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Show Scientists Say You Need 6 Hours Sleep While sleep needs of individuals indivi-duals vary, the difference is slight and there is scientific evidence evi-dence that everybody needs six hours of sleep. So reports Robert O'Brien in a February Reader's Digest article, "Maybe You Need More Sleep." "All human beings need a minimum of six hours' sleep to be mentally healthy," says Dr. George S. Stevenson of the National Na-tional Association for Mental Health. "Most people need more. Those who think they can get along on less are fooling themselves." them-selves." O'Brien, a Westport, Conn., writer, quotes Dr. Nathanial L. Kleitman, the nation's foremost authority on sleep: "If we do not get enough sleep, we cannot be fully awake during the day." When not fully awake, we are not in our right minds. Scientists at Walter Reed Institute In-stitute of Research, Washington, D.C., have determined that a brain deprived of sleep will make any sacrifice to get it. After a few hours without sleep, the brain begins to "steal" fleeting seconds of slumber. As sleepless hours increase the lapses become longer, perhaps three or four seconds. In a speeding automobile automo-bile or on a complex job such lapses can spell disaster. Most common result of too little sleep is irritability. Frustration Frus-tration may be a major cause of this snappishness, according to Dr. E. J. Murray, a Syracuse University psychologist. Need for sleep is a drive, like hunger. When we go without it, frustration frustra-tion of the drive makes us irritable irrita-ble just as hunger makes dieters diet-ers ill tempered. If you are a chronic stay-up-later, you'd better not rely on "one good night" to put you back in shape. Dr. and Mrs. Graydon L. Freeman, Northwestern Northwest-ern University psychologists, found that at least two full nights are necessary to bounce back from one four hour night. Experiments at Yale University and the University of Utah College Col-lege of Medicine confirm the importance of sleep in physical and mental well being. The only reason a great many American families don't own' an elephant is that they have never been offered an elephant for $1 down and $1 a week. ' |
