eight o'clock
For myself , under the ravages of opium , I have found walking the most beneficial exercise ; besides that , it requires no previous notice or preparation of any kind ; and this is a capital advantage in a state of drooping energies , or of impatient and unresting agitation . I may mention , as possibly an accident of my individual temperament , but possibly , also , no accident at all , that the relief obtained by walking was always most sensibly brought home to my consciousness , when some part of it -LRB- at least a mile and a half -RRB- has been performed before breakfast . In this there soon ceased to be any difficulty ; for , whilst under the full oppression of opium , it was impossible for me to rise at any hour that could , by the most indulgent courtesy , be described as within the pale of morning , no sooner had there been established any considerable relief from this oppression , than the tendency was in the opposite direction ; the difficulty became continually greater of sleeping even to a reasonable hour . Having once accomplished the feat of walking at nine A. M. , I backed , in a space of seven or eight months , to eight o'clock , to seven , to six , five , four , three ; until at this point a metaphysical fear fell upon me that I was actually backing into ` yesterday , ' and should soon have no sleep at all . Below three , however , I did not descend ; and , for a couple of years , three and a half hours ' sleep was all that I could obtain in the twenty-four hours . From this no particular suffering arose , except the nervous impatience of lying in bed for one moment after awaking . Consequently , the habit of walking before breakfast became at length troublesome no longer as a most odious duty , but , on the contrary , as a temptation that could hardly be resisted on the wettest mornings .