120 THE HOME, FARM AND BUSINESS CYCLOPAEDIA. 



Infants sleep almost continually, and (in this we know most mothers 

 will heartily concur) they cannot sleep too much, owing to the necessity 

 for providing the materials for growth. When they are unable to sleep 

 for any length of time their condition is unnatural, and shows us that 

 they are suffering in some way or other, the cause of which should be 

 ascertained and removed ; but not by the use of syrups, elixirs, etc., which 

 though they produce slumber, do not produce sleep. 



For young children from twelve to fourteen hours' sleep is necessary, 

 and this must be regular; the proper time for bed during the Winter 

 months being about six o'clock, and in the Summer months about seven. 



A proper desire for sleep is only obtained by a due amount of exercise, 

 both mental and physical, which must not have continued sufficiently 

 long to produce prostration. Exercise in moderation is most necessary 

 before going to bed, but anything of a violent nature, like romping, 

 should be avoided for at least half an hour before. 



WITH REGARD TO THE HOUR at which children and others should rise, 

 that must be determined by the time of their waking, and in order to 

 wake at a proper time all that is necessary is that you go to bod at some 

 regular early hour, and then, says an authority, " within a fortnight 

 nature, with almost the regularity of the rising sun, will unloosen the 

 bonds of sleep the moment enough repose has been secured for the wants 

 of the system." To remain in bed after this, to indulge in that short 

 morning doze into which to many allow themselves to fall because it is 

 not, they think, quite time to get up, is a baneful practice. 



Care should be taken with regard to the quantity of bed-clothes in- 

 dulged in, too much clothing having the effect of relaxing the body, and 

 it is right therefore to have only sufficient to enable the individual to 

 sleep, for it is better to wake with an inclination to draw the clothes 

 round you than so feel oppressed by their weight and heat and a desire 

 to throw them off. 



WITH REGARD TO THE PROPER POSITION OF A SLEEPER all are agreed 

 that it should be on the right or left side, because if you sleep on your 

 back, especially soon after a hearty meal, the weight of the digestive 

 organs and that of the food, resting upon the great vein of the body, near 

 the backbone, compresses it, and arrests the flow of the blood more 

 or less. If the arrest is partial, the sleep is disturbed, and there are 

 unpleasant dreams, a state of things carefully to be avoided when we 

 remember that "the man who dreams does but half sleep. The child 

 who dreams scarcely sleeps at all." 



