Sleep Disorders

Dement would have counted this as a victory, except that the boy's primary physicians still refused to acknowledge the problem. After a few months, they wanted to close up the hole. "They still didn't understand that the hole was saving his life," Dement said. Raymond kept the breathing hole and Dement kept in touch with him for a few years. Eventually Dement lost track of him, but he expects that current practices must have allowed Raymond to have the hole closed and to use alternate therapies.

Since then Americans have learned a lot more about the importance of sleep and the dangers of sleep disorders to the nation's health. Since the discovery of Rapid Eye Movement (REM) sleep 45 years ago, Dement, 69, has played a part in nearly every major development in sleep research and has attracted star students and researchers, and the money to fund their work. Former Stanford students and fellows have spread the gospel and started their own clinics and research centers around the world. Before Congress and corporations, and on national radio and television talk shows, Dement has brought an unwavering message: "Sleep disorders are killing people, and yet they are tremendously under-diagnosed."

In a report for the House Subcommittee on Health and Environment last year, he declared that sleep disorders represent one of the nation's most serious health problems, and that the need for sleep research is virtually ignored.

The numbers are stunning. More than half of Americans have suffered from a sleep disorder at some time, according to a survey ordered last year by the National Sleep Foundation in Washington, D.C. Approximately 30 percent of

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