Self-study
Support The kind of thoughts that keep a person from falling asleep can arise in either half of the brain. ██████████ █ ██████ █████ █████████ ████ ████████ ██████ ██ ████ ████████ █████ ██ ████ ██ ████ ██████ ██ ███████ ███ ████ ███ ████████ ██████ ███████ ████ ████████ █████ ████████ ███ ████ ████ ██ ███ █████ ████ ████████ ███ ███ █████ ████ ██ ███ █████ ████ █████████ ██████ ███████ █████████ ███ ████████████████ █████████
Summary
The author concludes that a person who’s prevented from falling asleep solely because of thoughts would be able to fall asleep by closing their eyes and counting sheep.
Why?
Because the kind of thoughts that keep someone from falling asleep arise in either half of the brain. And counting sheep in one’s mind occupies the left half of the brain with counting, and the right half of the brain with imagining sheep. This keeps the brain from thinking about the sleep-preventing thoughts.
Notable Assumptions
The author assumes that one can fall asleep even when one is thinking about counting sheep.
7.
According to the hypothesis, for █ ██████ ██ ███ ████████ █████████ █████ ██ ██ █████████ ██████ ██ ████████ ██████ █████ ███ ██ ███ █████████ ████ ██ █████
a
The person is ████ ██ ███████ █ ████ ███████ ██ ███████
Not necessary, because the argument advocates thinking about counting sheep. Even if someone cannot imagine a wide variety of things, as long as they can imagine sheep, the argument can still work.
b
The person normally ███ █ █████████ ████ ███████ ███████
Not necessary, because even if someone doesn’t normally have a difficult time falling asleep, they can still use the sheep-counting method when they do have trouble falling asleep.
c
Thoughts of sheep █████ ███ ████ ███ ██████ █████ ██ ████ █████
Necessary, because if it were not true — if thoughts of sheep WOULD keep the person awake at that time — the a person would NOT be able to fall asleep by closing their eyes and counting sheep.
d
Thoughts of sheep █████ ██████ █████ ██ ███ ██████ ████████ █████ ████████ ██████
Not necessary, because the argument concerns a situation in which someone is prevented from sleeping by other thoughts. The author believes counting sheep is a solution in that circumstance. That doesn’t imply the author believes counting sheep induces sleep every time, even in cases when someone wasn’t being prevented from sleeping by other thoughts.
e
Thoughts of sheep ███████ ██ █████ █████ ██ ███ ████████ ███████
Not necessary, because the content of someone’s dreams has no relationship to the reasoning. The argument concerns how to handle thoughts preventing someone from sleeping. Once someone is already asleep, the author’s argument no longer applies.