Evening star., 1925-11-28
SLEEP Is INT0XICATION
CAUSED BY P0lSONS,
EXPERIMENT INDICATES
Continued from First PageJ

was doing standing by the steps OF
the university building. AS l walked
out TO him he proved TO be the post
supporting the banister. They We're
all 80 vivid that | remembered them
well enough to tell the rest of the
students about them"
This abnormal reaction. the scien-
fists in charge concluded. was Oh
yiously due to visual conditions. An
other of the students clearly saw
phantoms. Their theory of the resc-
tion was that their ewes actually
visus hzed figures that their brains
were thinking of and made the
shadowy figures seem 80 real that
they actually tried TO walk up and
talk to the Illusions.
1t was with the visual senses. the
doctors found. that insomnia. PLAYED
the most havoc. Little or no loss ot
mental alertness was discovered by
the most arduous sort of tests. Nor
did the loss OF a single nights sleep
deprive the subjects of their usual
ability TO drive an automobile. ON
the second night. however. they We're
far from safe drivers. constantly
dropping off to sleep momentarily nr.
when Obliged To stay awake. driN-
ing on the wrong side Of the road.
This tendency to drop into uncou-
seriousness was regarded by the Oh
servers as being due To the rhythm
Of the moving car. for when ths stu-
dents were ordered to park the auto
mobiles in small spaces thev di-
PLAYED normal ability. The loss "f
sleep failed 10 deprive the suhieCt<
OF fun use OF their muscles. Dane
ing and singing. 1t was added, were
found n he most conducive wa
fulness.
Should additional tests more def
nitely prove the theory that sleep is
state of intoxication, the question Of
how long a person should sleep simply
resolves itself into the problem OF how
fast one should sleep. 1t is quite pos
sible. the paper added. that through
secure hundred units of sleep in one
half the time required by other per-
length, but depth" the doctors decided.
length but dept" the doctors decided.
IF this assumption be true they
concluded. the length Of time that
people sleep is very largely ques
ton OF habit. 1t might be possible to
cause their sleeping mechanisms 10
work faster. just as by series Of con
ditioned rehexes. we can make the
salivary glands work faster. Another
Is the fact thai the first two hours
of sleep are proved TO he very much
deeper than the last two.
Theory Accounts or Dreams.
This theory would account very
we'll for dreams by placing the
drea ms in one of the stages of sleep
having little depth, at some stage
after the second hour of sleep.
Popular opinion would certainly agree
that dreamless sleep is the best and
most restorative. and most people
believe that whsn they dream in a
normal nights sleep. the dream ming
is done toward the last hour of the
sleeping period.
III by building up new habits. or
by the discovery OF some other means
whereby the amount Of sleep re-
Quired by most persons can he cut
down to six hours instead OF eight
a night. 1t would be possIcie to In
crease our period of productireness
one-f fourth. Whether such an at
tempt would he followed by any in
furious effects on the organism, No
one is at present In a position to
say.
"Only A series of carefully planned
experiments can determine whether
reducing the number of hours of sleep.
II gradually done. produces any bad
results in the organisms. 1t is ex-
pected that the conclusions in this
series of experiments will be checked
in a series Of experiments under bet
ter controlled conditions. and II should
he borne in mind that they are tenta-
tive only"
Prof. F. A. Moss of the department
Of psychology of George Washington
University, was in direct charge of
the experiments. Collaborating with
him were DIR. Oscar B. Hunter, DR..
w. J. Mallory. DR.. John a. Reed, DR..
Joseph Fl. Roe and Prof. James
Defandorf of the Medical School.