Booth's Mental health

[RJNorton]

Hi Jenny. Sleeplessness seemed to have an unusual effect on me. I coached basketball for 8 years in the school where I taught. Oftentimes I had trouble sleeping the night before games. Sometimes I was awake the whole night. During those 8 years I had only two technicals called on me. Both came during games when I had zero sleep the night before. The effect was that I talked more rapidly than normal to the team, yelled at the players more when mistakes were made, and yelled at the refs more when I disagreed with a call. Lack of sleep definitely made me hyper. My mind tended to race. I was also that way in college when I was up all night studying for finals - I'd be hyper the next day for the tests. When I get too much sleep it's just the opposite - I actually get sleepy the day after a night with too much sleep.

So this is why I am wondering if Booth got no sleep on the night of the 13th whether there was an effect. Why, when writing his mother at 2:00 A.M., would he include the words, "Excuse brevity; am in haste." Was his mind racing?