John Allan Hobson, a prominent sleep researcher and psychiatrist, died on July 7 at his Vermont home due to diabetes complications at the age of 88. His work contradicted prevailing hypotheses of the day on the meaning of dreams and set the stage for much of the work investigating the rapid eye movement (REM) phase of sleep.
According to Dream Life, his memoir, Hobson was born on June 3, 1933 in Hartford, Connecticut, where he remained for his childhood. He and his brother Bruce were raised by their father, a lawyer, and his mother, a homemaker. He attended high school at what is now known as Loomis Chaffee School, a preparatory school in nearby Windsor. He obtained a degree in 1955 from Wesleyan University and earned an MD at Harvard Medical School in 1959.
From there, he completed internships, fellowships, and residencies in New York, Boston, and the University of ...
