Allan Rechtschaffen

Allan Rechtschaffen (b. 1928 or 1929) is a noted pioneer^[1][2] in the field of sleep research whose work includes some of the first laboratory studies of insomnia, narcolepsy, sleep apnea,and napping.

He has done research in the effects on sleep of exercise, mental work, stimulation, stress, and metabolism, as well as the effects of sleep deprivation. He also looked at sleep in reptiles and rats.

Dr.Rechtschaffen and Gerry Vogel, working with colleagues at Mt. Sinai Hospital in New York including Dr. William Dement, described narcolepsy--the first scientifically demonstrated sleep disorder—in a landmark paper in 1963.^[1] Dr. Rechtshaffen went on to perform experiments in rats that demonstrated the lethal consequences of long-term (two weeks or more) sleep deprivation and REM sleep deprivation.

He worked with Anthony Kales in developing the still-used criteria used by sleep laboratories to report human sleep scale data. The system is commonly called R&K or Rechtschaffen and Kales, named after its key developers.^[1] R&K was used from 1968 to 2007 when The AASM Manual for the Scoring of Sleep and Associated Events was published by the American Academy of Sleep Medicine (AASM).^[3]

Rechtschaffen is currently Professor Emeritus in the Department of Psychiatry and Psychology at the University of Chicago.

References

• A manual of standardized terminology, techniques and scoring system for sleep stages of human subjects edited by Allan Rechtschaffen and Anthony Kales, National Institutes of Health, Publication no. 204, Neurological Information Network (1968)

External links

• The Secret of Sleep