GENERAL CARE OF THE BODY: REST AND SLEEP
The amount of sleep required for good health varies tremendously from person to person. Eight hours each night appears to be average, but the essential test is whether you feel rested in the morning and have sufficient energy to carry through the day’s activities. If not, chronic fatigue may accumulate and contribute to what can be a serious illness. Some men and women find they can get along on fewer than eight hours sleep a night as they grow older, but if you are concerned that you are really not getting the sleep you need, you should discuss it with your doctor. One suggestion: it could be that you are getting less sleep because you need less sleep. Inability to sleep is discussed under insomnia in the encyclopaedia section; see also the entry sleep.
We all know about the need for a good night’s sleep, but too few of us recognize the need for rest during the day. Businessmen, professional people, executives, and many others who not only work hard but are under heavy stress, could live more comfortably and probably longer if they managed to rest during the day. Even a brief period of relaxation would be healthful. You could relax by having lunch in a quiet restaurant instead of in a crowded, noisy one. Or you might bring lunch from home and eat it in a park.
I have always found it refreshing to rest at home for half an hour at the end of the day instead of rushing right to the dinner table. It is really sad that this time of day, which should be a peaceful meeting time for the family, can become a time of short tempers and unpleasantness, just because you, and perhaps your wife too, are tired. An eight-hour workday, plus another hour or two for travelling, is too long for many people.
Periods of relaxation which are found in pleasant recreation are necessary to most people at least once a week. More and more, it is being recognized that a yearly vacation helps to safeguard good health.
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