William Charles Dement

Abstract

Founder of sleep medicine. He was born in Wenatchee, WA, USA, on July 29, 1928, and died of cardiovascular disease in Stanford, CA, USA, on June 17, 2020, aged 91 years. It was an interest in the work of Sigmund Freud that first prompted William Dement, Emeritus Professor of Psychiatry at Stanford University, CA, USA, to want to study dreams. To further this interest, and while still a student, he approached the University of Chicago physiologist Nathaniel Kleitman, one of the few scientists researching sleep in the 1950s. Kleitman had introduced the term rapid-eye movement or REM sleep: the period, he suspected, when we dream. He suggested that Dement should study REM in relation to dreaming. Dement did so, waking his research participants during their periods of REM to question them about their dreams. The outcome, for Dement, was a change in the focus of his interest from Freud and dreams to the circumstance that makes dreams possible: sleep itself. His enthusiasm for the topic shaped his career. “Anybody who's in sleep research or health care is indebted to Bill Dement”, says Rafael Pelayo, Clinical Professor of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at Stanford Center for Sleep Sciences and Medicine, and a close friend of Dement. “He pretty much created the field. Sleep had been just a curiosity; he drew national attention to it.” After service in the US Army in Japan, where he edited the regimental newspaper, Dement paid his way through undergraduate studies at the University of Washington by playing the bass in jazz groups. It was then that he moved to the University of Chicago, acquiring a medical degree in 1955, and a PhD in neurophysiology in 1957. While doing his subsequent internship at Mount Sinai Hospital in New York, he continued to run sleep studies. Of its nature, sleep research isn't always compatible with normal family life. Dement's audacious way round this difficulty was to bring his work home with him, says Pelayo. “He convinced the National Institutes of Health to pay half the rent of his apartment in New York because he'd converted it into a sleep lab where research on dream recall could be done at night.” In 1963, Dement joined Stanford University, where his undergraduate course on sleep and dreams was immensely popular. Among those whose interest he ignited was Clete Kushida, now Professor of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at the Stanford University Medical Center. “He was so entertaining”, Kushida recalls. “He made you want to learn.” Dement's interest in sleep grew ever broader, encompassing narcolepsy, insomnia, sleep apnoea, and other sleep disorders. He and his colleagues developed the technique of polysomnography, and devised a sleep disorder diagnostic tool, the multiple sleep latency test. “He was the first to set up a training programme in sleep”, Kushida adds. “He was one of the initiators of our major professional organisation [the American Academy of Sleep Medicine]…he helped co-found a major sleep journal [Sleep]. And most important, in 1970 he established the first sleep clinic.” What is now called the Stanford Sleep Medicine Center remains an internationally renowned centre, with Kushida as its Medical Director. Besides his research and his clinical work, Dement also had a public life. He was eager to make people more aware of sleep disorders and their consequences; he would lobby politicians about the need to take sleep seriously. And he had some success, arguing for the creation of the 1988 US National Commission on Sleep Disorders Research, which he then chaired. “He was an outstanding communicator”, according to Kushida, “clear and concise in his writing…He would go over a manuscript with a fine tooth comb, and make pages and pages of notes.” Dement co-edited a definitive textbook, Principles and Practice of Sleep Medicine, and also wrote for the public, notably in The Promise of Sleep. “Bill wasn't the kind of person who was selfish about knowledge”, says Kushida. “He would give advice freely…He had high expectations. He would always try to keep you on your toes. If you did well he would often write you a note [of appreciation]. He was very warm.” Away from the clinic, Dement's other passion was for music. “Big band jazz and swing”, says Pelayo. “He'd originally wanted to be a professional musician…In Seattle, he had musicians show up at his home, on a houseboat.” At various times, in his life Dement played with Quincy Jones, Ray Charles, and Stan Getz. Jazz was perhaps a reflection of his personality and nature. “He challenged authority”, as Pelayo puts it. “He was a maverick.” Dement leaves daughters, Catherine and Elizabeth, and a son Nick.