" STATES OF PERSONALITY."
[To THE EDITOR OF THE " SPECTATOR."' 4IR,-1 know you have sometimes been interested in "states of personality.". The following experience (the second of its kind I have had) may be worth recording. Last night I took three or four hours' sleep on the floor of an office. I had had twenty-four hours of considerable office work, combined with mental strain. I went to sleep easily, and then repeatedly found myself in the state of being mentally awake and bodily asleep. I made strenuous efforts to wake myself up (mainly, I think, because it annoyed me to find I had no control over my body). Once, I think, I succeeded after a great struggle, but after that I failed, and in the end gave up the effort because it became so painful. I was not at all heavily asleep. The step of an orderly outside woke me at once; but I was conscious and unable to move. I said to myself : "There is no doubt I ant awake. I remember the binomial theorem- (a-I-1)2 is a2et2ab+b2. And I can remember poetry-
' The curfew tolls the knell of parting day,
The lowing Ind winds slowly :o'er the lea' "— and I tried again. I concentrated on opening my eyes. I was sleeping beside a deal table leg,. on which the light shone. Once I got one eye open a little way, and began to get a glimmer of the table leg, but had to give it up. I tried to wake myself by kitting my hand on the floor. I couldn't move my band. I said to myself, " If I make myself talk, that will wake me." I don't know if I succeeded in talking in my sleep, but .I didn't wake. Then another orderly came along the duck-boards, and I awoke
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