Sleep specialists currently diagnose 88 specific disorders, all of which (with two exceptions) were discovered and characterized since 1970 when the world’s first sleep disorders clinic opened at Stanford. Some are both very common and very serious. Altogether, at least three quarters of all adults have one or more diagnosable sleep disorder. This makes the continuing failure of the health professions to address this clinical area effectively all the more amazing and sad.
- William C. Dement, M.D., Ph.D
It is absolutely clear that individuals all fall asleep, wake up, and deny having been asleep. In sleep deprivation situations, there can be microsleeps which subjects deny.
- William C. Dement, M.D., Ph.D
There is a fairly common experience of feeling lousy or groggy after an unusually long sleep. To conclude that this is due to “too much sleep” is wrong. Sleep is not the culprit. We believe the occasional feeling of grogginess after one night of extended sleep as being the result of a combination of several factors: (1) The extended sleep which leaves people groggy usually follows a period of severe sleep deprivation. Extra sleep on only one night does not substantially reduce the huge debt that has been accumulated. (2) When the sleep deprivation has been associated with a high level of stress, anxiety, and pressure, the long sleep is associated with a general “let down” because the stress is over. (3) The extra sleep usually results in waking up not when clock-dependent alerting is strong, but rather in the midday dip of clock-dependent alerting. (4) If a person has been awake and active for several days, lying in bed for 14, 16, or 20 or more hours usually results in considerable stiffness of the muscles and joints, and may even, through inappropriate positioning, also include a crick in the neck, etc. (5) Finally, when we expect to wake up feeling tremendously restored and energized, and we do not, there has to be a reason. Therefore, we wrongly conclude that we must have “too much sleep.”
- William C. Dement, M.D., Ph.D
Under laboratory conditions, when the sleep debt of laboratory animals is lowered to zero, or very close to zero, such animals can be given enormous doses of conventional sleep medications with no sleep-inducing effect at all. These doses will strongly sedate, and induce sleep in normal animals. In humans, the amount of prior sleep determines the sedative potency of a low dose of alcohol in the morning.
- William C. Dement, M.D., Ph.D