| II.
Background: |
Inability
to sleep is known as insomnia. It is common among old
people, people who work with their brains and people disturbed
by worries, and it may give rise to considerable fatigue
and distress. Sleep is generally held to vary not only
in duration but in depth. The amount of sleep which a
person needs to maintain himself in full health has never
been ascertained with certainty, and appears to vary considerably
with age, with individuals, and even race. With the exception
of babies few grown-ups can be totally free of insomnia
in modern society because civilized people are not exempt
from worries, anxieties and sorrows which often cause
sleeplessness.
The pattern of sleep and wakefulness in men is closely
related to their general habits of life and their moods.
It is now known that the state of wakefulness depends
upon the activity of a part of the brain called the “reticular
formation”, which transmits nervous regions of the forebrain.
J. B. Priestley is here not dwelling upon the subject
of insomnia from a scientific or medical point of view.
He is using sleeplessness as an example to illustrate
the contrariness of things and the large bundle of contradictions
a man is confronted with. And humor, as he says, is the
saving grace of us, and it is the touch of humor that
makes the essay appealing to the reader. 
|
| |
|
