Listen to thisArthur Ricketts
Afternoon vistors to this Home are often amazed to find all the boys on their beds soundly asleep. For fourteen years opportunities for extra rest have been used therapeutically in the Owairaka Boys” Home, Auckland. This Home is essentially a short-term reception centre catering for delinquent and maladjusted boys who stay from a few weeks to six months or more. The boys, whose ages range from 10 years to 17 years, may come directly from the Children's Court or from foster homes where the placement has broken down through misbehaviour or for some other reason. These children can be expected to be emotionally disturbed, insecure and difficult. Those who are familiar with caring for such children in residential establishments can easily imagine the wide range of behaviour presented. Aggressiveness, moodiness, fractions and unco-operative behaviour and general irascibility are just some features. The problem of maintaining a happy and cohesive group is also an additional experience. Counselling will have been attempted in an endeavour to influence the children to give and take, or to teach co-operation through team games and group activities.
We have found that if extra rest “an afternoon nap “is incorporated as part of the programme much can be accomplished in dealing with individual behaviour problems as well as with the overall tone and behaviour. In a residential child care establishment where the total environment itself is the basic therapeutic tool it is most important that placidity and calmness should prevail. Our experience has shown that this can best be accomplished when the arrangements allow for a daily period of mid-afternoon rest.
At the Owairaka Boys” Home we have experimented over the years in treating fractious children with a liberal amount of rest. When a boy reached a peak in his aggressiveness and lack of co-operation he was kindly but firmly sent to bed for two or three days. Such treatment was never welcomed by the boy himself as it meant exclusion from sports and other recreational activities. It was significant that such boys were usually sound asleep soon after going to bed and often slept soundly for most of the first day and sometimes for succeeding days. After such a spell in bed the difference in manner and disposition was frequently very marked. This change in outlook can only be ascribed to the period of bed rest.
The results so achieved with difiicult individuals have resulted in the general introduction of rest therapy into the Home programme. For the past fourteen years it has been an integral part of the planned therapy and is now regarded as one of the most important single factors in the daily routine.
At 3.30 p.m. every boy rests on his bed until 4.45 p.m., the period being actively supervised by a house-master. The boys are not allowed to talk, read or keep others awake. Most of the boys are usually sound asleep within thirty minutes. One can only assume that disturbed children have a need for extra sleep. This need perhaps arises from dissipation of energy in emotional conflicts, tensions and anxieties. In this connection it is interesting to mention that boys newly admitted appear to welcome this enforced relaxation and readily fall into a sound sleep.
One significant outcome which has followed the introduction of rest therapy is the now almost complete absence of crying, irritability and poor group spirit which earlier characterized boys in residence here. Equally pleasing is the calm, placid and happy attitude among the children, and towards the staff, frequently commented on by visitors.
Although many of the difficulties previously experienced in the group care of tense and disturbed children have now largely been eradicated, it cannot be assumed that the introduction of rest therapy has been wholly responsible for that change. The practice described in this article is only part of our total programme. From my experience here I am convinced that this therapy must be integrated with other aspects of life in this Home. Gardening, manual labour, physical training and competitive sports all hold places of equal importance with the rest periods. For optimum results, each aspect of the daily routine must be closely integrated and interdependent.
This feature: Ricketts, A. (1963). Sleep – its role in therapy. An ABC of social problems – and therapy, 11. UK. Residential Child Care Association. pp.75-76.
