ABSTRACT
IF we were required to find out whether someone is asleep what should we look for? It would be things of this sort: that he is recumbent, his eyes are closed, his breathing regular, his body mainly inert, and that he does not react to various sounds and movements in his vicinity to which he would normally react if awake. If he was whistling, writing, staring at the window, examining a map, or conversing we should not say he was asleep. Our ordinary application of the word ‘asleep’ is not guided by any consideration of what is going on in someone’s cranium, spinal column or other inward parts, but rather by how his body is disposed and by his behaviour or lack of it. Another thing we consider is how sleepy he looks and acts when ostensibly waking up from ostensible sleep. We expect him to be somewhat dazed or groggy and not, for a few moments at least, able to perceive and take in things with normal acuteness.
