The English mans doctor. Or the schoole of Salerne. Or [ph]ysicall obserua[ti]ons for the perfect preseruing of the bodie of man in continuall health. [Wh]ereunto [is] adioyned precepts for the pr[e]seruation of health. Written by [Hen]ricus Ronsouius for [the p]riuate vse of his sons. And now published for all those that desire to [preser]ue their bodies in [perfect] health.

CHAP. VII. Of Sleepe and Watch.

THe commodities of moderate sleepe, doe appeare by this, that naturall

heate which is busied about the matter, whereof proceedeth nourishment, is com∣forted in the places of digestion, and so the digestion is made better and more perfect by sleepe, the body is fatter, and the minde more quiet, the humors more temperate. But by much watch all things happen the cleane contrary. The moderation of sleepe must be measured by health and sicknesse, by age, time, emptinesse, or fulnesse of the bodie, and by naturall complexions: as first to a man in health, hauing no weaknesse of nature, and a perfect digesture of the meat he eateth, a little sleepe is sufficient, but to them which haue weak stomakes, the sleep may be the longer. In like manner, tempe∣rance is required both in youth and age at all seasons, winter and Summer. The body being full of ill humors, very little sleepe is sufficient, except the humors be crude and raw, for then sleepe is necessary, which di∣gesteth them better then labour.

In like manner, where the bodie is long empty, by long sicknes or abstinence, sleep comforteth nature as well in the principal mēbers, as in al the other. As for the length of sleep, al Authors do agree, that to strong bodies, seuen houres in the night is suffici∣ent,

and to those that are weaker, eight houres is enough at the most. Plato in Ti∣maeo, saith, When the world shutteth vp her eye, we should also close vp our eyes: the eye of the world is the Sunne, therefore sleepe is not long to be deserred after the Sunne setting, neither presently after sup∣per can sleepe be wholesome, for as Galen saith in lib. Aphorismorum, à cibis ad som num conuersis, caput impletur. Moreouer, immoderate sleepe maketh the bodie apt to Palsies, Apoplexies, Falling-sicknesse, Rhumes and Apostumes: also it maketh a dull wit, and a slow bodie, and vnapt to honest exercise: as also immoderate watch drieth too much the bodie, and doth wea∣kē the Animal powers, hindreth digestion, and maketh the body apt to cōsumptions. Wherefore, in these two things, as well as all other, a diligent care is to be vsed, the moderation is best coniected (for it is hard perfectly to know it) by the sensible light∣nesse of all the bodie, especially of the braine, the browes, and the eyes, the pas∣sage downe of the meat from the stomake, the will to make Vrine, and to goe to the stoole: contrariwise heauines in the bodie, and also in the eyes, & sauour of the mean

before eaten, doth signifie that the sleepe was not sufficient. They that are in health, must first sleepe on the right side, because the meate may come to the liuer, which is to the stomack as a fire vnder the pot, and thereby is digested. To them which haue but weake digestion, it is good to sleepe prostrate on their bellies, or to haue their pare hands on their stomackes, and to lye vpright on the backe, is to bee vtterly ab∣horred.