Do You Sleep Well?

Napoleon could content himself with only two hours of sleep a night, whereas Dr. Johnson, the famous English man of letters, had to be dragged by force from his bed around noon. Yet both were among the mightiest of minds. How many hours of sleep, then, does a person need? The answer is not easy. Some people rise from their beds with refreshed nerves after a short sleep in which they recover their failing strength. These can usually doze whenever they find nothing to occupy them; indeed, some can doze on horseback, or while waiting for a tramcar, and then wake at the necessary moment.

The poets have described sleep as "the brother of death," a splendid figure of speech, but one very far from the truth. For death is a state of change, affecting all the cells of the body everlastingly. Yet each of us rises from his bed without having undergone any change at all. The heart goes on beating and the blood flowing; digestion continues, and so do the thousands of processes connected with the body during waking hours. The muscles and nerves recover their strength after exhausting work, and they do not cease performing their functions because of sleep. We throw off the bedcovers at the prompting of our nerves if we feel hot, or turn to whatever position rests us, without waking. Moreover, we move in our sleep at a touch.

The only powers that cease their work during sleep are the higher powers we acquired at the age of maturity — by which we mean the powers of perception and reason, which govern all our actions and all our mental and bodily activity in waking hours. Sleep, in truth, is a kind of revolt against these ruling powers on the part of the powers of sensation and bodily movement, which ordinarily take their orders from the ruling powers.

This is why our sleep is deep during the first two hours, since in this period the rebellious powers dominate the others. Thieves have realized that the best chance of not waking the people of a house comes when they have been asleep for an hour or two. In fact this is nearer to being the sleep of fatigue than the sleep of rest, to some degree. Sleep is supposed to rest the sleeper in both respects, bodily and nervous, for it is through this rest that the body recovers its balance, so that no one of its powers dominates another.

And if we cannot sleep, we should look searchingly at what is passing through our minds. Is there some particular thought that troubles us and robs us of our rest? Are our minds occupied with the past or the future? If so, we should consider: is the matter that troubles us really serious? Is it much more important than the other matters in our life? Yes, let us think of this — and before long we shall yawn, and sleep will overcome us.