[Congressional Record Volume 154, Number 113 (Thursday, July 10, 2008)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E1444]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




HONORING THE CONTRIBUTIONS OF DR. WILLIAM CHARLES DEMENT, LOWELL W. AND 
   JOSEPHINE BERRY PROFESSOR OF PSYCHIATRY AND BEHAVIORAL SCIENCES, 
   STANFORD UNIVERSITY AND DIVISION CHIEF OF THE STANFORD UNIVERSITY 
                           DIVISION OF SLEEP

                                 ______
                                 

                         HON. MICHAEL M. HONDA

                             of california

                    in the house of representatives

                        Thursday, July 10, 2008

  Mr. HONDA. Madam Speaker, I rise today in recognition of Dr. William 
C. Dement as he celebrates his 80th birthday and as his family, friends 
and colleagues gather to commemorate his lifelong efforts to improve 
the health and safety of this Nation by advancing understanding of 
sleep, sleep disorders and their impact on performance and functioning.
  Dr. Dement received his M.D. and Ph.D. from the University of Chicago 
in 1955 and 1957. There, he helped discover and describe Rapid Eye 
Movement (REM) sleep, described the relationship between REM sleep and 
dreaming, established the all night sleep patterns of human beings, 
discovered REM sleep in animals and newborn babies, and demonstrated 
that the patterns of specific rapid eye movements are related to the 
visual experience of the dream. He transformed what was once thought of 
as a passive state that was undeserving of medical attention or 
curiosity into a medical specialty.
  In 1963, Dr. Dement joined the Psychiatry Department at Stanford 
University, where for the past 45 years he has continued his studies on 
the neurochemistry of sleep and the functional significance of the 
different sleep states.
  In 1970, Dr. Dement started the world's first Sleep Disorders Clinic 
which introduced all-night examination of patients with sleep-related 
complaints. He developed the Multiple Sleep Latency Test which remains 
the standard diagnostic measure of daytime sleepiness and made many 
other scientific contributions.
  Among the most important of these are the elucidation of sleep debt 
and the long term consequences of sleep deprivation in all components 
of society. Dr. Dement is the author or co-author of approximately 500 
scientific publications and the founding co-editor of the premier 
scientific journal, SLEEP.
  Dr. Dement was co-founder of the Sleep Research Society in 1961 and 
founding President of the American Sleep Disorders Association (now the 
American Academy of Sleep Medicine) in 1975. Dr. Dement currently holds 
the position of honorary board member of the National Sleep Foundation, 
the Nation's leading non-profit organization dedicated to improving the 
understanding of sleep disorders.
  Dr. Dement served as chairman of the congressionally-mandated 
National Commission on Sleep Disorders Research whose study and 
recommendations led directly to the creation of a new agency within the 
National Institutes of Health, the National Center on Sleep Disorders 
Research.
  I am particularly grateful for Dr. Dement's work with patients. If it 
was not for Dr. Dement, my sleep apnea would probably still be 
undiagnosed and I would be like millions of other Americans who 
needlessly suffer due to a lack of public and professional awareness of 
the signs and symptoms of sleep disorders.
  Therefore, on behalf of the Congress of the United States and the 
people of the 15th Congressional District of California, I am pleased 
to join with the family, friends and colleagues of Dr. William C. 
Dement in celebrating his 80th birthday. May he be blessed with many 
more.

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