Back home

How to Sleep

17 votes

Producing House

A lecturer seated at a desk promises an informative film about how to sleep; it's a sequel to and inspired by "How to stay awake," which put his audience to sleep. He plans to examine the causes of sleep, the causes of insomnia, and recent research on sleep, including a time-lapse film of a man changing positions 55 times during an 8-hour rest: why exercise, he asks, when you can sleep like a top? The film instructs one on how to get a drink of water during the night without waking completely, and other useful skills for the insomniac.

movie

Status: Released

Released Date: 1935-09-14

Runtime: 11 mins

Director: Nick Grindé

Spoken language: English

Genres: Comedy

Original title: How to Sleep

Production Companies: Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer

Production Countries: United States of America

Reviews

G

Geronimo1967
One of life’s imponderables. Why is it that when we have no need to get up in the morning, we can rest easy but when we do, we toss and turn until ten minutes before we need to get up? Well this quite amiable short feature allows Robert Benchley to talk us through the do’s and don’ts of trying to get some sleep. Late night fridge-raiding doesn’t help, nor do dripping taps, or open windows or too much bedding. Apparently, we change positions at night some fifty-five times and using some fun time-lapse photography and an entertaining narration we look at some of the comfortable, foetal and downright ridiculous postures we adopt whilst trying to keep the blood from our brains for seven or eight hours per night. There’s the tiniest bit of science to this, but mainly it’s quite an enjoyable laugh at behaviour that we can all recognise, and when that is put into words it renders our solo night-time acrobatics suitably ridiculous.
2025-06-28

Recommendations

Cashback
3.5

Cashback

2007-01-17

After a painful breakup, Ben develops insomnia. To kill time, he starts working the late night shift

Samba
3.2

Samba

2014-10-15

Samba migrated to France 10 years ago from Senegal, and has since been plugging away at various lowl

The Vicious Kind
3.1

The Vicious Kind

2009-12-11

A man tries to warn his brother away from the new girlfriend he brings home during Thanksgiving, but

Dream for an Insomniac
2.5

Dream for an Insomniac

1996-04-18

A girl with insomnia who works in a coffee house has impossibly high standards for her love and fear

So I Didn't Sleep Very Well Last Night
0

So I Didn't Sleep Very Well Last Night

2022-03-19

An accounting of dreams I’ve had while filtered as a D*sney cartoon.

Bud Abbott and Lou Costello in Hollywood
2.8

Bud Abbott and Lou Costello in Hollywood

1945-10-05

When two bumbling barbers act as agents for a talented but unknown singer, they stage a phony murder

Wild Target
3.2

Wild Target

2010-06-17

Victor Maynard is a middle-aged, solitary assassin who lives to please his formidable mother, despit

No Rest for the Brave
2.8

No Rest for the Brave

2003-11-12

A strange man is involved in a village massacre and drug dealing.

I Can't Sleep Without You
0

I Can't Sleep Without You

2024-07-04

Lisa and Dan share a common disorder: since getting dumped, neither of them has been able to sleep.

Carillon
0

Carillon

2009-11-01

A sleepless man meets a sleepwalker woman. A nocturnal ballad begins in the quiet city of Novi Ligur

Slap me to Sleep
5

Slap me to Sleep

2021-07-16

Three reckless robbers target a chinese mafia club. They do not know, however, that the bartender, t

As Long as You've Got Your Health
3

As Long as You've Got Your Health

1966-02-25

An anthology film consisting of four stories. (1) A man reads a Dracula novel while in bed, but cann

Lucid
1.6

Lucid

2005-09-11

A Canadian therapist has one last chance to keep his own personal life afloat by avoiding a job tran

Sueñinsomnio
0

Sueñinsomnio

2023-08-22

Claudia can't sleep and all kinds of thoughts are flooding her head.

Insomniacs After School
3

Insomniacs After School

2023-06-23

To keep using their school's abandoned observatory as a refuge, two sleepless high school students d

Sleepy-Time Squirrel
3.5

Sleepy-Time Squirrel

1954-06-19

Barney Bear is forced to give hibernation lodgings in his home to his neighbor Jimmy Squirrel, who m

Shuteye Popeye
2.5

Shuteye Popeye

1952-10-03

Popeye's snoring is keeping his resident mouse awake. The mouse fights back.

Bedtime for Sniffles
3.4

Bedtime for Sniffles

1940-11-23

Christmas Eve, and Sniffles is determined to stay awake to see Santa. Not an easy task.

Trap Happy Porky
3.4

Trap Happy Porky

1945-02-23

Porky can't sleep because mice demolish his plates. A cat offers help and gets the mice out, but inv

Popeye Meets Rip Van Winkle
3

Popeye Meets Rip Van Winkle

1941-05-09

Rip Van Winkle is being thrown out for nonpayment of rent (for twenty years). Popeye happens by and