submission - Independent Pilots Association

Remarks by Dr. William Dement to the ARAC Working Group Pilot
Representatives on December 1,1998 at ALPA HQ, Washington, D.C.
I'm L,ery plensed to presat Dr. Williant Denrcnt sf $tnnford Unit'er:itt/ ¿tlto's lrcre to
ansluer some of our questions regarding slerp science. Dr. Denrcnt ts considered tlrc
fatlrcr of nrodern sleep medicine. He earned his M.D. and Ph.D. front tlrc Unioersity o.f
Chicago where he first began to study sleep. ln 7963 he became the director of Stanford
Uni''ersity's Sleep Research and Clinical Programs and continues in tlut post today. He
was Chairman of the National Commission on Sleep Disorders Rexarch from 7990 -
1992; a Contmission chnrlered by Congress. He is the author of a defnitiue textbook on
the diagnosis and treatment of sleep disorders and lus u¡ritten or ctauthored more than
500 scientifc publications. Dr. Demmt, welcome and tlunk you þr your time and being
here today.
Thank you. For many years, the people who were interested in circadian
rhythms and the people who were interested in sleep were fairly separate. Now
there's actually a scientific meeting going on in Bethesda hosted by the National
lnstitute of Health and the National Science Foundation in wl¡ich circadian rhythm
issues and sleep issues are considered to be complementary pañs of one
scientific discipline. This has been happening over the past 10-15 years.
One of the things that l'm trying to deal with is the fact that the study of sleep,
the scientific study, and the applications / operational situations coincided later
than some of the other Cisciplines. To get really into the mainstream of the
scientific knowledge a"C the applications, ...this has been v,'hat l've been most
interested in trying to help accomplish during the past 20 years,... and the first
efforl was to try to create a federal agency that would really be responsible for
sleep and circadian issues, research, applications and education. Our efforts to
do this led to the response of Congress to create a Commisslon, not to create an
. agency but to create a commission.
It turned out to be really a good thing because many of us had been in the ivory
tower and this Commrssion really put us out in the field, hearing stories from
people who have been rnvolved in accidents, heanng what life is like in the
trenches so to speak. That certainly made an enorrnous difference to me in
appreciating, in a much more human way, the difficulties and the problems. We
presented recommendations to Congress and it kind of coincided with the budget
crisis, and dare I say. the Republican revolution so that only one key
recommendation was passed. But there is now a f ederal agency - The National
Center on Sleep Disorders Research - which, small, although it may be, is
certainly a great start. and has on its plate some of the concerns that affect you.
It also has the legislative mandate to interact with the Department of
transportation and other agencies that are involved in these issues. I just wish it
was much, much larger, and we're still working in that direction,