On the hours of sleep at public schools : based on an inquiry into the arrangements existing in forty of the great public schools in England, and others in the U.S.A. a paper read before the Association on May 11, 1905 / by T.D. Acland.

  • Theodore Dyke Acland
Date:
1905
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: On the hours of sleep at public schools : based on an inquiry into the arrangements existing in forty of the great public schools in England, and others in the U.S.A. a paper read before the Association on May 11, 1905 / by T.D. Acland. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    Professor McKendrick 1 writes to me, “ A young grow¬ ing lad should have ten hours’ sleep both during summer and winter. “ During the time they are at School and College there can be no doubt that the mental efficiency of boys is kept up to the normal standard by plenty of sleep. I have often noticed a jaded appearance when less sleep was ob¬ tained than, say, eight or nine hours, whilst the boy will be bright and alert if he has, say, ten hours. ... I have known men, who were no longer boys, who still needed nine hours’ sleep if they were to do effective work.” Another distinguished physiologist, Professor C. S. Sherrington,2 writes to me at length, condemning the practice of attempting to run the young boy’s life with the same allowance of sleep which he considers necessary for the full grown adult. He points out that the child's bodily life is run more expensively than the adult’s. Since bulk increases as the cube, and surface as the square, the child has, relatively, far more body surface than the adult, and has in consequence to produce more body heat to main¬ tain its temperature. This is proved by the fact that the average child gives out about 500 c.c. of Co2 per kilo of body weight, as against 300 given out by the adult. The combustion in the child is more active than when growth has ceased ; and further, there is the additional drain caused by growth, and the characteristic restlessness of boyhood ; from all of which points, which are incontro¬ vertible, he deduces that solely on physiological grounds the body of the child demands a diurnal balance of repose much greater than that which is required in later 1 Professor ]. G. McKendrick, M.D., F.R.S., Professor of Phy¬ siology in the University of Glasgow, formerly Fullerian Professor of Physiology Royal Institution of Great Britain, and writer of the article on Sleep in the “ Encyclopaedia Britannica.” 2 Professor C. S. Sherrington, M.D., F.R.S., Holt Professor of Physiology, University of Liverpool, Chairman of the British Association Committee on School Hygiene.