Sleep research at the University of Chicago began in the late 1920s when Professor Nathaniel Kleitman established the world’s first sleep laboratory. Kleitman was the first scientist to focus entirely on sleep, and in 1939, he published the groundbreaking textbook Sleep and Wakefulness, which became the gold standard for sleep researchers. In 1953, Kleitman and his doctoral student Eugene Aserinsky revolutionized the field by discovering rapid eye movement (REM) sleep and its association with dreaming, marking the birth of modern sleep science. Later, with Dr. William Dement, they developed techniques for all-night sleep recording, using eye motion and EEGs to chart sleep patterns, challenging the notion that sleep was a single state.

In 1955, their discovery that narcolepsy had a neurophysiologic abnormality, demonstrated by unusual premature REM sleep onset, was a major step in characterizing this condition. In 1963, University of Chicago researchers Dr. Allan Rechtschaffen and Gerry Vogel, along with colleagues including Dr. William Dement, described narcolepsy in a landmark paper, identifying it as the first true sleep disorder. Dr. Rechtschaffen became a highly respected figure in sleep research, conducting experiments that showed the lethal effects of long-term sleep deprivation in rats. In 1968, he and Dr. Anthony Kales of UCLA standardized the scoring system for human sleep stages, which is still used today.

Today, the University of Chicago remains a leader in sleep research, with a focus on the adverse health consequences of insufficient sleep and sleep disorders. Studies conducted at our institution have shown that sleep is crucial not just for cognitive function and memory but also for overall health, linking sleep loss to obesity and diabetes. Our faculty’s research has helped to firmly establish sleep as one of the pillars of health.