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Weekend


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September 16, 2005

Strange But True!

  • A weekly column of incidental information, off-the-wall observations and other random facts about the world.
    • By BILL SONES and RICH SONES, Ph.D.
    Special to the Journal

    Q. Right now, can you say what time it is without checking? If you needed to awaken at a certain predetermined time without an alarm clock, could you do it?

    A. You could if you have an uncanny "time sense" like British physician Winslow Hall, who out of 100 sleep trials (1927) was able to awaken himself within 15 minutes of the target time more than half the time, and exactly right (within a minute) 18 times, says Jay Ingram in "The Velocity of Honey." Many claim to be able to do this, and sleep labs have backed them up. Probably it's done by somehow keeping track of dream (REM) periods through the night.


     
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