Morning Work | AdventAI

Seventh-day Adventist Missionary Society · Oakland, California · May 10, 1883

Morning Work.

PERHAPS, on the whole, moderately early rising is now a more common practice in cities than it was forty years ago. It seems strange that the habit of lying in bed hours after the sun is up should ever have obtained a hold on the multitude of brain-workers, as undoubtedly it has in times past. Hour for hour the intellectual work done in the early morning, when the atmosphere is yet unpoisoned by the breath of myriads of actively moving creatures, must be, and as a matter of experience is, incomparably better than that done at night.

The habit of writing and reading late in the day and far into the night, "for the sake of quiet," is one of the most mischievous to which a man of mind can addict himself. When the body is jaded, the spirit may seem to be at rest, and not so easily distracted by the surroundings which we think less obtrusive than in the day; but this seeming is a snare.

When the body is weary, the brain, which is an integral part of the body, and the mind, which is simply brain function, are weary too. If we persist in working one part of the system because some other part is too tired to trouble us, that cannot be wise management of self. The feeling of tranquility which comes over the busy and active man about 10:30 or 11 o'clock ought not to be regarded as an incentive to work.

It is, in fact, the effect of a lowering of vitality consequent on the exhaustion of the physical sense. Nature wants and calls for physiological rest. Instead of complying with her reasonable demand, the night-worker hails the "feeling" of mental quiescence, mistakes it for clearness and acuteness, and whips the jaded organism with the will until it goes on working.

What is the result? Immediately, the accomplishment of a task fairly well, but not half so well as if it had been performed with the vigor of a refreshed brain, working in health from proper sleep. Remotely, or later on, comes the penalty to be paid for unnatural exertion—that is, energy wrung from exhausted or weary nerve centers under pressure.

This penalty takes the form of "nervousness," perhaps sleeplessness, almost certainly some loss or depreciation of function in one or more of the great organs concerned in nutrition. To relieve these maladies, springing from this unsuspected cause, the brain worker very likely has recourse to the use of stimulants, possibly alcoholic, or it may be simply tea or coffee. The sequel need not be followed.

Night work, during student-life and in after years, is the fruitful cause of much unexplained, though by no means inexplicable suffering, for which it is difficult, if not impossible, to find a remedy. Surely, morning is the time for work, when the whole body is rested, the brain relieved from its tension, and the mind-power at its best.—Lancet.