<P> The idiom is used in everyday language also as a way of saying that a person may be refreshed by such a sleep . For example Frank De Silva, a member of the 6th Division rescued amongst 8,000 other troops from Greece in 1941 by HMAS Perth, tells of sitting next to a sailor who exhausted falls into a brief deep sleep next to his breakfast before being nudged by those around him . He immediately wakes and says, I just needed that forty winks, and then is able to return to his duties . </P> <P> Finally almost so as to emphasize the link between forty winks and its biblical relationship William Ernest Henley and Robert Louis Stevenson in their play "King's Evidence", at Act III, have the characters Smith and Moore discussing the failings of a third person, Slink Ainslie. Smith says to Moore, Give him forty winks, and he'll turn up as fresh as clean sawdust and as respectable as a new Bible . </P>

Where does the term forty winks come from