A History of the Scientific Study of Sleep

Abstract

Sleep research emerged in the stream of the life sciences in the late 1860s. Three historical reviews summarize the research through the early 1950s. This article focuses on the last 50 years of sleep research. A gathering of some 30 active sleep researchers responded to an invitation from Nathaniel Kleitman in 1961 that led to the formation of a sleep research society. It was around the annual meetings of the Association of the Psychophysiological Study of Sleep (APSS) that the organizational needs of the field were planned and discussed, which led to the development of standards of measurement, sleep journals, and bibliographic reviews. In the 1960s and early 1970s, sleep research was primarily focused on rapid eye movement (REM) sleep. Neurophysiological sleep research was a search for the locus and mechanisms underlying REM sleep. Animal and biological rhythm research reported on REM characteristics. Pharmaceutical studies tracked REM repression and rebound levels. Studies of REM sleep deprivation in both animals and humans were manifold. In the late 1970s, a decline in neurophysiological studies occurred as the field of sleep disorders medicine emerged. Three areas of substantial research – sleep deprivation effects, biological rhythms of sleep, and theories of sleep – are discussed in some detail. Lastly, the dominant place of sleep medicine research is noted.