Evening Star Newspaper, May 4, 1930, Page 107

HERE seems to be a movement under way to revive the quaint old custom ' of sleeping. Several learned professors have recently written fat books on the subject. In the course of their re- searches they have discovered that the sleeping bhabit was quite prevalent throughout the civil- ized world before the invention of the radio. People used to lapse into unconsciousness every night, without benefit of bootleg, and stay that way until morning. A " This may sound incredible to the young people of today, who regard 2 am. as the shank of the evening. But it is a fact. Mere chil- dren often slept as long as 12 hours at & stretch, and apparently they were none the worse for it. . Mothers used to encourage them in this practice by singing songs known as “Jullabies.” . iy “Lullables "are sung by machinery now, but their.effect. is not soothing;. just. when .the in- fant begins to forget about his colic and doze off into dreamland, he is startled out of his flannels ‘by -an unctuous bass voice booming, “Please stand by for station announcements!” It is impossible to say exactly how or when the ‘popular prejudice against sleep arose. But as early as the eighteenth century there seems fo have been a feeling that it was not pre- cisely the thing to do. Thomas Gray in his “Elegy,” commented upon the fact that “the rude forefathers of the hamlet sleep,” and there @re other instances which indicate that the custom was out of favor. et Inability to sleep is still regarded as a virtue. It is a mark of refinement; it puts one in a class with the princess who lay awake all night because somebody had placed a pea under her mattress. ‘A confirmed insomniac will boast of his prowess to any one who will listen. “I heard the clock strike every hour and half hour last night,” he will say proudly. And though you may have heard unmistakable snores issuing from his room at 11 pm. you cannot. shake his faith in himself. Next to the radio, pajamas have done more than anything else to discourage sleeping. Al< most every one wears them—or, to be exact, every one almost wears them. For although pajamas have style, they lack unity and co- herence. The old-fashioned nightshirt was an unlovely garment, but at least it could be de- pended upon. As soon as you got into bed, it slid up under your arms like a life preserver and stayed there. : But pajamas of the two-piece variety are complex; each piece is a law unto itself. The uppers are uppers in every sense of the word, and the lowers require a nautical hitch and a couple of “yo-ho’s” whenever the temporary oc- cupant takes a step. Many people, when go- ing to the front door for the morning paper and the milk, walk with a peculiar sidling gait, like trained orangoutangs; this is known as the ‘pajama crouch” and indicates a lack of con- fidence in the belt, or gee-string. PAJAMAB come in all colors, especially at Christmas time. These gift pajamas, with their futuristic designs, vivid hues and eme broidered frogs and tassels, make sleep quite out of the guestion. They provide a hazard Wwhich is mental as well as physical. The wearer lies awake imaging himself trapped by fire and Brazen Ton gue. By Wiliiam Rose Benet. Quick in spite I said unkind Words that should have struck me blind. Flatly on my cardrums rung The raucous echoes of my tongue. Burnished bees sn an iron hive Seemed my wits, and scarce alive 1 sat with elbows on my knees, Sick with silence like disease. Slowly through the solid floor 1 sank, till there was nothing more Than a grease spot of me there, Shadowed by the upright chair. O last night 1 lay awake Parrying darkness for your sake, And like an armory glittered bright The lilied hours of our delight! O this morning I sntended All the virtue this has ended Golden as a mew-coined planet! Now I wither into granite. Tongue, you are a tongue of brass In the jawbone of an ass, Slaying what was most divene, Not the reeking Philistine. So, she dug me from my quarry; Came and said that she was sorry; Sprinkled me with words like myrrh; So I sat and- stared at her. And so 1 climb the burning mountain #nd sit beside the lava fountain, - And, white with ashes, wonder why In the dewsl I am 1. THE SUNDAY STAR, WASHINGTON, D. C, M AY 4. 1930. Clame the Yawn By Weare Holbrook. climbing down a ladder in his colorful costume while the mob cheers, Many & neurosis may be traced to a suit of dizzy pajamas. The first thing a psychiatrist ought to do is to glance through his patient’s wardrobe for sartorial symptoms. A man-can~ not be entirely himself when he looks like an Easter egg every night. ’ The person who intends to take up sleeping in a serious way should select pajamas in plain colors. Avoid gzigzags, sunbursts and tapestry designs—especially designs that tell a story: These look very fascinating in the shop, but their charm is short lived; after.you have had nymphs and fauns sporting over your chest for two or three nights, the novelty begins to pall. I knew a man who wore pajamas deco- rated with the “Retreat From Moscow,” and he said he used to wake up in the morning tired out. b . Loud speakers and loud pajamas are re- sponsible for most of the insomnia in the world. And there is another cause of sleeplessnesy which must be considered, ie., sand in the béd, This does not concern the city dweller, but any one who has ever spent a vacation at the beach will appreciate what it means. In & bungalow or & Summer hotel, the sandman works overtime.. He put sand in your eyes tq make you sleepy, and sand in your bed to keep you awake. He even puts sand in your food, It's an old spinach custom. v There are various methods of combatsing sleeplessness. Some people induce mental re- laxation by counting sheep jumping over & fense, or vice presidents entering the National City Bank. - Others concentrate upon nursery rhymes or adveriising slogans—the idea being that the monotony will soothe the mind into a state of blissful blankness. This method is known as “boring from within,” as distinguished from “boring from without,” which requires the co-operation of at least one other person. A good way to cure insomnia is to ask your friends how to cure insomnia; it is a subject upon which every one is eager to give advice, and by the time they have finished telling you you’ll probably be sleeping with sound effects. Golf enthusiasts are excellent soporifics, and so are people who have had operations—provided, of course, that they do not attempt to show you their scars. - Change of surroundings will often encourage sleep. A certain wealthy patron of the arts, finding it impossible to sleep in his box at the opera, used to go up and sit in the balcony, where he would fall asleep immediately and remain dead to the world until his wife missed him. Many New Yorkers achieve the same effect by moving to Brooklyn. : Following the example of Daird and Muller, the sleepiness boys, I have conducted several laboratory experiments to determine the rela= tion of sleep to efficiency. My first experiment was with Uncle Horace. Uncle Horace was in the habit of taking a nap on the davenport every afternoon, and he snored so loud that the rest of us were unable to concentrate on what we were doing. It was a question of re- Jmoving Uncle Horace’s tonsils or the davenport, 0 I removed the davenport. Thereafter, Uncle ’ chief interests were clothes, cosmetics and Rudy Vallee. She lived in Far Rockaway, and stood 5 feet 6 inches on her French heels when she was unable to get a seat. In order to study the effect of fatigue upon Miss Higbie's effi- ciency, I took her to the theater one evening. After the theater we went to a night club, where we danced until 2 am. From there we went to a speakeasy. It was 3:30 when I put her on the train for Far Rockaway. I estimated that she would not get more than two hours of sleep that night, and it was my intention to check up on her office work next day. But, unfortunately, I did not wake up until 4 o’clock the following afternoon, and my head felt like a kettledrum. However, my colleagues Golf enthusiasts are excellent soporifics. Horace was obliged to sit on a bench in the park, and the efficiency of the household in- creased 32 per cent as a result. Nl:x’l‘ I experimented with Cousin Mabel, .~ who had made her home with us ever since she started looking for a job shortly after the battle of Hastings, Cousin Mabel used to wake up about 10 o'clock and have her breakfast in bed. I found that by refusing to bring her breakfast to her we could get her up by 8 o’clock in the morning. This increased her efficlency nearly 20 per-cent. Then I experimented with Miss Higbie, one of the stenographers at the office. Miss Higbie ‘was a normal, healthy American girl whose at the office informed me that Miss Higble had been at her desk at 9 o’clock as usual, fresh as homemade wine, and had made no more than her customary quota of mistakes during the day. The experiment cost me $62.50 and it ought to prove something—but I do not know what. The professional researchers, with well or- ganized laboratories and hundreds of docile sophomores to work on, have accumulated an impressive array of statistics. But I venture to say that Miss Higbie, or any other poor work- ing girl, could upset their calculations com- pletely. Perhaps in time the scientists will succeed in making the Nation sleep-conscious; eight- hour slumber laws may be passed, and burning the midnight ofl may be classified as arson. Sleep will never become generally popular, however, until hotel chambermaids have been taught to tuck the covers in at the foot. Ap- parently there is still a widespread belief that a bed should be equipped with emergency exits at both ends in case of fire, No man can drift comfortably into the arms of Morpheus while lying with reluctant feet where the bedclethes almost meet—for he knows that he will wake up in the morning with a counterpane in the neck and knees al fresco. What the world needs is more one-way sheets, Movie Inspires Hero. ARK one up for the melodrama of the movies. In fact, mark five up, for, thanks to a movie showing how “Lucky” Burns heroi- cally saved a group of miners following an ‘explosion, a miner in real life, who saw the movie, saved his own and four other lives under simliar circumstances. S A son of the late Francis S. Peabody, a for- mer official of the United States Bureau of Mines, who was intensely interested in mine safety measures, hit upon the scheme of giving the bureau a film on mine safety as a sort of memorial to his father. A three-reel movie was prepared showing various methods of meeting emergencies when explosions brought disaster underground. A story was interwoven with the scenes in order to lend interest to the lessons being given, and the film was shown widely in mining sections. Recently, in a Utah coal mine, the dread rumble was heard throughout the galleries far underground. Among the miners below ground was J. F. Pritchett, who had seen the safety film. Into his mind flashed the steps taken by the movie hero under similar circumstances. Quickly gathering the handful of men near him, he led them to a more distant part of the mine, and there erected a barricade such as he had seen erected in the film. This barricade served to keep out the deadly fire damp, or carbon monoxid, that brings death so certainly to those who breathe it in appreciable quantities. All night, although all the hours were alike to these men awaiting rescue, they sat, moving as little as possible so that what little oxygen they had would last as long as possible, and” finally in the morning they heard the resciers coming their way. Five of them survived, although one was so far gone that artificial respiration was given for more than three hours before he was revived. Speaking of their experience, Pritchett said, “All the time we were gathering material for our barricade I kept turning over in my mind the things that I had seen in the Bureau of Mines picture. I remembered how the hero, ‘Lucky Burns,’ had saved the lives of a num- ber of men when they were caught in a bad situation like ours. Everything worked out right, and I was certainly glad to have seen that picture.” iy