Of all that looks soft and effeminate, nothing is more to be indulged children, than sleep. In this alone they are to be permitted to have their full satisfaction; nothing contributing more to the growth and health of children, than sleep. All that is to be regulated in it, is, in what part of the twenty-four hours they should take it; which will easily be resolved, by only saying that it is of great use to accustom them to rise early in the morning. It is best so to do, for health; and he that, from his childhood, has, by a settled custom, made rising betimes easy and familiar to him, will not, when he is a man, waste the best and most useful part of his life in drowsiness, and lying a-bed. If children therefore are to be called up early in the morning, it will follow of course, that they must go to bed betimes; whereby they will be accustomed to avoid the unhealthy and unsafe hours of debauchery, which are those of the evenings; and they who keep good hours, seldom are guilty of any great disorders. I do not say this, as if your son, when grown up, should never be in company past eight, nor ever chat over a glass of wine untill midnight. You are now, by the accustoming of his tender years, to indispose him to those inconveniences as much as you can; and it will be no small advantage, that contrary practice having made sitting up uneasy to him, it will make him often avoid, and very seldom propose midnight-revels. But if it should not reach so far, but fashion and company should prevail, and make him live as others do above twenty, it is worth the while to accustom him to early rising and early going to bed, between this and that, for the present improvement of his health and other advantages.
在所有各种显得柔和与享受的事情中，睡眠是儿童最应得到宽纵的一件。只此是他们被允许得到充分满足的；没有比睡眠更能增进小孩的生长与健康的。只是规定一天二十四小时之中究竟哪一部分应当作为睡眠之用；这很容易解决，只要能让他们养成早上早起的习惯。这样做对健康最好；而且他从小养成固定的习惯，使得他容易按时起床，那么当他成年后，他就不会把他生命中最好和最有用的时光浪费在昏沉中、床铺上了。所以如果早上小孩被很早叫起，那他们会自然按时睡觉；由此他们会习惯不去参加那种不健康、不安全的放纵夜生活；而且他们中遵守良好作息时间的，会很少得什么大病。我并不是说，令郎长大成人以后，绝对不能与人交往超过晚上八点，也并不是说他绝对不能与人对酌交谈到午夜。现在，在他年幼时，你要尽量让他避免那些麻烦；这是非常有好处的，因他不惯长夜不眠，他将会极力避免，而且很少会去参加那种午夜狂欢。但是如果事情不能作得这样彻底，潮流与社交还是会胜出，使他在二十岁以后要和别人一样生活，那么，在这段时间，你也值得使他养成早起早睡的习惯，以便增进他目前的健康和得到别的种种好处。
Though I have said, a large allowance of sleep, even as much as they will take, should be made to children when they are little; yet I do not mean, that it should always be continued to them in so large a proportion, and they suffered to indulge a drowsy laziness in their bed, as they grow up bigger. But whether they should begin to be restrained at seven or ten years old, or any other time, is impossible to be precisely determined. Their tempers, strength, and constitutions, must be considered. But some time between seven and fourteen, if they are too great lovers of their beds, I think it may be seasonable to begin to reduce them by degrees to about eight hours, which is generally rest enough for healthy grown people. If you have accustomed him, as you should do, to rise constantly very early in the morning, this fault of being too long in bed will easily be reformed, and most children will be forward enough to shorten that time themselves, by coveting to sit up with the company at night; though if they be not looked after, they will be apt to take it out in the morning, which should by no means be permitted. They should constantly be called up and made to rise at their early hour; but great care should be taken in waking them, that it be not done hastily, nor with a loud or shrill voice, or any other sudden violent noise. This often affrights children, and does them great harm; and sound sleep thus broke off, with sudden alarms, is apt enough to discompose any one. When children are to be wakened out of their sleep, be sure to begin with a low call, and some gentle motion, and so draw them out of it by degrees, and give them none but kind words and usage, untill they are come perfectly to themselves, and being quite dressed you are sure they are thoroughly awake. The being forced from their sleep, how gently so ever you do it, is pain enough to them; and care should be taken not to add any other uneasiness to it, especially such that may terrify them.
虽然我说过，孩子们小的时候，要有大量的睡眠，甚至他们愿睡多久就可以睡多久；但这并不意味着他们一直要这样多的睡眠，长大了还在床上昏沉沉地懒睡。不过，限制他们睡眠的时间，究竟应从七岁、十岁起，还是从别的岁数起，是难于精确地确定的。应该考虑他们的脾气、健康、与体质。不过到了七岁与十四岁之间，他们还是过于贪睡的话，我想那时就可以合理地把他们的睡眠逐渐减少到每天八小时左右，这对健康的成年人是足够的了。假如你巳照你该做的那样，让他养成经常早起的习惯，这种贪睡的毛病是很容易革除的，大多数的小孩都会自然减少睡眠的时间，以便晚上和大家一道玩；如果他们没有人照看，他们会选择在早晨去［补足晚上的睡眠］，那是绝对不能容许的。他们应该经常一早被唤醒起来；但唤醒他们的时候要小心，不要急于从事，不要用大的或尖厉的声音，不要用其它任何突然、剧烈的噪音。这经常会惊吓小孩，对他们有很大害处；熟睡中被突然惊醒，谁都会烦躁不安。唤醒小孩的时候一定先要低声呼唤，轻轻抚弄，使他们渐渐清醒，对他们只能用温和的言语和行动，直到他们完全清醒，穿好衣服，才算真醒了。如果强迫他们醒来，那么无论你的动作如何轻柔，在他们都是够痛苦的；此外还要注意，不可给他们添加其它任何的不自在，特别是那些使他们惊恐的。
Let his bed be hard, and rather quilts than feathers. Hard lodging strengthens the parts; whereas being buried every night in feathers melts and dissolves the body, is often the cause of weakness, and forerunner of an early grave. And, besides the stone, which has often its rise from this warm wrapping of the reins, several other indispositions, and that which is the root of them all, a tender weakly constitution, is very much owing to down-beds. Besides, he that is used to hard lodging at home, will not miss his sleep (where he has most need of it) in his travels abroad, for want of his soft bed, and his pillows laid in order. And therefore, I think it would not be amiss, to make his bed after different fashions, sometimes lay his head higher, sometimes lower, that he may not feel every little change he must be sure to meet with, who is not designed to lie always in my young master's bed at home, and to have his maid lay all things in print, and tuck him in warm. The great cordial of nature is sleep. He that misses that, will suffer by it; and he is very unfortunate, who can take his cordial only in his mother's fine gilt cup, and not in a wooden dish. He that can sleep soundly, takes the cordial; and it matters not whether it be on a soft bed or the hard boards. It is sleep only that is the thing necessary.
让他的床铺坚硬，要用棉被，不可用羽绒。硬床使人身体强健；而每夜睡在羽绒被褥里，却是消融体魄的，引起虚弱的原因，也是早夭的先兆。除了结石病是后腰部包裹过热引起的而外，另外几种疾病，及其病根－身体孱弱，有很大程度都是软床引起的。而且凡是在家里睡惯硬床的人，出外旅行的时候便不会因为床铺不软、枕头不顺，而失眠了(旅行时他最需要睡眠)。所以我主张他的床铺应不时改变，有时让他的头睡高一点，有时让他的头睡低一点，这样当他在外面睡遇到变动时，他才不至于察觉出来，因为他是不能永远睡在家里的床上，有女仆为他精心地铺好一切，给他掖好温暖的被子。“自然”的甘露是睡眠。凡是失眠的人都会受苦；那些只能在母亲的精致金杯中，而不能在木碗里面饮用这种甘露的人，是极其不幸的人。能够熟睡的人是能够喝到这种甘露；至于睡的是软床或硬铺，那都没有关系。惟一必要的事情是睡。
摘自Some Thoughts Concerning Education (English-Chinese Edition)(ISBN-10: 1537479857)
