THE SCIENCE OF HAPPINESS 



and failure. Every ambitious and thoughtful person 

 must therefore turn with interest to the practical ques- 

 tion : How much sleep is enough ? 



About a century ago Benjamin Franklin answered 

 the question categorically: 



"Six hours for a man, seven for a woman, eight for a 

 fool!" 



Like most sweeping assertions this aphorism will 

 not bear rigid inspection. Franklin was evidently 

 measuring other people's corn in his own half-bushel. 

 His aphorism is merely a bit of autobiography; and it 

 is interesting and instructive to know that so brilliant 

 a mind as his required but six hours' rest in twenty-four. 

 But another man might, not unnaturally, object to 

 being classified according to this formula. He would 

 simply transpose the words "man" and "fool" in the 

 formula, and find it then highly satisfactory. 



The plain fact is, as everybody knows or ought to 

 know, that individuals differ, and that no general rule 

 can be laid down to cover all cases. Some men re- 

 quire only five hours' sleep; more require six, yet more 

 cannot be comfortable with less than seven; and there 

 is a respectable modicum for whom one third of the day 

 seems necessary. Nor is it demonstrated to take 

 Franklin's formula in a literal sense that the fool 

 requires as an average either more or less sleep than the 

 average normal being. The difference between him 

 and the normal man is not in the length of his day, but 

 in its quality. If the normal man is only half-awake 

 during his day, the fool is only one-tenth awake. 

 It should be added, however, that the requirements 



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