Evening Republican, Volume 20, Number 290, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 5 December 1916 — NAPOLEON A SOUND SLEEPER [ARTICLE]

NAPOLEON A SOUND SLEEPER

On One Occasion, His Biographers serf, He Did Not Wake for Thirty-Six Hours. I*. Most great men have needed more sleep and have taken more than hag been credited to them. In one .of out standard works on therapeutics the writer states that Napoleon took but four hours of sleep. Had the writer been as careful id his research in this matter as in oti» ers, he would have found that Napo* leon, who was blessed, if ever mal was, “with the constitution of an ox,* took between six and eight hours of sleep, and though he could go for, long intervals without rest, always made up for such'loss, on one occasion sleeping 36 hours at a stretch, the New York Medical Journal asserts. Benjamin Franklin, who was as thrifty of his time as he dared to be, and who was very robust, limited himself to six hours of repose, but not less, and if the history of the robust great were looked into carefully, it would be found that they had about as much sleep as the average man and certainly few of them were foolish enough to try to get along with less than they craved. If one desires a commentary on the woes of sleeplessness, he has but to read the autobiography of Herbert Spencer. It is a greater gift to be able to sleep (at will) and under any circumstances than to do with little sleep. More time is wasted in getting to sleep than in sleeping. On the oth-f er hand, there is little doubt that toe long sleep, too protracted bodily relaxation, is not best for the human or-i ganism, and many of our relaxed young, people, with no regular employment! and more time than they know how to consume to advantage, would be better: for spending less time in bed. A proscription for early rising; would do them good.