LITTLE THINGS BY Charles Robert Morrison

sleep;" "Lost an hour of sleep;" "Lost an hour and a half of sleep,"--until
the total counted up an equivalent of two weeks. "This," said he, "must
all be made up. It represents so much time taken from the allotted seven
hours of sleep out of every twenty-four. I do not intend to regain it all at
once--but shall retire so much earlier each night than I have been
accustomed to, and make up all this loss."
The great haste and hurry of our modern life, the prolonging of day and
its duties long into the night, has been disastrous to the health and
vigor of the average American. The high stress, the tensions of school
and trade and travel, necessitate more of counteraction in sleep than
ever before. Excitement of city life, demands in social circles,
concentration of thought upon a multitude of interests, attention
drawn from the peaceful village and farm life to the stirring scenes in
Asia, in Africa, in Alaska, will, unless in some way relief is found, make
us a nation of stressful, nervous, hysterical, if not insane people!
The commercialism of our age, its excitement and stir and strife, is
bringing men prematurely to old age and the grave. Need is more
evident of seasons of relaxation and vacation days; by the merchant,
society people, the banker, the lawyer, the preacher, the housewife, the
teacher, everybody urged on by this task and that, until, either broken
in health or doing poorly in the business, a change is demanded.
Now, a very simple remedy is found, not in costly pilgrimages to
seashores, or total abandonment of all home and business interests for
a two months' vacation--but in rest, quietness, sleep, as the days and
nights come and go.
Children should have sleep regularly, and undisturbed. Growing boys and
girls should not be allowed to dissipate the hours assigned by nature to
the recuperation of the system, but should be trained to regularity of
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