IS SLEEP INTOXICATION?

Hauraki Plains Gazette, Volume XXXVII, Issue 4924, 11 January 1926, Page 1

IS SLEEP INTOXICATION?

NEW THEORY ADVANCED. RESEARCH BY SCIENTISTS. A theory that sleep may be nothing more .than intoxication, and that bj cultivating better ha : bits humanity may Lessen the hours so spent, was advanced by George Washington University scientists who conducted a recent test on eight students The finding was tentative and the research work will be continued, but meanwhile the scientists say .that if the results, pointed, toi any one theory of si@ep it Was that of natural intoxication, caused by the storing of poisons: in the human system during the. wakeful hours. When'the drunkard becomes intoxicated, they said, he sleeps, and generally wakes up. detoxified. In the case of the students, microscopical examination showed their blood changes corresponded .to those of a drunken man, and that their trouble was cured by a 'short period of sleep. The students were kept awake for sixty hours. It was found .that insomnia played havoc with the visual senses, phantoms being reported by some, and various distortions! of objects by Others. A single night’s loss, of sfleep did not affect the ability of the subjects to drive an automobile, but they became rather dangerous drivers on the second night. This was explained as due to their tendency to drop off to sleep while listening to the rhythm of the motor. Their mental faculties and muscles remained up to standard.

It is quite possible, the scientists said, that through force of habit one person is. able to obtain 100 units of sleep in half the time required by others.

“Tn short,’’ they said, “sleep has not only length but depth-

“If this assumption be true, the length of time that people steep is very largely a question of habit. X’t might be possible to cause their sleeping mechanisms to wbrk faster, just asi by a series of condition reflexes we can make the sajivarv glands work faster.”