The Good Stuff, a playlist-based online show, kicked off a week-long series about sleep with an interview with well-known sleep researcher William Dement, MD, PhD, who many refer to as the “father of sleep medicine.”
It’s surprising how new the field of sleep research is. As host Matt says about the discovery of rapid eye movement during sleep in the 1950s, “We developed the atom bomb before we noticed people’s eyes were moving while they slept?” Dement was the first to find that we sleep during REM sleep as a medical student at the University of Chicago. He later went on to describe the five stages of sleep as well as to study sleep disorders and the effects of sleep deprivation.
Dement is amusing and charming in the interview, and I feel like I got a glimpse into why Dement’s Sleep and Dreams class at Stanford is so popular.
Part two of the series - which addresses the question "Why do we sleep?" and features Dement and Clete Kushida, MD, PhD, medical director of the Stanford Sleep Medicine Center - was posted today, and parts three and four will be posted later this week.
Previously: “Father of Sleep Medicine” talks with CNN about what happens when we don’t sleep well, Stanford doc gives teens a crash course on the dangers of sleep deprivation, William Dement: Stanford Medicine's "Sandman", Stanford docs discuss all things sleep, Thanks, Jerry: Honoring pioneering Stanford sleep research and An afternoon with bedheads and Deadheads
