Sleepless

"Sleepless tests" conducted upon students at George Washington University (TIME, Aug. 24) came to a close after all those tested had maintained a state of voluntary insomnia for 60 hours. Two of the students, Watson Monroe and Lester Petrie, continued without sleep for 20 hours more. Then, still protesting that they "felt fine," they were bundled off to bed.

Assembled the physicians, psychologists, statisticians to consider the results of the test. Two results seem to be of possible importance. It appears that an increase in the white blood corpuscles (disease germ eaters) takes place after prolonged fatigue; whereas the current clinical supposition had it that the increase was to be noted only on the approach of enemy disease germs. This discovery, if it be such, may lead doctors to refer occasional early diagnoses of incipient disease to mere overwork. The second "discovery" made during the tests is that the sugar contents of the blood under fatigue remains constant--an observation perhaps of some importance in studying cases of diabetes.

Throughout the tests the fanfare of the press was uninterrupted, blatant: "An unmarried couple of the romantic age can remain in each other's presence for 60 hours without sleep and not become irascible . . . Doctors did not say whether a married couple can do the same." Numerous communications from scientists, doctors and cranks were received by those conducting the test.

Laymen held it to be significant that although all of the students tested appeared to finish in good condition, several had for a long time been in the habit of sleeping nightly for only six hours or less. One, Mr. Monroe, who remained awake for 80 hours almost without sign of fatigue, is an individual of such exceptional intelligence that he may well be called supernormal. He passed the Army Alpha test with a score of 196, a mark reached by only one-fifth of one per cent of college students.