PREPARATIONS FOR THE NIGHT To Prepare for Sleep.—All clothing worn during the day should be re moved, and a night garment, prefer ably of linen or wool, should be put on. A warm bath just before retiring is a most healthful custom. The bed covers should never be drawn over the head, as this results in breathing again and again the carbonic acid thrown off from the lungs, and also taking into the lungs the poisonous exhala tions from the body. The body should recline on the side rather than on the back, the bed being placed so that the face may be turned away from the light. The bed should not be ex posed to draughts or to direct heat from stoves, registers, or radiators. It should be moved away from a damp or cold wall. All curtains, canopies, valances, and other draperies should be discarded from beds and bedrooms, and only the simplest shades and lace or muslin curtains should be permit ted. All draperies interfere with the circulation of air, accumulate dust, and act as catchalls for the bacteria which are the germs of diseases.
Bed covers should not be suffered to hang down to the floor so as to impede the circulation of the air be neath them. If the bed can stand in the middle of the room without being exposed to draughts or direct heat, so much the better.
To Warm Beds.—The old-fashioned way of warming a bed in winter by means of a brass warming pan filled with hot coals from the open fireplace is largely out of use. It is quite in convenient to take coal from a mod ern range or cook stove for this pur pose. Moreover, the heat from a warming pan is very soon gone.
Ordinary red brick, soapstones, or hot-water bottles are now generally used. A good hot-water bottle is a great luxury, and one or more should be in every household. It is especially valuable in case of sickness, but if one cannot be afforded for every member of the family, common red bricks are always obtainable.
It is customary to roll up bricks in old cloths, but a much neater and more convenient method is to prepare separate bags for each member of the family as follows: Use bed ticking as lining, because it is smooth and hard and slips on easily. Cover with outing flannel or
any soft woolen material, as old flan nel underwear, and use cotton batting or a very thin sheet of asbestos as interlining. Cut the lining and inter lining to the proper size, lay them together, and stitch all around. After wards bring the ends and sides to gether and hem to form a bag, leaving enough material on one side to make a flap over the open end and fasten ing with a button. Make these bags rather loose so that they will draw on easily.
After supper place one or two bricks in the oven for each member of the family, remove them an hour or so before bedtime, stand them on end on top of the stove, and slip the covers over them. These are preferable to flatirons, as they are more convenient, and are far cheaper than hot-water bottles.
Here is a hint for a useful Christ mas present for every member of the family, which can be made by anyone and will be appreciated cold nights for years to come.
Nature of Sleep.—In sleep the heart beats are less frequent and less force ful, although more regular. The blood circulates more slowly and the breath ing is slower, deeper, and more rhyth mical. Hence the temperature of the whole body is lowered and less blood is distributed to the extremities. The blood seems, in fact, to partially leave the extremities, including the brain, and to settle about the stomach and other internal organs. Hence the process of digestion is rather increased than otherwise during sleep. On the other hand, the excretion of waste, as in perspiration, is normally less dur ing sleep. The activity of the nervous system is somewhat diminished. As to the mental faculties, the imagina tion is very active and the emotions have full play, but sensation or feel ing is much weakened. Consciousness and will are entirely suspended, and thought and memory are greatly modified.