User reviews

This is a delightful short that packs more laughs into ten minutes than you'll get from some feature-length comedies. Although it's been shown occasionally on the Turner Channel, How to Sleep was hard to find in a home-viewable format until recently, when it was included as a special feature in the new DVD release of the Marx Brothers' A Night at the Opera. Robert Benchley's low-key, whimsical humor serves as a nice lead-in to the Marxes' more aggressive style of comedy.

Mr. Benchley acts as our affable host/narrator, covering such topics as 1) the causes of sleep, 2) methods of inducing sleep, 3) methods of avoiding sleep, and 4) how to wake up, which, we're told, "is very important." But this is no dry academic lecture. Our host, who happens to sport the most outlandish pajamas ever designed, helpfully serves as actor as well, demonstrating various positions such as the Supine Curl, the Ventrolateral Sprawl, and the Sleeping-Sitting Standing Crouch. He is aided in his analysis of sleep by some highly amusing animated segments.

This is a film better seen than described. I only wish I could enjoy it with a large audience in a theater, as it must be a real crowd-pleaser. How to Sleep won the Oscar for Best Short Subject of 1935, and led to Benchley's series of how-to short comedies for MGM and Paramount (including How to Read, How to Eat, etc.), but this one may well be the very best of his output. Heartily recommended.

Anyone can easily relate to HOW TO SLEEP, especially if you've spent a sleepless night in a thousand different positions as illustrated by Benchley in this '35 short subject.

In this good natured spoof, he starts out trying a hot bath but never gets beyond sticking his toe in the warm water before draining the water out and deciding to go back to bed. Similarly, when he decides to get a drink of warm milk, he ends up snacking on leftovers in the refrigerator, defeating his purpose.

It goes on in this vein with water dripping from a faucet being the final annoyance that keeps him awake. Finally, he's just about to fall asleep when the alarm clock rings and it's a lost cause.

As a fellow insomniac, I found it was most amusing when he demonstrated all the sleeping positions someone goes through when they toss and turn. Funny stuff with the usual dry commentary from Benchley.

The only thing tougher than having to follow the Marx Brothers is having to go on before them. How to Sleep was one of 3 short films that opened for A Night at the Opera and A Day at the Races. For an 11 minute short, it is just long enough to keep the attention of an audience member from 1935 and 2005. Many of the short musicals and comedies that ran 20 - 30 minutes sometimes failed to hold its audiences attention before the main feature. How to Sleep is an original and interesting 'moc'umentary about how to fall asleep. A quick taste test before the real meal, How to Sleep is still funny to an audience 80 years later. Robert Benchley is great as a leading man who is funny be acting serious.

A sleep expert (Robert Benchley) presents a lecture speaking directly into the camera and then he's acting out what he's saying. Robert Benchley is considered a humorist. He's not a real actor. He's slightly fun. This is slightly quirky. It's slightest of slight humor. They're not actual laughs but they have just enough light fun.

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.

'How to Sleep' is the Oscar-winning short comedy for the year 1935. It is a mockumentary, one of the earliest I have seen myself, on how to fall asleep. The narrator speaks about a man who has trouble falling asleep and we get to see the man and his actions. From time to time the narrator puts in a joke with references to alcoholics and the fictional names for events on the screen including sleeping positions.

It is amazing how funny this short film still is. Apparently in cinemas it was shown before Marx Brothers-films and it may not be a coincidence that their films still work today as well. It is not too long, keeps our attention quite easily and gives us many smiles and some good laughs. If you have the chance to see it then do so.

Robert Benchley narrates with voice over, and then acts the various scenarios in this comedy short. Here he sleep walks, tries warm mile, counts sheep and tosses and turns to try to get to sleep. All with good humor. I've always liked Benchley over some other common narrators of the short fillers for feature films in the mid-20th century. His straight-faced, somber delivery with just a slight cynicism is always worth a smile at least. Benchley made 50 shorts from 1928 to 1945 - most of them in the late 1930s and early 1940s. He visited the doctor, trained a dog, showed how to sub-let a room or apartment, how to raise a baby. Many of these "How to" briefs were hilarious renditions of how not to do something - as in "How to Take a Vacation."

Robert Benchley discusses the subject of sleep in four parts: 1 - the causes of sleep; 2 - the methods of inducing sleep; 3 - methods of avoiding sleep and, finally, 4 - how to wake up ("which is the most important," he notes.)

Early on this showed promise to a funny "short," but it really wasn't. After five or six minutes, it got simply boring. The third segment comprised most of the overall time and went on way too long. Yes, some of it was mildly amusing, mainly the names he put to various sleepng positions, but that's about it.

Actually, as someone who has a lot of trouble sleeping, it was amazing: this short film almost put me to sleep!

Nick Grinde's How to Sleep is an instructional video on the common practices of winding down, falling asleep, waking up in the middle of the night, and, finally, waking up in the morning to start another day, written with a brilliantly wry comedic focus. Our subject is played by Robert Benchley, as he narrates over an average person's (also played by Benchley) sleep routine, poking fun at the many positions we tend to contort ourselves in while resting, and even mocking the conventions of taking a hot bath with pine fragrance, drinking warm milk, and counting sheep.

During the short, Benchley treads the line of being serious while being playful, creating a short film that merges both approaches into a devilishly fun short. Benchley exerts a great deal of energy, striving to be all that he can be in a short film that demands a lot of energy despite the fact that it's about the process in which one falls asleep. How to Sleep is a short that, when you watch it, you laugh heartily until you recall how there are far too few of these kinds of shorts being replicated in the present.

Starring: Robert Benchley. Directed by: Nick Grinde.

This thing won an oscar for best short comedy ! Another How to instruction lesson by Peter Benchley; in this one, he talks about the the common issues of getting to sleep, insomnia, and even how to wake up! Pretty dry by today's standards, but it's entertaining enough. Written and acted by Benchley. Directed by Nick Grinde, who also directed Ron Reagan in one of his first films - Love is In the Air. Not much info out there on Grinde... where did he go after 1945? He would have been around 50. Still pretty young! He passed away in 1979.

Nick Grinde's Academy Award-winning "How to Sleep" comes across as the type of short that "Mystery Science Theater 3000" would've riffed. It features humorist Robert Benchley (the grandfather of "Jaws" author Peter Benchley) discussing ways of going to sleep and remaining in the nightly unconscious state. The humor is mainly derived from the protagonist's inability to get any sleep, even as he tries numerous poses in the bed.

It's not bad, but certainly nothing special. It must've been a shock for movie-going audiences in 1935 to go from this subdued humor to the Marx Brothers' anarchic humor.

It might sound like an oxymoron, but doing something as simple as going to sleep isn't always so easy. This short from the 1930s shows how even back in these times, people had problems going to bed, even if you just lay there thinking about how tired you are. In fact, this issue was probably worse in the past, as people didn't have access to white noise or other calming sounds whenever they wanted on the internet. The short starts by saying sleep is induced when blood circulation slows down in your brain. Oftentimes what happens is you'll hear something in the middle of the night and you don't know what it is. This will in turn most likely make you spiral into an array of thoughts about what the sound could have been, and those thoughts lead to others. Your mind is now wide awake and it is impossible to go back to bed. Constantly worrying about things is also a good way to keep yourself up. Some people suffer from a form of sleeplessness in which they are not only unable to fall asleep, they cannot remain in bed. It is often accompanied by feelings of suffocation, and happens if you drink too much. The only way to get around this is to not go to sleep at all. We then see a series of photographs taken during a study, where it is shown that a man changed his sleeping position over 50 times during an 8 hour period, which believe it or not is normal. In a comical time lapse, we see the guy sleeping changes positions unconsciously about every 10 or so minutes. It almost defeats the whole reason of going to bed. Lastly, we see how important it is to not become fully conscious if you get up in the middle of the night to drink something. On his way back to bed after getting some water, the man trips over his shoes and lands in the bed, causing him to become wide awake. Once you're in this mental state, you will most likely not be able to get back to bed (until 20 seconds before you need to get up for work, that is). As somebody who is in the habit of rarely willing to go to bed (since there's not enough time in a day to do everything you want), I thought this was a good short. It actually won an Oscar for best comedy short. Robert Benchley had plenty of experience with this as his contract mandated he make a bunch of shorts for Metro Goldwyn during the 30s. The part where he goes over how you are destined to fall asleep right when you're supposed to get up couldn't be more accurate, as sometimes, even going to bed early will not save you from feeling horrible in the morning. Being woken up from a deep rest early in the daytime is such an awful feeling since you're going from one extreme (total lack of senses) to another way too fast, and I never got used to it. Overall, this short shows how important sleep is, since without it, not only does your mind not match up with what you're doing, but you can't really do anything effectively. Not sleeping completely screws with your behavior and well being.

In this film, raconteur and professional clever-guy Robert Benchly gives a lecture on sleep and insomnia. It's intended to be a comedy and his droll delivery as he gave his long-winded speech apparently made people fall into the aisles laughing. Benchley has had a reputation for being one of the cleverest men in Hollywood. And, as a reward for his incredible cleverness, HOW TO SLEEP received the Oscar for Best for Best Short Subject, Comedy. He also had a long contract with MGM to produce similar shorts and he made a bunch of them. However, today, many decades later, I was struck by how painfully dull and unfunny this award-winning film was. Sure, I saw that several reviewers liked it, but I was in agreement with ccthemovieman-1--it was a terrible film! There were no real laughs throughout the entire 11 minutes--just Benchley narrating and acting like he was dang clever while we were treated to film of him and some other guy in bed (not together--this would have made the film a lot more interesting, though!). Not a single laugh or interesting moment. For more laughs, watch an army training film or a public health video about venereal disease.

Witty columnist and theatre critic Robert Benchley hit on a splendid idea with this Oscar winning short.

Running Time: 11 minutes!

I have to tell you. The story about getting a solid nights sleep here speaks volumes, short and sweet. Inspiration to writers and producers who have labored for years in attempting to put across their point (or message) in one or two hours in comparison! Benchley's son, Nathaniel, claimed his dad took over the assignment at MGM from producer Pete Smith (famous for his series of short films), because he was out sick. The best move he ever made.

Robert Benchley simply told it like it is, perhaps from personal experience -- with a wink and a nod -- the Good, the Bad and the Ugly of sleeping. Consider taking a hot bath, sipping some nice, warm milk, or how about counting SHEEP? Only Benchley with his wry sense of humor, and that determined look on his face (about to laugh out loud?), could put this across. Don't miss the alarm clock! He does it beautifully.

Directed by B film master Nick Grinde, although Nick probably just let the camera roll. Benchley was the ideal host. MGM was so impressed they assigned him to their "How To..." short film series, a rival to the antics of Pete Smith and his offbeat material.

Followed by "How to Behave?" MGM/1936.

Thank you TCM for showing these golden oldies after many years. On remastered dvd with a collection of Robert Benchley's other short subject films.

Just watched this comedy short on the A Night at the Opera DVD. It has Robert Benchley narrating and acting the many ways one tries to sleep or what to do if you can't. There's also some animation here to aid in some of the humor like showing a brain or sheep one tries counting as they jump over the fence. I found the whole very funny and it was a nice surprise this won the Oscar for Best Short Film. Another bit I liked was when Benchley the narrator was being talked back by Benchley the actor! Really, it's not very easy to describe what happens here and I really don't want to as it would ruin the surprise of it all! So on that note, I highly recommend How to Sleep.

How to Sleep (1935)

** 1/2 (out of 4)

Robert Benchley made dozens of shorts in his career and this here is perhaps the best known. One reason is the title and subject itself but another is the fact that this was Best Short Subject at the Oscars. In the film Benchley explains that sleep comes from the blood flowing out of the brain. The comedian then explains some of the possible ways to make this happen before he turns his attention to the many positions one sleeps in at night. I'd be lying if I said this short deserved an Oscar but in its own way it's pretty clever and it certainly ranks as one of the best in the "How to..." series. I think this one benefits from the subject matter as well as some neat animation used. One example is when we see the blood leaving the brain and another happens later when Benchley is counting sheep. Neither thing is going to make you forget Walt Disney but it was a nice added touch. There are some pretty funny moments here including one where Benchley discusses the various positions someone is in while asleep and mentions that a normal person moves over fifty times a night.