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Show . EARLY RISING CONDEMNED. There is no adequate support for the impression that the early morning hours are in any way more wholesome or healthy than later periods of the day. Except in summer time, they are apt to be damp, foggy, chilly and among the least desirable hours of daylight. day-light. It is quite true that during the summer there is a sense of exhilaration about being abroad in these early morning hours, but this evaporates with the dew and is apt to be succeeded succeed-ed by a corresponding depression and loss of working power later in the day. I have been observing my friends and patients for the past twenty years in this respect, and am inclined to the opinion that not a little of the depression depres-sion and nervousness which commonly develop in hot weather is due to excessive ex-cessive exposure to light, from habits of early rising, inherited from agricultural agri-cultural ancestors, not counteracted by three or four hours' rest in darkened rooms in the middle of the day. Secondly, that the exhilaration experienced ex-perienced during the early morning hours is an expensive luxury which has to be paid for later in the day. In fact, I have found that, as a general rule, to put it very roughly, the business or professional man who rises an hour before be-fore 7:30 or S. goes to bed, or loses his working power an hour and a half earlier in the evening. Each individual has in the beginning of his day about so much working power stored up In his brain and muscle cells. If he uses this up with great rapidity in the early morning hours he naturally exhausts his stock the sooner in the afternoon. It is largely a matter of when a man wishes to be at rest. If his occupation is of such a character that he can clear off the brunt of his work in the early morning hours, then let him rise early. If. on the other hand, he requires full Vigor and readiness of mind and body in the latter part of the day or at night, then he must rise later to get it. Even in pvire muscle-work, it is false economy to work too long hours. Dr. Woods Hutchinson, u- American Magazine. |