A WORLD WITHOUT SLEEP

New Zealand Times, Volume LIII, Issue 12615, 27 November 1926, Page 11

A WORLD WITHOUT SLEEP

AMAZING RESULTS OF NEW DISCOVERY

IT is evident from these experiments that from ten to twelve minutes ! complete sleep is enough for the ordinary individual. AH the rest of the ! time spent in bed, according to this ; discovery, is more or less wasted. A I man with his system properly “tuned” 1 should be capable of over twentv- ; three hours’ efficiency per day. j As a result of these experiments, : the fantastical proposal is now put forj ward that, either by injection, by | auto-suggestion, or by some similar : means the “new” sleep is to bo “ad- ! ministered” to individuals, thus setI ting free the many hours “wasted” in j incomplete rest. j ENORMOUS CHANGES j It is claimed that onco the principle * of “tabloid” sleep is fully recognised, the whole world will be forced into line over it, and the result would re- ! volutionise civilisaton. For, assuming 1 that eight hours a day is still devoted i to work, there would still remain more | than fifteen hours for active use. j The increased illumination required 1 j for. the nights would make enormous j ! demands on electricity organisations, i I and the use of water power for the I | generation of current would have to I be seriously considered. | Nearly half the available housing space in civilised countries would be j 6et free, for bedrooms would become j tilings of the past. » An inevitable slump in the value i of house property would be one of ! the first results of the change. j A largo proportion of the furnish- | ing industries would cease operations j as bedsteads, bedding, and similar I commodities would be no longer j necessary. NEVER WHOLLY AT REST j Conversely, four or five meals pet j day would become a necessity, so that ; an enormous impetus would be given | to the production of all kinds of food- I stuffs. With the life of the individual j lengthened by about one-third (since j from seven to eight hours of activity j would be added to every day) tbe in- ! creased expenditure of energy would j have to be balanced by more meals. No community would be able to retain what is now considered the normal j period of sleep without Inj >ipg to I barbarism, for all would bn in com- I petition with the tabloid sleepers. j A “Sunday Chronicle” represen ta- » tive, introducing the subject to Pro- • feasor A. M. Low, the distinguished j scientist and inventor, was told that: I “Tt is a generally accepted fact that , no part of tbe body is ever totally at j rest.”

The day may be at hand when, in place of sleeping from seven to eight hours every night, we shall take our sleep in “tabloid” form and have twenty-three out of twenty-four hours available for work and pleasure (writes Professor A. M. Low). Physicians and scientists have just completed a series of amazing experiments on upwards of 200 sleeping people, with a view to ascertaining the amount of real sleep required to keep in health. It was found that the full period of complete mental and muscular respose averaged only eleven and a half minutes! ; Out of the seven or eight I hours spent in bed, only eleven I and a half minutes were of real j benefit to the sleeper.

I “The time of eleven and a half 1 minutes stated is as measured hv cerI tain apparatus,” said Professor Low, 1 “but a different set of apparatus might and probably would have dis- , covered movement in the time in question, and thus proved that the subjects of the experiment never slept at all. “That is not to say that the period of sleep cannot be reduced. Savages sleep for long periods, but are sensitive to sound all the time. Civilised people tend to take their sleep in smaller and smaller doses, for this is an age of speeding up, in sleep as well as in everything else. SLEEP BY RADIO “There is no reason why, in the future, highly concentrated doses of sleep should not be broadcasted for everybody. Life itself is due to some form of wav© operation, and it is quite possible that the sleep of the future may be controlled by electrical treatment. “it may be necessary, too, for the man of to-morrow to wear some sort of protector against rays of various sorts. It is practically certain that wireless rays have a definite effect on all forms of life—experiment has proved that corn grows faster in the neighbourhood of wireless stations than elsewhere. “The day may be at hand when we shall require protectors in our hours of rest, not only against wireless and television, but against telepathic rays as well.

DREAM WASTE “Again, it is quite possible that the man of to-morrow may compose himself, switch on his brief period of concentrated sleep, and set a dial v which will not only waken him, but give him wu'eless pictures and a talk regarding what has happened in his hour or so of rest.” Training for totality of sleep is no new thing to the Far Eastern races. Tbe relaxation of every muscle of the body in preparation for rest is a scientific study in Japan, where, when a man lies down to sleep, he is enjoying ; perfectly complete rest within five ; minutes, or less. \ _ If the mind, or any organ of the body, is functioning as in waking hours, it is not sleep in the full sense of the word. The time spent in dreams is wasted, for though the body is quies* cent the brain is using up energy instead of resting. SUB-CONSCIOUS MARVELS “‘The possibilities of the sub-con-scious mind have not yet been fully explored,” Professor Low stated in this connection. “It is common knowledge that, with the sub-conscious mind dominant as it is in dreams, it is possible to experience the happenings of a very long period in a very few minutes—a dream which seems to last hours is in reality a matter of n minute or two. “Quite possibly the effect of several hours of sleep may he achieved in very few minutes by the scientific direction of the sub-conscious mind, through which it may be possible to supply the results of eight hours rest in as many minutes. “With the conscious mind dominating and impelling the body, man is subject to the limitation of time in the fullest degree. But we do not know the extent to which he can be rendered independent of the time dimension by the dominance of the sub-conscious mind.” TIRED ON WAKING An instance of this is the well, attested fact of fatigue through dreaming of laborious effort. Many people, after dreaming of strenuous exercise or work, waken with tbe actual fatiguing effects perceptible, as if they had undergone hours of toil, when as a matter of fact the dreams in question were experienced in two or throe minutes, or even less time. The reverse of this effect, by the ns© of the sub-conscious mind to create the sense of a long period of complete rest in a very brief time, would make “tabloid” sleep a reality at once.