Rensselaer Republican, Volume 16, Number 38, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 29 May 1884 — Separate Beds. [ARTICLE]

Separate Beds.

Much of the discomfort and nervousness of which people complain when they rise ip the morning is due to the fact that each does not sleep alone. Thereare electrical changes going on in the system during the night; and where persons lodge together night after night under the same bedding these disturbing causes will work destructive results. The London Lancet , in a recent issue,draws attention to this evil habit, and says that there is nothing that will so derange the nervous system of a person who is eliminative in nervous force as to lie all night in bed with another who is absorbent of nervous force. The latter will sleep soundly all night, and arise refreshed in the morning, while the former will toss restlessly, and awake in the morning fretful, peevish, faint-hearted and discouraged. “No two persons,” says the Lancet, “no matter who they are, should habitually sleep together. The one will thrive, the other will lose. This is the law. The case of the aged David and the youthful maid who was sought to impart physical energy to the king in his senility occurs to mind. The grandmother with her little grandchild is another case in point. The aged one keeps strong; the little one pines away and becomes enfeebled. A lady in middle life informed us the other day that she habitually arose in the morning nervous, worried, and weak, while her husband would sleep soundly all night. The touch of his foot even would awaken nervousness and discomfort, while he seemed to be wholly unaffected.”

To some of extreme susceptibility the fact that one sleeps with the bed pointing east and west is ominous. It is said by some scientific men to be little less' than suicidal for certain parties thus to locate their couches. The proper position for the bed, they say, is north and south, in harmony with the magnetic currents. It is easy to pooh-pooh at such suggestions. Some persons can ride backward in a carriage or car with perfect ease; ascend and descend in an elevator; can cross and recross the stormy ocean with no vertigo or nausea, while others must face with the carriage or railway train, or they suffer great discomfort. It is plain that we are not all alike, and that we must regard the electrical conditions of each one. Aside from this admitted law, there are other reasons why this plea for separate beds should be heeded. It is a matter of cleanliness, health, and morality as well. Each person should have his own couch as truly as his own seat at the table. — Dr. Dio Lewis.