THE STUDY OF HUMAN SLEEP - A HISTORICAL-PERSPECTIVE

Since this is an historic meeting which will address one of the most i mportant clinical issues in the field of sleep medicine, it is appropr iate to examine how we arrived at this moment. Accordingly, I will pre sent a brief review of the history of sleep medicine. I have addressed this topic on several previous occasions.(1-3) In my view the history of sleep medicine can be divided into five clearly demarcated phases. These are listed in table 1.