Dr. William Dement is one of the leading authorities on sleep, sleep deprivation, and sleep disorders. In the 1950s he was part of the sleep research team that discovered REM (Rapid Eye Movement) sleep and connected it to dreaming. Since then he has founded the Sleep Research Center at Stanford University and authored numerous papers and books on sleep, and he teaches one of Stanford's most popular courses called "Sleep and Dreams".
In this one hour talk at Google, Dr. Dement presents many of the findings he has made throughout his career. He talks about studies that reveal that healthy sleep is key to high-level performance and productivity, and that the sleep debt of numerous nights without enough sleep causes significant reduction in the quality of performance of physical and mental activities. Dr. Dement also speaks about sleep disorders such as sleep apnea and narcolepsy. Learn more about something you do everyday with this enjoyable talk on sleep.