In a previous publication,1 we reported that the average basal metabolism determined on a group of vigorous normal children showed an increase of 10 per cent above the standards reported by Benedict.1a In this earlier series of experiments, the children were kept awake but strictly quiet, the kymographic record showing absence of all muscular activity. Benedict does not give figures to show the prevalence of wakefulness in the children in his series but intimates, at least, that many of them were asleep. In order to determine the degree of difference between basal metabolism while children were asleep and awake, the present investigation was undertaken.
Little work has been reported on the actual differences in the same person under these circumstances. In his study of a fasting man, Benedict2 found an average increase of 12 per cent in the oxygen consumption while he was awake, as compared with