Fig. 29. Children work when they play. The little girl skipping rope is killing the body cells by overwork; she has skipped more than one hundred times and is exhausted.
Ways in which children overwork their bodies
You may think it is not work to go to a party, but it really is. You are working the muscles and the cells of your brain when you are playing games, and these get tired from play work just as they do from working. It is more fun to do play work than to do real work, but the cells are tired and need rest after either kind of exercise. When you go to a party and stay up until midnight, you do not get nine hours of sleep. How do you expect the cells of your bodies to get enough rest when you treat them in this way?
Another thing you do at parties is to eat food that tastes good, but which is not good building material or nourishing for the cells of the body. These things eaten late at night stay in your stomach long after you have gone to bed, and the cells of your stomach do not have a chance to rest at all.
Children should have their parties in the afternoon. You can have just as much fun at a party in the afternoon as you can at night, and then your stomach will have time to dispose of the cake and candies you have eaten, and will be ready to rest when you go to bed.
Small children should be in bed by eight o'clock at night, and even big girls and boys should be asleep by ten o'clock every night. If you do not give your bodies rest, you can never grow into strong men and women.
The importance of regular meals
We have learned that every part of the body needs regular rest. Your stomach is a part of your body. In the stomach and intestines all the food is changed so that the little cells can make use of it. Do you think the cook would serve good meals if she were kept cooking all the time, both night and day? You know she would soon stop cooking for you if you did not give her time to rest. Your stomach does work that is even more important to you than cooking.
Why meals should be at least four hours apart