, or three rooms, and even in the case of people far above the
status of day labourers and artisans it is the exception and not the
rule for each individual to have a separate bed. The question of
ventilation is certainly better understood than it was a few years
ago, but still leaves much to be desired, and there is still an urgent
necessity for preaching the gospel of the open window.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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