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Harms said the students learn what stage of sleep their body entered based on what they can remember from the story he had read aloud.

Some of the students reported entering various stages of sleep or didn't sleep at all. For those who enter later stages and remain asleep after Harms' lesson, Harms kindly lets them sleep a few more minutes and they are gently woken up. They then document their observations and what they experienced chronologically during the story.

\"PHOTO:
Isaac Harms
PHOTO: Students enrolled in Mr. Isaac Harms' psychology course at Murray County Central High School in Minnesota, can sneak in a snooze as part of a unique sleep study lesson the teacher is known for on campus.
>

\"We all thought it was really cool because high schoolers tend to be overtired, so, we got a bit of a nap time,\" said senior Victoria Pierson, 17, who reported entering stage 1 of sleep during Harms' class. \"I honestly think he's the best teacher we have. He's very good about getting the message across rather than memorize or learn it for a test.\"

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A post shared by Mister Harms (@misterharms) on Sep 30, 2019 at 4:18pm PDT

Dr. Rafael Pelayo, sleep specialist at the Stanford Sleep Medicine Center, said Harms' lesson is an effective method of teaching sleep studies.

\"We've been having students fall asleep in our class and giving bonus points for many years,\" Pelayo told \"GMA.\"

Pelayo, author of the upcoming self-help book \"How to Sleep,\" teaches the Sleep and Dreams course to undergraduate students at Stanford.

The course was originally taught by Pelayo's former colleague and friend, William Dement, MD, PhD, who died in June. Dement worked with physiologist Nathaniel Kleitman and graduate student Eugene Aserinsky, and discovered rapid eye movement sleep -- coining the term REM.

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A post shared by Mister Harms (@misterharms) on Oct 5, 2020 at 4:38pm PDT

\"You can never pull this off in a second-grade class, second-grade kids would never fall asleep,\" Pelayo said of Harms' lesson. \"High school kids are sleep deprived. You can only sleep if you're sleepy. That's why what this teacher is doing works, because they're no getting enough sleep.\"

\"This teacher has to be commended,\" Pelayo added. \"Even when sleepy, you can only fall asleep unless you're comfortable and in a safe place. He's known for it and the kids look forward to it. They trust him.\"

Harms said he adopted his sleep lesson from his former teaching mentor. Since sharing the method on Instagram, other teachers have reached out saying they'd like to try it in their class, he said.

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