Licence: In copyright
Credit: On means for the prolongation of life. Source: Wellcome Collection.
Provider: This material has been provided by Royal College of Physicians, London. The original may be consulted at Royal College of Physicians, London.
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![easily understood when we take Oliver's expe- rience just mentioned into consideration, from which we see that too little sleep gives not time enough for the process of nutrition of the tissues. Oliver's experience also shows why during active growth much more sleep is required than in the later stages of life, when the body is thoroughly developed, and why the curtailing of sleep in children and growing persons is so much more injurious than in adult life. Dr. T. D. Acland has quite lately judiciously discussed this subject [ia] The habit of sleeping too little is, however, less frequent than that of sleeping too much. There are some hard brain-workers who never sleep more than five hours and even less, and enjoy good health with this small amount up to old age, if they live otherwise correctly. There are many persons who worry themselves if they sleep less than seven hours and if they wake several times during the night. They mostly do themselves more harm by worrying about the supposed too short hours of sleep, than by the small amount of sleep they get ; and if they can be persuaded that they are not injured by the shorter hours, that rest in bed by itself leads to restoration of the body, they](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b2398465x_0181.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
