Rensselaer Union, Volume 11, Number 30, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 10 April 1879 — Too Much Sleep. [ARTICLE]

Too Much Sleep.

The effects of too much sleep are not less signal than those arising from its privation. The whole nervous system becomes blunted, so that the muscular energy is enfeebled, and the sensations and moral and intellectual manifestations are obtunded. All the bad effects of inaction become developed; the func-tions-are exerted with less energy; the digestion is torpid, the excretions are diminished, whilst, in some instances, the secretion of fat accumulates to an inordinate extent. The memory is impaired, the powers of imagination are dormant, and the mind falls into a kind of hebetude, Chiefly because the functions of the intellect are not sufficiently exerted, wjien sleep is too prolonged or toe often repeated. To sleep muoh is not necessarily to be a good sleeper. Generally they are the poorest sleepers who remain longest in bed; t. e„ they awaken less refreshed than if the hour of arising, were earlier by an hour or two. While it is true that children and young people require .more sleep than their elders, yet it should be the care-of parents that over-indulgence be not permitted. Where the habit is for children to lie in bed until eight or nine in the morning, the last two hours, at least, do not Taring sound, dreamless sleep, where the nour of retiring is eight or nine p. m., |Ait are spent in “dozing,” and, in fact, such excess cannot fail to insure the harmful results described by the authority quoted. What is called “laziness” among children is, in very many cases, disease, and is largoly due to this, as well as the other causes mentioned, that undermine the foundations of health. —Ooiden Buie. Vi. ■ 1 ".-V"-. > ■ Last year there .were 138,407 children between four and sixteen years old in Connecticut, a gain of 1,308 over the previous year, and 119,828 were registered as pupils in the schools. The average of male teachers’ wages fell 6 per cent during the ydar, while of salaries increased slightly. ' O ./ I