Rensselaer Republican, Volume 16, Number 26, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 6 March 1884 — The Duration of Sleep. [ARTICLE]

The Duration of Sleep.

Let ns briefly allude to the duration of sleep—how in some cases a few hoars will suffice, and ifi, others a longer period is needed. Dr Reid, th*e metaphysician, could work for two days without a break if lie got one sound sleep after a full meal. If the stories about Lord Brougham could be believed, he could work on less sleep than most people require. Frederick the Great and John Hunter required only five hours’ sleep; but it must opt be supposed that because men with, exceptionally powerful nervous, or-

ganizations can dispense with the normal quantity of sleep it would be safe for everybody to'follow their example. The sleep of the heart, which we have seen to amount to eight hoars out of the twenty-four, is a fair indication of the quantity of sleep which ou an average ought ttr be' allowed to thn brain. As Sir Thomas Browne, the learned knight of Norwich, bath it:, “Half pnr days we pass in the shadow* of the earth, and the brother of death ex trade tli a third pa it of onr Science for All.