In Brief:
This is a story about nothing. That's why, at the end of most of his interviews (including one with me), William Dement, M.D., Ph.D. -- a combination Christopher Columbus/Cassandra of sleep research -- practically shouts his admonition: Dr. Dement, who mans the sleep desk at Stanford University, has the personal scare story to prove it. Dr. Dement's chauffeur was exhibiting the classic physical symptoms of sleep apnea, a disorder that closes an afflicted man's airway up to 300 times a night and causes monumental health problems in the process. Dr. Dement instantly saw the danger and aggressively conversed with him. Next comes rapid eye movement (REM) sleep, which Dr. Dement famously studied by inviting a chorus line of Rockettes into his New York apartment sleep lab. Later on, I met with Richard Schwab, M.D., of the Penn sleep center, and he wasn't too concerned by any of it, opining that maybe I just think about my sleep too much. Sanjay Patel, M.D., of Case Western Reserve University, in Cleveland, gave a fascinating presentation at the conference in which he demonstrated that people who get only 5 hours of sleep a night weigh more than longer sleepers at every age. The old lion of the field, Dr. Dement, quite nearly wrote my epitaph when he pointed out, in the introduction to his compelling bedtime saga, The Promise of Sleep, that "if someone you know has had a heart attack, there is a good chance (especially if the victim is young) that an undiagnosed sleep disorder contributed to the problem. The cure du jour for insomnia is cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT). The best news is that, unlike pills, which stop working when you stop swallowing them, CBT encourages sleep long after the sessions have ended.. Michael Sateia, M.D., of the Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center, in Lebanon, New Hampshire, is leading the way toward getting more practitioners trained in CBT. CBT can also help, by using stimulation control before bed -- no caffeine within 12 hours of bed, no wine with dinner, and nothing too exciting (WWE, for instance) in the bedtime hour. Naturally, I arranged for a few CBT sessions myself, and found instant progress with a psychologist named David Glosser, Sc.D. In essence, CBT renovated my bedroom, and my attitude, into a zone of relaxation and peace..
