William C. Dement 398738 224706809 2008-07-10T01:33:24Z Lightbot 7178666 Units/dates/other '''William C. Dement''' MD PhD (born 1928), is a pioneering [[United States|US]] [[sleep]] researcher, and founder of the Sleep Research Center, the world's first sleep laboratory, at [[Stanford University]]. He is a leading authority on sleep, [[sleep deprivation]], and the diagnosis and treatment of [[sleep disorder]]s such as [[sleep apnea]] and [[narcolepsy]]. In the 1950s as a medical student, he was the first to intensively study the connection between [[Rapid eye movement sleep|rapid eye movement]] and [[dreaming]], after his fellow student [[Eugene Aserinsky]] mentioned to him that "Dr. [[Nathaniel Kleitman|Kleitman]] and I think these eye movements might be related to dreaming". Aserinsky, along with his and Dement's adviser [[Nathaniel Kleitman]]) had previously noticed the connection but as physiologists, hadn't considered it very interesting. Dement had an interest in [[psychiatry]], which in those days considered dreams to be important, so he was excited by the discovery and was eager to pursue it. He began his work in sleep deprivation at [[Mount Sinai Hospital, New York|Mount Sinai Hospital]] in the late 1950s &ndash; the early 1960s. He was among the first researchers to study sleeping subjects with the [[electroencephalogram]] (EEG), and he wrote "I believe that the study of sleep became a true scientific field in 1953, when I finally was able to make all-night, continuous recordings of brain and eye activity during sleep." From studying these recordings, he discovered and named the five [[Sleep#Stages of sleep|stages of sleep]].<ref name=Promise>{{cite book|author=Dement, William C.; and Christopher Vaughan |title=The Promise of Sleep: A Pioneer in Sleep Medicine Explores the Vital Connection Between Health, Happiness, and a Good Night's Sleep |publisher=Dell Trade Paperbacks |id=ISBN 0-440-50901-7 |year=1999}} pp. 35-38.</ref>. In collaboration with Dr. [[Christian Guilleminault]], Dement proposed the measure that is still used for the clinical definition of sleep apnea and rating its severity, the [[Apnea/Hyponea Index (AHI)]].<ref name=Promise>{{cite book|author=Dement, William C.; and Christopher Vaughan |title=The Promise of Sleep: A Pioneer in Sleep Medicine Explores the Vital Connection Between Health, Happiness, and a Good Night's Sleep |publisher=Dell Trade Paperbacks |id=ISBN 0-440-50901-7 |year=1999}} pp. 174.</ref> Each year from 1971 until 2003 (when he retired) he taught the popular "Sleep and [[Dreams]]" course at Stanford University. He has come out of retirement for three of the four years from 2003 to 2007 to teach the class again. At the conclusion of the 2006 class he handed out t-shirts with his resemblance on the front and "drowsiness is Red Alert" on the back.<ref>{{Citation | last = Holt | first = Chris | title = The Big Sleep and Dreams | newspaper = [[The Stanford Daily]] | pages = 1 | year = 2006 | date = May 1, 2006}}</ref> Dement has been spending a great deal of time focusing on spreading information about the danger of driving when drowsy and [[Sleep apnea| obstructive sleep apnea]].{{Fact|date=January 2008}} In 1975 he launched the ''American Sleep Disorders Association'', now known as the [[American Academy of Sleep Medicine]], and served as president for its first twelve years. In that same year he and [[Mary Carskadon]] invented the [[Multiple Sleep Latency Test]] used to measure sleepiness, a test of how quickly people fall asleep, [[sleep onset latency]], during several daytime opportunities. He was also chairman of the [[National Commission on Sleep Disorders Research]], whose final report led directly to the creation of a new agency within the [[National Institutes of Health]], the [[National Center on Sleep Disorders Research]]. Dement is the author of numerous books, including ''The Promise of Sleep''<ref name=Promise/> and ''The Sleepwatchers'', and has written the first undergraduate textbook in the field.{{Fact|date=January 2008}} Before beginning his academic career, he was a jazz musician who played with [[Quincy Jones]].{{Fact|date=January 2008}} He lives with his family in northern [[California]]. ==See also== *[[Sleep]] *[[Sleep disorder]] *''[[Wake Up America: A National Sleep Alert]]'' ==References== <references /> ==External links== *[http://med.stanford.edu/profiles/William_Dement/ Stanford School of Medicine profile] *[http://www.stanford.edu/~dement/ The Sleep Well] *[http://www.mysleepcenter.com/promise_of_sleep.html Review of ''The Promise of Sleep''] {{DEFAULTSORT:Dement, William C.}} [[Category:1928 births]] [[Category:Living people]] [[Category:Sleep researchers]] [[Category:Stanford University faculty]] [[Category:University of Washington alumni]] [[Category:University of Chicago alumni]] [[Category:Medicine]] [[Category:Physicians]]