Self-paced
Support The kind of thoughts that keep a person from falling asleep can arise in either half of the brain. ██████████ █ ██████ █████ █████████ ████ ████████ ██████ ██ ████ ████████ █████ ██ ████ ██ ████ ██████ ██ ███████ ███ ████ ███ ████████ ██████ ███████ ████ ████████ █████ ████████ ███ ████ ████ ██ ███ █████ ████ ████████ ███ ███ █████ ████ ██ ███ █████ ████ █████████ ██████ ███████ █████████ ███ ████████████████ █████████
Summary
The author is recommending a sleep technique. The thoughts that keep a person awake can come from either half of the brain. So, the author reasons, someone kept awake purely by such thoughts could fall asleep by closing their eyes and counting sheep, because that activity loads the left half of the brain with counting and the right half with imagining sheep, leaving no room for the sleep-preventing thoughts.
7.
According to the hypothesis, for █ ██████ ██ ███ ████████ █████████ █████ ██ ██ █████████ ██████ ██ ████████ ██████ █████ ███ ██ ███ █████████ ████ ██ █████
a
The person is ████ ██ ███████ █ ████ ███████ ██ ███████
The method only asks the person to picture sheep, one specific thing, so a wide imaginative range is not required. Someone who cannot imagine a great variety of things could still imagine sheep and use the technique.
b
The person normally ███ █ █████████ ████ ███████ ███████
The argument is about a person who is being kept awake by such thoughts on a given occasion, not about their usual sleeping habits. Whether they normally have trouble falling asleep does not matter, since the technique is for the times when thoughts are keeping them up.
c
Thoughts of sheep █████ ███ ████ ███ ██████ █████ ██ ████ █████
Necessary, because the method works by replacing the sleep-preventing thoughts with thoughts of counting sheep. If thoughts of sheep would themselves keep the person awake at that time, then counting sheep just trades one sleep-blocker for another, and the person still cannot fall asleep. So the technique needs the sheep thoughts to be the kind that do not keep you up.
d
Thoughts of sheep █████ ██████ █████ ██ ███ ██████ ████████ █████ ████████ ██████
This claims more than the method needs. The argument only says counting sheep helps when other thoughts are preventing sleep. It does not require thoughts of sheep to induce sleep in every situation, including times when nothing was keeping the person awake.
e
Thoughts of sheep ███████ ██ █████ █████ ██ ███ ████████ ███████
The content of the person's dreams has nothing to do with the technique, which operates while they are awake and trying to fall asleep. Once the person is asleep, the author's reasoning no longer applies.