Human Sleeping Pill

We go back to college in this cartoon, where we see a young student shaking hands with a university professor. (We often use college and university interchangeably in American English, meaning one word can substitute for the other.) The professor is holding a briefcasein his left hand. The two of them are standing just outside what looks like a classroom (you can see the desks behind the professor’s back, inside the room).

The student says to the professor, “Your lectures cured my sleep disorder.” A lecture is a formal talk or explanation given usually by a teacher or professor. To cure means to make a sick person healthy or well. We usually talk about “curing someone of” a disease. A sleep disorder is some condition that prevents you from sleeping well or normally. 

So, the student is telling the professor that his lectures are so boring, or uninteresting, that he can fall asleep. The lectures have “cured” his sleep disorder, since he can now sleep! 

The title of the cartoon, “The Human Sleeping Pill,” refers to the professor, whose lectures are like a pill (medicine) you take to help you sleep.