The Birmingham age-herald., 1924-06-21
Steep As Q Flight
By H. ADDINGToN BRUCE

-. Psychologists are more and more having 1t forced in on them that sleep may serve other purposes than the restoration of vigar. More and more they are coming to the view that 1t Is protective as well as reparatiye process. t
 We sleep, as Boris Sidis stated it some years ago, not simply because we are fatigued but also to prevent ourselves from becoming tatigued. Nor is it only physical fatigue that one may evade through, so to speak. A flight into sleep.
 Much more commonly it is mental or emo tional fatigue, as in the familiar instance of those persons who, having a limited range of interests, fall asleep if cast upon their own resources for occupation. Remaining awake, they are certain to suffer from bore- dom, which is notorious producer of ia tigue. So they sleep, and thus protect them selves.
 An undue proclivity to sleep may accord ingly be sign of culturally undeveloped men tality. It is of practical importance to re- member this, as. an aid in the diagnosis of those not infrequent cases of chronic sleep. Illness for which no sufficient cause can be found in sleep-producing intoxication due to some disease.
 Or, instead of being a sign of mental un- development the tendency to sleep overn1uch may be a. sign of mental inadequacy As in case that came under my personal ob- servation.
 It was the case of a college student who consulted me because of an inconvenient habit of falling asleep over his textbooks, even at times in the classroom. This naturally dis turbed him greatly, and the more because he was exceedingly ambitious.
 Examination by various specialists reveal ed that his sleepiness was not the product of bodily disease. The real trouble, it turned out, was that the young mans ambition ex- ceeded his mental equipment.
 Hence he had been impelled to undertake studies beyond his powers The sleepiness he deplored was natures way of protecting him from the fatiguing consequences of this mis- take.
 Very different was the situation with re- gard to another sleepy college student. whose case was recently reported by Nj. W. Wiley.
 This student was above the average in innate mental power. For three years he had done well in college, and continued to do we'll until the spring term of the fourth, his senior year. Then he found it unaccount- ably difficult not merely to attend to his studies, but to keep awake while studying. Continually he grew sleepier. His normal
  Now he found it necessary to go. to bed at seven or eight o'clock and would then sleep to seven the next morning. All day. too, he was more or less sleepy, despite taking long nap after lunch.
 There was no physical reason for this Medical examinations gave him clean bill of health. Psychological inquiry, on the other hand, revealed that he was beset by worry.
 He had fallen in love- but had not dared to declare himself to the young lady of his affection, fearing that he had not made a favorable impression on her and would be re- iected. Consequently he tortured himself with distressing thoughts, to such an extent that it was possible to interpret his sleep mess as a means of escape from these.
 "Nothing venture. nothing win." was in effect the advice given him. To his joy the student then discovered that his love was reciprocated. and with the engagement to marry he forthwith obtained release from the oppressive tendency to sleep.
 Such case is no doubt exceptional. But it brings into clear relief the importance of always reckoning with the flight motive in seemingly inexplicable instances of morbid sleepiness.