sleep

[A.S. sleep.] physiological state of relative unconsciousne and inaction of the voluntary muscles, the need of which recurs periodically. It is a period of regeneration of the higher nervous system and of muscular ti ue, the nutritive and metabolic proce es continuing. The number of hours in the twenty-four given to sleep varies from six or seven in the aged to twelve or fourteen in the infant, the average for the male adult being eight and for the female adult nine, these figures varying somewhat with the individual, elec'tric s., a condition of unconsciousne induced by the pa age of a Leduc* current through the brain. paroxys'mal s., sleep epilepsy, narcolepsy; a sudden uncontrollable disposition to sleep occurring at irregular intervals, with or without obvious predisposing or exciting cause.