Scouting For Girls, Official Handbook of the Girl Scouts Part 43

_Age_ _Hours of Sleep_

10 and 11 years 9-1/2 to 11

12 and 13 years 9 to 10-1/2

14 and 15 years 8-1/2 to 10

16 and 17 years 8 to 9-1/2

18 and 19 years 8 to 9

20 and over at least 8

Save Your Eyes

The reason it is important to rest and to sleep enough is because it is while at rest that the body regains energy lost during activity, and stores it up for future work and play. There are other ways of saving energy, and one of them is by keeping the body in such good repair that like a good machine it does its work with a minimum expenditure of force and heat. This is the main reason for the setting-up exercises, or indeed for any sort of exercises. Perhaps the single best way to save energy is by saving your eyes. There is almost no work or play that does not involve the use of our eyes. If people are blind they can learn to do many things without vision, but it is infinitely harder than with it.

Modern life, especially in cities, makes a constant demand on our eyes, and more than this, the demand is on one part of the eyes--the muscles concerned in near work. The best way to rest the eyes, and one which not only rests the tired parts but exercises the parts that are not used, is by doing things that will involve _distant vision_. Walking and looking far ahead and far away on every side rests the eyes best of all, and this is one reason why a good walk will often clear up a headache.

Another way to insure distant vision is by riding backward in a car.

Then as the landscape flows past you, your eye muscles relax to the position needed for distant vision. If you cannot walk or ride and are doing close work, like sewing or reading, look up and "at nothing" every once in a while.

The following are some important rules to remember in saving your eyes:

Rest your "near" eye muscles by looking at distant objects and places.

Do not work facing a light or where the rays from a light cross your field of vision directly.

Work so far as possible by indirect or reflected light.

If you must work near uncovered artificial lights, wear an eye-shade.

When sewing or writing have the light at your left, unless you are left-handed. This is to keep the shadow of your hands from the work.

Avoid a glare or light that is in streaks or bars of alternate dark and bright. Diffused, even light is best.

Have your eyes examined by a competent oculist immediately:

If you have headaches,

If the eyes sting or burn after using,

If print or other objects dance or blur,

If you must get close to your work to see it,

If near work tires your eyes or you,

If there is the slightest irritation or soreness about the lids or other parts.

How to Avoid Muscle Strain

Girls and women in attempting to live an outdoor life or indeed when trying to do many of the things numbered among the Scout activities, such as First Aid, Home Nursing and Hiking, often give themselves quite unnecessary pain and fatigue from lifting, pulling and carrying weights in the wrong way. Ability to carry and lift or move is not so much dependent upon absolute strength as it is on knowing how. The whole body, so far as it is a physical mechanism, may be thought of as a series of levers, of which the muscles, bones, and joints make up the parts and are fulcrum, power arm or weight arm as the case may be.

Without going into the details of bodily structure or even knowing the names of the different bones and muscles, it is possible to learn a few simple things about the right use of these levers that will be useful at all times.

Certain parts of the body are more able to do heavy work than others, and the first thing to remember is that the upper part of the back, the shoulders and the upper arms are stronger than the lower back, the abdomen and the lower arms. Therefore, whenever you are trying to lift or move an object, see if you cannot use these stronger parts. If the arms are held away from the body when lifting, pulling, throwing or pus.h.i.+ng, the muscles of the upper arm, the shoulders and the upper back will be brought into play. If the arms are held close to the body, the lower-arm muscles are unduly taxed and in trying to help them out, pressure is made on the abdominal and pelvic muscles, which are not fitted to bear this sort of strain. Therefore, in carrying a bag or suitcase, where this is absolutely unavoidable, try to swing the arm free from the body, so as to use the upper arm and back muscles for the weight.

Another important way to save strain is by pus.h.i.+ng instead of pulling.

It is almost impossible to push anything so hard as to injure your back or abdominal muscles. It is almost impossible, on the other hand, to pull even a relatively light weight without some strain. If you will think of how a horse in harness actually exerts his strength in drawing a wagon, you will see that what he does is to _push_ against the straps, and it is the straps that _pull_ the wagon. Even the strongest horse could not pull a wagon with his teeth very far, or pull something tied only to the back leg muscles. _Get behind and push_ is the rule to remember, and never resort to _pulling_ until you have tried every device for pus.h.i.+ng instead.

If you _must_ pull, try to use heavy muscles, such as _leg_ muscles, to do it with. Often a weight may be lifted or pulled by getting the foot under or in back and using the arms only to steer with. This applies particularly to objects like trunks or bureaus.

Always take advantage of any natural leverage that you can and if you must move something heavy, do not lift it at once and attempt to carry it, but lift one end and swing or shove it and then lift the other end and shove it. If you will watch expressmen at work you will notice that they roll boxes and trunks, holding them almost on end and tipping them just enough to turn them along their shortest axis. In this way the boxes carry themselves, so far as their main weight is concerned.

Carrying a weight on the head or shoulders is another way of converting a pull into a push, and this is taken advantage of by peasant women in Europe, who often are seen carrying heavy weights to market in baskets perched on their heads, while they stride along arm-free. A knapsack strapped on to the shoulders is not only more convenient because it leaves the arms and hands free to swing naturally or use for other purposes, but because the weight is distributed and is carried by means of heavy muscles pus.h.i.+ng up under the strap. A weight should be distributed over a set of muscles as evenly as possible, and this is the reason for suspending a knapsack from two shoulders instead of one, when possible.

Finally, in doing any sort of lifting or pulling, if the muscles that are to be used are contracted before grasping the weight they will be able to do their work with far less effort. Try lifting a small weight like a book in two ways--first, have your hand and fingers relaxed and limp when you grasp it, and see how heavy it seems and how hard it is to contract your muscles properly while lifting it. Then drop the book and go at it again, this time antic.i.p.ating its weight and contracting your hand and finger muscles before grasping it. See how easily it comes up.

Try this same thing with heavier weights, and learn _always to contract the muscle before taking the load_. In carrying a weight for any distance it is well to s.h.i.+ft it from one arm to another, always preparing the muscles by contracting them before the weight is a.s.sumed.

Using the muscles so as to take advantage of their lever-like qualities in the best way, contracting them before loading, and pus.h.i.+ng instead of pulling, go to make up what is sometimes called "getting a purchase."

4. _Supply Daily Need for Air, Sun, Water and Food_--Besides exercise and rest there are other controllable factors upon which health depends.

These are air, heat and light of the sun, water and food. To grow and work properly the body needs plenty of each of these.

_Air_--If you cannot work or play outdoors you can still bring out of doors in by opening your windows at frequent intervals. You will find that work goes better, and that you do not tire so easily if you make it a rule to open the windows and doors and move about the room for five minutes every hour or two. Sleep with windows open or out-of-doors. Camp and hike as often as possible. Work in the garden. Play out-of-door games.

_Heat_--The proper temperature of the body is between 98 and 99 degrees Fahrenheit. Human life depends upon the maintenance of this temperature at all times, and very slight changes either up or down interfere seriously with all the other life processes. The main source of heat is from food consumed, or really burned, in the body. Artificial heating in houses helps conserve the body heat, as does clothing. But clothes and shelter may make you overheated, which is nearly as bad as being cold; they may also shut out fresh air. Clothes should not be too heavy nor too tight. Shoes should have soles straight on the inner side, and be broad enough to allow the toes full play, and have low heels. Shoes that are comfortable to hike in are apt to be the best for all the time wear.

At night the clothes worn during the day should be aired and dried thoroughly. This will help much in maintaining the right body temperature, because clothes become damp from wearing, and dampness uses up body heat.

_Sunlight_--Sunlight is one of the best health bringers known. Little children--and grown people, too--suffering from the most serious forms of tuberculosis, that of the bones, get well if they are kept in the sunlight. In one of the finest hospitals for children in the world, in Switzerland, the main treatment is to have the children play outdoors without clothes in the sunlight, and they do this even when there is heavy winter snow on the ground. Human beings droop and die without the sun, just as plants do, though it takes longer to kill them. It is a gloomy person who does not feel happier in the sun, and a happy and cheerful person is generally healthy. So get into the sun whenever you can. Walk on the sunny side of the street, and open your windows to the sun whenever you can. However, in hot climates and in the warmest summer days, remember that the sun can injure as well as help, and do not expose the head or body unnecessarily.

_Water_--As about three-quarters of our body weight is water, the solid portions of bone, muscle, and so forth, const.i.tuting only one-quarter, and as considerable water is given off each day by evaporation from skin and lungs and with excreta, the loss must be made up. In addition to the water taken with meals and contained in the food a Girl Scout should drink at least six tumblers of water daily. This is a quart and a half.

One gla.s.s should be taken on arising and before breakfast, two between breakfast and lunch, two between lunch and dinner, and one before going to bed. Be sure the water is pure, and boil any water the purity of which is doubted in the slightest. Water kept cool in the ice chest, or in a jar with a moist cover, is better than ice water, both because cool water actually quenches thirst more easily, being more readily absorbed than ice cold water, and because it is difficult to control the purity of ice.

_Food_--Food should be clean and kept clean. Growing girls can tell whether they are eating enough of the right sort of food, and if they are getting the best out of it, by seeing whether they are up to the right weight for their height and age. A chart is given at the end of this section showing the standard weight for each height at each age.

The following are good rules to follow in making your daily food habits:

Do not eat between meals.

Eat slowly and chew food thoroughly.

Eat freely of coa.r.s.e cereals and breads.

Eat meat only once a day.

Have green vegetables, salad or fruit every day.

Drink as much milk as possible, but no coffee or tea.