CONCERNING SLEEP IN EARLY LIFE.
There is a natural desire for much sleep during infancy, childhood, and youth; and there is reason for its free indulgence. Infants pass the greater portion of both day and night in sleep. Children up to the age of six years require, as a rule, twelve hours of repose at night, besides an hour or more in the middle of the day. About the sixth year the noon nap may be discontinued, but the night sleep ought not to be abridged before the tenth year, and then only to a moderate extent until the age of puberty. From this time the period of slumber may be gradually reduced to nine or ten hours. No further diminution should be attempted until the completion of growth, when another hour or two may be taken away, leaving about eight hours of daily sleep as the proper amount during middle life.
It is wrong, therefore, to wake a young child in the morning. It should be allowed to sleep as long as it will, which will be until the wants of the system are satisfied, if it be not aroused by noise or light.
When after a few months the infant is awake a considerable portion of the day, it should be brought into the habit of taking its second sleep near the middle of the day, say from eleven to one o'clock, and again, from half an hour to an hour, about three o'clock. It should not be permitted a nap later than this in the afternoon, as it would be very apt to cause a disturbed night. Although some physicians recommend that the sleep during the day be discontinued after the infant has attained the age of fifteen months, the wisdom of such advice may well be doubted. As soon as the child begins to walk, not only are its movements very constant and active, but its mind is busily employed and its nervous system excited. It therefore thrives better if its day be divided into two by sleep for an hour or two.
Should the infant sleep alone?—We have mentioned the danger of being overlain to which it is exposed when in bed with its mother or nurse. On the other hand, it must be remembered that an infant keeps warm with difficulty even when well covered, and that contact with the mother's body is the best way of securing its own warmth. Hence, during the first months the child had better be allowed to sleep with its mother. How, then, can the risk of being suffocated, which is no imaginary one, be lessened? The following rules are those given by a physician of reputation, to prevent an infant from being accidentally overlain.
'Let the baby while asleep have plenty of room in the bed. Do not allow him to be too near, or, if this be unavoidable from the small size of the bed, let his face be turned to the opposite side. Let him lie fairly, either on his side or on his back. Be careful to ascertain that his mouth be not covered with the bed-clothes. Do not smother his face with clothes, as a plentiful supply of pure air is as necessary as when he is awake. Never let him lie low in the bed. Let there be no pillow near the one his head is resting on, lest he roll to it and bury his head in it. Remember a young child has neither the strength nor the sense to get out of danger; and if he unfortunately either turn on his face or bury his head in a pillow that is near, the chances are that he will be suffocated, more especially as these accidents usually occur at night, when the mother or the nurse is fast asleep. Never entrust him at night to a young, giddy, and thoughtless servant. A foolish mother sometimes goes to sleep while allowing her child to continue sucking. The unconscious babe, after a time, loses the nipple, and buries his head in the bed-clothes. She awakes in the morning, finding, to her horror, a corpse by her side! A mother ought therefore never to go to sleep until her child has ceased sucking.'
When a couple of months have elapsed, the child, if a healthy one, may sleep alone. What the child sleeps in is not a matter of great moment, provided it has a sufficiency of clothing, and be not exposed to currents of air. A large clothes-basket will serve all the purposes of a crib. The mistake is often made of burying the child under too heavy a mass of bed-clothes in a warm room when asleep. And this inconsistency is committed by the very mothers who scantily clad the child during the day in order to inure it to the cold. The great transition from its wrappings by night to those by day is injurious to the health and comfort of the infant.
'In arranging night coverings, the soft feather-bed is very often estimated as nothing; or, in other words, the same provision of blankets is considered indispensable, whether we lie upon a hard mattress or immersed in down. The mother, looking only to the covering laid over the child, forgets those on which it lies, although in reality the latter may be the warmer of the two. An infant deposited in a downy bed has at least two-thirds of its body in contact with the feathers, and may thus be perspiring at every pore, when, from its having only a single covering thrown over it, the mother may imagine it to be enjoying the restorative influence of agreeable slumber. In hot weather much mischief might be done by an oversight of this kind.'
It is of course essential to the health and comfort of the infant that its bed and bed-clothing be kept perfectly dry and sweet. They should frequently be taken out and exposed to the air.
A child should be accustomed early to sleep in a darkened room. Plutarch praises the women of Sparta for, among other things, teaching their children not to be afraid in the dark. He says they 'were so careful and expert, that without swaddling-bands their children were all straight and well proportioned; and they brought them up not to be afraid in the dark or of being alone, and never indulged them in crying, fretfulness, and ill-humour; upon which account Spartan nurses were often bought by people of other countries.'