University of Rochester Spring 1988 Review Departments Features From the President 2 Bedtime Story 3 Rochester in Review 32 by Jan Fitzpatrick Alumni Gazette 38 Sleep; Everybody does it but lew know much about it. Alumni Milestones 42 Anew medical specialty Is unveiling some of the mysteries. Rochester Travelers 45 After/Words 48 David B. Skinner '56 CEO, New York Hospital­ Cornell Medical Center Our Most Quoted Alumnus 8 by Elizabeth Brayer Roches'er Re"iew Every morning schoolchildren across America recite EdilOr: Margarel Bond Assislanl editor: Denise Bolger Kovnal the cadenced phrases of advertising genius Francis Staff "'riler: Shinji Morokuma J, Bellamy, a one-time clergyman with a "knack tor Design manager: Stephen Reynolds words. " Graphic anist: Susan Gottfried Staff pholographer: James Montanus Editorial assistants: Joyce Farrell, Tim Fox Design: Roben Meyer Design, Inc. Editorial office, 108 Administration Color Him Ecstatic 16 Building, Universily of Rochester. Rochesler, NY 14627, (716) 275-2102. by Jeremy Schlosberg Michael Torke '84E supports himself as a tull·time Published quarrerly for alumni, studenls, lheir parents. and other friends of the Uni­ composer. At any age this is noteworthy. At age 26 versity, Rochester Review is produced by it is astounding. lhe Office of UniversilY Public Relations, Roben Kraus, director. Office of Alumni Relations, University of Rochester, Rochesler, NY 14627, (716) 275-3684. Opinions expressed are those of the How Many Ways to Tell About Time 20 aUlhors, lhe editors, or lheir subjecls and do not necessarily represent official posi­ by Thomas Fitzpatrick lions of the UniversilY of Rochesler. The 1988 Rochester Conference turns the University Postmaster: '-:--"'~'-'~- into a community of clock watchers. Send address changes to Rochester Review, -! 108 Administration Building, University of Rochester, Rochester, NY 14627. , .....-': I,. -. eo'.r: Design/an direclion, Susan GOllfried/ Slephen Reynolds; photograph, James MOnlanus; Bellamy memorabilia, collection When Time Stands Still 26 of University of Rochester Libraries, Photos from the Eastman House collection courresy of Karl Kabelac. Photographers throughout the last 160 years have been freezing time In ever smaller slices. Six pages of pictures show you some Df the ways. Rochester Review/Spring 1988 Some folks can fall asleep sitting at a traffic light, eating dinner, or making love. Others spend huge sums on all kinds ofsoporifics-and still can't catch the Dreamland Express. None of this is news to Donald Greenblatt '69, whose specialty is studying other people's sleeping habits. STORY By Jan Fitzpatrick Greenblatt is director of the Sleep others - many of them mothers wor­ Disorders Center at St. Mary's, one of ried about their children's sleep Like most of the rest of us, Donald the School of Medicine and Dentistry's difficulties, problems with night ter­ Greenblatt sleeps away a big chunk of affiliated teaching ho pitals. Over a ror , sleepwalking, or bed-wetting. his nighttime hours. But during the year's time he sees about 400 people "God bless the man who first invent­ day, he has a most unusual routine: with some kind of leep problem and ed sleep!" Sancho Panza xdaims in He watches others sleep. talks on the phone to dozens of 3 Rochester Re w/Spring 1988 When Is Bedtime for Bonzo? HRS Species vary enormously in their requirements for daily rest, and those ZZZZZZZZZZZZ~O requirements can vary with changes in external circumstances. BAT In the wild, for instance, it's lights ZZZZZZZZZZZZ19 out for Bonzo (literally) when the sun goes down, at which point chimpanzees HAMSTER ZZZZZZZZZ 14 begin preparing their nests and settling down for the night. Th n it's back to RAT the old monkey business at dawn the ZZZZZZZZ 13 next day. Chimp sleeping behavior changes in captivity. For want of something better ZZZZZZZ 12 to do, captive chimps often sleep until well after first light and then tend to take a lot of naps. The sleeping patterns ZZZZZZ 10 of zoo chimps are also controlled, in part, by the visiting hours of their bair­ HUMAN ZZZZZ 8 less cousins. Other mammals require greater and cow lesser amounts of sleep, with humans ZZZZ 7 falling somewhere near the middle of the pack. At the right is a scale of the SHEEP sleep requirements of some represent­ llll6 ative snoozers. HORSE llZ 5 ll4 o : ; *The porpoise is doomed to eternal sleeplessness because it must always be alert enough to to rise to the surface when it has to breathe. It solves the problem by occasionally allowing selected portions of its brain to shut down while the rest monitors the breathing. you are ready to. "Unless they prepare Shift workers - especially those eight hours later than it did, it'll take for the time-zone change, the Lak rs who work rotating shifts - often have you about a week to get used to the may have mor of a pr blem when trouble because they frequently must new schedule. ' Unfortunately," he they play the Celtics in Boston than change their hours at just about the points out, "that is just about the time the Celtics do playing in Los Angeles," time their bodies are getting accus­ many empi yers rotate their people to says Greenblatt. tomed to their current shift. Green­ a new shift. " It's also easier to adjust to the re­ blatt's rule of thumb is that it takes Because shift worker earn a higher turn of Standard Time in the fall about one day to adjust to every hour pay differential, workers themselves (which, by turning the clock back, of change you make. I f, for instance, aren't eager to change the system. But lengthens the day) than it is to switch you fly across a single time zone, it'll they may pay a heavy co t in personal over to Daylight Sa ing Time in take you a day to adjust. If you fly health. "Compared to other people, spring. ' tatistics show that the inci­ across three, it'll take you three days. shift workers have a much higher inci­ dence of auto accidents goes up right So if your workday suddenly begins d nce of problem with poor sleep, after Daylight Saving Time goes into drug and alcohol abuse, heart disease, effect," he notes. 5 Roche ter Review/Spring 1988 One of the first things Greenblatt often resort to heroic measures just to held in place by a gauze pad soaked in finds out from a too-sleepy patient is lead a normal life. Greenblatt remem­ adhesive. (Oddly, they don't seem to whether he or she snores. bers a patient who could manage to interfere much with sleep.) The elec­ Rafter-rattling in the middle of the stay in college only by walking around trodes transmit signals to a machine in night is a sign that his patient may be vigorously while she studied. the control room with as many dials suffering from obstructive sleep To find out just how sleepy patients as the cockpit of a jet. As the sleeper apnea - the closing off of airways to really are, Greenblatt does more than snoozes, graph paper pours out of it, the lungs. listen to their troubles. He puts them recording in spidery lines the brain "In movies and cartoons, you see to bed and monitors everything from waves, heartbeats, eye movements, and someone snoring loudly and it's funny, breathing to brain waves as they other body functions. right? But the more patients I see, the slumber. Greenblatt's practiced eye can deter­ more I'm convinced that snoring isn't Escorting a visitor through the Sleep mine from the patterns on the paper benign," says Greenblatt. Disorders Center at St. Mary's Hospi­ when his patients fall asleep, whether Snorers with apnea have smaller air­ tal he opens the door to one of three they are dreaming, if they are sufferers ways than other people. During sleep, "bedrooms," each furnished with a from apnea, and other helpful infor­ the airway may actually relax to the hospital bed, a desk, and a chair. mation. point of closing off the pathway for Greenblatt apologizes for the institu­ After spending a night sleeping in oxygen to reach the lungs. The brain tional flavor of the decor. "We'd like to their usual manner, patients are awak­ senses that oxygen levels have dropped have the rooms look homier. When we ened at 7 a.m. for breakfast. At 10 dangerously, so it "wakes up" the pa­ redecorate, we'll have wallpaper and o'clock they go back into the room for tient to get the breathing started again put in beds that aren't hospital style." a nap. Lights out, door closed, under - usually with a snort. The arousal Patients who use the bedrooms are the covers. They're given 20 minutes to may last less than a minute, and the outfitted with electrodes from head to fall asleep. If they drop off, they're al­ sleeper probably won't remember the foot. They're attached to the skin and lowed to sleep for 10 minutes before episode, which might be repeated as being awakened. If they don't fall many as 500 times during the night. asleep, lights corne back on in 20 min­ "When morning comes, there's a utes. The same procedure is repeated subjective feeling of having slept," says at noon, at 2, and at 4 p.m. Greenblatt, "but the patient is tired. A normal person probably wouldn't It's as if someone shook you 500 times be able to fall asleep within the 20­ during the night saying 'wake up!' You minute period all four times.