|
As I am writing this, I am anticipating the 50th anniversary o f tlie discovery o f
RELMS. For it was in 1951 that Aserinsky and Kleitman, who, while electronically
recording a person's sleep in a University o f Chicago lab, were surprised to notice that
eye movements occurred periodically even when their s~tbjectw as, by all indicators,
completely asleep. Four years later, Bill Dement-then a student o f Kleitman-discovered
the connection between these eye movements during sleep and dreaming
(Dement & Kleitman, 1957). These startling observations began a whole new era o f
interest in the laboratory study o f sleep, dreaming, and subsequently, sleep disorders.
From these pioneering investigations came an explosion o f discoveries and surprises,
frequently leading to revision, including some outright rejection, o f established
notions about sleep, sleeping, dreams, and dreaming.
This explosion o f new information continues today. The number o f articles in
scientific journals about sleep, dreaming, and sleep disorders in the last few decades
easily outnumbers all those that preceded them. New journals devoted to sleep and
dreams have recently been born and a number o f very fine technical books have been
published. However, nothing written within tlie last decade is suitable for use by
undergraduate students as a textbook or course supplement tliat adequately covers
sleep, dreaming, and sleep disorders. This book is intended to fill that void.
I have written this book from several perspectives. First, from the vantage point
o f a researcher in each o f the three areas o f sleep, dreaming, and sleep disorders. I have
included the results o f some o f my research in order to show how knowledge about
these many facets o f sleep has been discovered.
Second, I have written this book out o f my experiences with sleep disorders in
sleep disorders centers. I have included many actual experiences with sleep disorder
patients so that st~tdents can better understand tlie problems tliat sleep disorders
present to their sufferers. |
