Chicago Sun-Times: Her groundbreaking research concluded dreaming is important for mental health because it helps people organize thoughts and deal with worries and emotions.
Ms. Cartwright, one of the first women in the world in the field of sleep research, died of a heart attack last month at her Lake Shore Drive home at 98, according to her daughter Carolyn.
In a 50-year career, she overcame preferential treatment for male scholars and sleep medicine’s early tendency to prescribe sleeping pills rather than study the reasons behind insomnia.
Working at various times at the University of Chicago, the University of Illinois at Chicago and Rush University Medical Center, she studied dreaming, circadian rhythms and sleep apnea and wrote four books and hundreds of academic papers.
chicago.suntimes.com
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