This question, like many
others, cannot be reduced to mathematical precision; for much must depend
upon habit, constitution, and the nature and duration of our occupations.
A person in good health, whose mental and physical occupations are not
particularly laborious, will find seven or eight hours' sleep quite
sufficient to refresh his frame. Those whose constitutions are
debilitated, or whose occupations are studious or laborious, require
rather more; but the best rule in all eases is to sleep till you are
refreshed, and then get up. If you feel inclined for a snug nap after
dinner, indulge in it; but do not let it exceed _half an hour;_ if you do,
you will be dull and uncomfortable afterwards, instead of brisk and
lively.
In sleeping, as in eating and drinking, we must consult our habits and
feelings, which are excellent monitors. What says the poet?--
"Preach not to me your musty rules,
Ye drones, that mused in idle cell,
The heart is wiser than the schools,
The senses always reason well."
One particular recommendation I would propose in concluding this subject,
from the observance of which much benefit has been derived--it is to sleep
in a room as large and as airy as possible, and in a bed but little
encumbered with curtains.
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