Personal Growth Series: Dr. William Dement on Healthy Sleep and Optimal Perfo...


Google Tech TalksSeptember 23, 2008ABSTRACT

Under ordinary circumstances, healthy sleep is by far the most powerful determination of high-level performance and productivity. Three major characteristics must be present to define healthy sleep. They are (1) a sufficient amount and continuity to avoid sleep indebtedness, (2) absenceor near absence of pathological sleep-related events and (3) reasonable synchronizing of desired time in bed with circadian predisposition. The nature of each of these three characteristics will be elaborated as well as their relation to performance.

Speaker: Dr. William Dement
William C. Dement, M.D., Ph.D., is the world's leading authority on sleep, sleep disorders, and the dangers of sleep deprivation. He is Chief of the newly created Division of Sleep at Stanford University School of Medicine, which is also the home of the world's first sleep disorders center founded by Dr. Dement.

Bornand raised in the state of Washington, Dr. Dement remained in his home state for his undergraduate years at the University of Washington. He then pursued his graduate studies at the University of Chicago, receiving his M.D. in 1955 and Ph.D. in Neurophysiology in 1957. For more than half a century,Dr. Dement has conducted basic sleep research, investigated sleep disorders and treatments, and has launched a myriad of public education programs. From 1953 to 1957, he conducted the first studies leading to the characterization of rapid eye movement (REM) sleep, the basic REM/NREM sleep cycle, andall night sleep patterns.

In 1975, Dr. Dement founded the American Academy of Sleep Medicine serving as its President for twelve years. Dr. Dement was also a founder of the American Board of Sleep Medicine. From 1990-1993, he served as Chairman of the U.S. Congress's National Commission on SleepDisorders Research. In 2001, he received the largest National Institute of Health research grant in sleep medicine history to establish the effectiveness and benefits of continuous positive air pressure (CPAP) treatment for large populations of patients with obstructive sleep apnea.

As the author or co-author of over 500 scientific publications, Dr. Dement's research, findings, and advice can be found amongst several texts including his own, The Sleepwatchers, and most recently, The Promise of Sleep. He is also co-editor of the definitive textbook, Principles and Practice of Sleep Medicine, now in it's 4th edition.

Dr. Dement's strong desire to educate students about sleep and the dangers of sleep deprivation led to the creation of his very popular course, "Sleep&Dreams," at Stanford University, which he has been presenting regularly for over 35 years. He will continue his efforts to educate the public and increase sleep awareness as long as he lives.







Channel: Tech
Uploaded: September 24, 2008 at 9:07 am
Author: googletechtalks

Length: 00:59:57
Rating: 4.53
Views: 8982

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Video Comments:
Provoost (November 22, 2008 at 11:19 am)
About bright light: how bright is bright? Is a laptop screen in the evening enough to mess up your biological clock? If so, what if you reduce the brightness? Has anyone quantified this?

I'm trying a little experiment now, where I set my laptop screen brightness to 15% (less gives me a head ache) and allow very little ambient light. But it would be nice if someone's already done that and can tell me the result.
Provoost (November 22, 2008 at 11:13 am)
How about Google Snore?

What if people could turn on their microphone at night and upload the sound to Google. Google would then tell you how much you snore (if your don't have a partner to tell you) and if it sounds like a breathing disorder. Perhaps it can even hear how much you actually sleep and keep a nice record of that.

Provided no human would ever listen to it, I wouldn't be too uncomfortable with it.
coastwalker (November 7, 2008 at 4:47 pm)
Very useful, been building up my bank for just over a week and it works!
enos76 (October 3, 2008 at 5:17 pm)
Quite interesting but... at 38:10 he talked about experiments involving the removal of parts of live animals' brains :-( science progress, it's a pity our hearts can't progress as fast.

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