IMPERFECT DURING OLD AGE. 947 



which is more essential to men of studious habits, 

 and to such as take much laborious exercise, than 

 to the idle and inactive. Owing to imperfection 

 in the nutritive process, sleep is less sound and 

 refreshing in old age, than during the earlier 

 periods of life. 



Whatever diminishes the circulation of arterial 

 blood through the brain, and thus impairs its 

 vital activity, tends to produce drowsiness. For 

 example, it is often induced by a full meal, 

 which causes a determination of blood and vital 

 heat from the brain and other organs to the 

 stomach, for the purpose of supplying it with 

 gastric juice, during the process of digestion ; 

 causing sleepiness, languor, and chilliness, in 

 feeble constitutions. Hence the impropriety of 

 taking late arid hearty suppers, (especially after 

 a full dinner,) the digestion of which during sleep 

 requires a large supply of blood in the stomach, 

 at a time that it should be employed exclusively in 

 repairing the previous waste of the solids, which, as 

 we have seen, is the principal object of repose. 

 For the same reason, (that is, owing to diminished 

 nutrition) sleep is less sound after full than light 

 suppers ; and more of it is required to refresh and 

 renovate the body. 



Sleep is frequently induced by a glass of negus 

 or warm spirits and water, which also produce a 

 determination of blood from the brain to the 

 stomach, and by hearing a dull monotonous dis- 

 course, which nearly suspends the train of one's 



