Medford mail tribune., September 29, 1957, Image 42

leep Can Keep
t if O. Al. EES 4 :tt:i v
A noted industrial research chemist, O. A.
Battista was graduated from McGill Univer
sity and awarded a Doctor of Science degree
by Saint Vincent College, Latrobe, Pa. He
has authored 15 scientific publications and
has contributed numerous articles to leading
magazines in recent years. This article is ex
cerpted from his latest book, "How to Enjoy
Work and Get More Fun Out of Life," copy
right 1957 by Orlando A. Battista and pub
lished by Prentice - Hall, Inc., Englewood
Cliffs, N. J.
Art by Robert Bonfils
o-
' ver a period of many years, as I
have met men and women
between 70 and 90, I've tried to
learn from them the common denomi
nator that helped them enjoy life.
Although one man quipped that his
secret was "I always did what my
wife told me to do," all of them men
tioned the importance of getting
plenty of sleep.
You can't enjoy the best of
health, zestful living, and profitable
work without getting sufficient sleep.
Through sleep, muscles and the nerv
ous system get a chance to replenish
themselves fully; it is the only way
to prevent your machinery from
running down.
Yet sleeplessness is fast becoming a
major problem in our country. For
example, a recent poll discovered
these startling facts:
1. Fifty-five percent of adult Amer
icans are chronic nonslecpers.
2. More than 500 tons of sleeping
pills are sold each year.
3. Businesses based on mechanical
slecp-inducers are booming: mattress-pulsating
machines, muscle mas
sagers, eyeshades, earplugs, anti-snore
balls, and other gadgets.
The trouble with the average person
is that he wants to turn sleep on and
off like a tap. It's little wonder that
symptoms of inadequate sleep are so
widespread. If the following symp
toms apply to you, then you are "rid
ing on life's rim," driving yourself
into premature old age, and even
risking complete failure:
1. Frequent colds and undue sensi
tivity to infections.
2. Lukewarm enthusiasm toward
new things.
3. Dark circles around your eyes
that sleep fails to clear up.
4. Your mind tackles problems as
sociated with your work as though it
were being flogged.
5. A small job requiring physical
effort, like washing the dishes, seems
like a major undertaking.
6. Your ambitions and your energy
never team up, so that you live in
constant frustration.
Here is a list of 10 rules guaranteed
to help you get more out of sleep.
Once again, these have been culled
from my discussions with numerous
long-lived persons:
1. Nothing is more conducive to a
good night's sleep than an honest
day's work.
2. If you feel rested, you've had
enough sleep.
3. Never wrestle with the day's
problems or mull over your pleasant
recollections. Let everything go for
the morrow.
4. Learn to think of sleep in terms
of quality rather than quantity. A
short but deep sleep does much more
for you than a long period of restless
tossing and turning.
5. A half-hour nap equals three
hours of night sleep. Remember, the
cat's reputation for having nine lives
stems from its ability to revitalize
itself by taking frequent naps.
6. Develop the habit of never sleep
ing later than 6 o'clock in the morning
and insomnia will be the least of your
problems.
7. One doctor attributes inability to
sleep to an empty stomach. But limit
your raid on the icebox to a light
snack. Heavy foods require major
digestive efforts which make restful
slumber difficult. A glass of milk or a
cup of bouillon or cocoa is suggested
before sleep.
8. Learn to pull down the shade on
your mind and shut out the day's
doings. Say you're in the habit of re
tiring at 11 o'clock. Then at 10:30
stop anything you may be doing that
requires mental effort or concentra
tion. Your job for the next half-hour
is to free yourself from the mental
and emotional tensions which have
accumulated during the day. If your
nerves feel particularly jumpy, take a
bath at body temperature, or tune in
some soothing music on the radio.
9. Fear nothing. Fear and worry
are ridiculous states of mind, except
in an overtired person! Don't let a
fear grip you at bedtime, because
that's when its grip is strongest. Brush
off fear until dawn; the chances are
it will lose most of its sting.
10. Pray. There's nothing old
fashioned or childish about prayer.
Thank God each night for how lucky
you've been. Ask Him to stay on your
side for the future, too.
Men should take a tip from the
women; they usually go through a
nightly cosmetic routine that helps
them prepare their minds for sleep.
My personal routine is to imagine a
wastebasket beside the bed and as
each cluttering thought comes to
mind, I mentally discard it by tossing
it into the wastebasket. As soon as
the basket is full and my mind is
empty, I'm off to slumberland.
II ow to get the most out of sleep has
' ' been a problem for many
centuries. Here are some tricks
used by famous persons to capture
elusive sleep. One or more of these
may fit your case or at least give you
an idea or two to try out:
Irving Berlin eats scrambled eggs
before going to sleep; Jimmy Durante
eats an onion sandwich; Olivia de
Havilland munches lettuce and drinks
hot milk with a lump of butter in it.
Bernard Gimbel falls asleep studying
his competitors' advertisements; Ye
hudi Menuhin does his letter-writing
at night. Patrice Munsel prepares
lists of Things to Do Next; Dorothy
Kirsten makes long-range needlepoint
designs; and Lily Pons works on her
autobiography!
Take stock of your own sleep
hunting strategy. Write it out step by
step. Examine it critically. Maybe
you can work out a ritual that will
help you get to sleep faster.
Sleep needs vary with the individu
al, and you will have to find out what
is par for your own course. For ex
ample, the older you are, the less
sleep you need. And a man who digs
ditches all day should need less sleep
than the one who spends his day
digging for facts.
Here is a table of the average num-
ber of hours' sleep needed by various
age groups:
Age: Hours:
newborn babies 16
6 11
10 10
15 9
20 Vz
25 8
60 7
These figures may or may not fit
your cycle at your particular age, but
this will be easy enough for you to
check. I know some old people who
sleep exceptionally long hours. And
others who appear to sleep few hours
take catnaps during the day.
Sleep researchers at the University
of Chicago have discovered that some
people who have trouble falling asleep
are simply going to bed too early.
There's an old English saying worth
noting by professed sleep addicts:
Nature requires five, Custom
gives seven,
Laziness takes nine, and
Wickedness eleven.
Considering you spend one-third of
your life in bed, sleep is a problem
worthy of your most conscientious
efforts. Remember, how much you
get out of life depends largely on
how much you get out of sleep.
4 Family Weekly, September 29, J957