SIX HOURS' SLEEP.

Horowhenua Chronicle, 5 February 1936, Page 4

SIX HOURS' SLEEP.

SCIENTIST'S FINDING.

LESS WITHOUT HARM SAN FRANCISCO, January 4. Six hours' sleep is no worse than an eight-hour "good, night's rest." That is; if you sleep "in instalments"— three hours in bed, awake the next three hours, and to 'bed. again for the following three hours'. With a girl student volunteering as a. human "guinea pig" for two months of tests, that's the conclusion readied; by Dt. Richard Wellington Husband, University of Wisconsin psychologist. He has been staying awake nights, with other scientists trying to figure out if sleep is a "pure waste of time," as some people seem to think. He hasn't definitely answered that one. But how about the hours one sleeps being a matter of habit, "so that most of us could cut down without harm?" His answer is. Yes!

Miss Helen Hose, a senior student, was the girl who "offered to sacrifice 'herself" to carry out the experiments, «Dr. Husband reports in the December issue of the Journal of Experimental [.Psychology.

S|lie slept eight' consecutive hours nightly for one month. Each night of the following month she slept three hours, from 11 to 2 o'clock; stayed awake the next three hours, writing, studying, sewing, etc., and then slept three more hours, from 5 to 8 .o'clock.

Each Saturday morning she was given eleven mental and physical tests, involving speed and accuracy, and also a physical examination.

Difference in performance between the two periods was "very negligible."

In tests requiring learning, improvement continued in spite of the change •in the sleep routine. Health remained excellent. Only one minor cold occurred —and that was during the month of normal sleep.