REM Sleep

The conditions of REM sleep

REM is an acronym for Rapid Eye Movement. REM occurs during sleep. Just like its name implies, it is rapid movement of the eyes. There are two types of REM being tonic and phasic.

REM is indicated with three different criteria. To qualify as REM, there must be rapid eye movement accompanied with muscle relaxation and a rapid low voltage electroencephalograph (EEG). These tests are made during a sleep test or polysomnogram. This is usually conducted on patients with sleep disorders.

Approximately 23 percent of all sleep is in an REM state. A normal sleep period of 8 hours usually has about an hour and a half to two hours of REM. The REM states occur four or five time a night so the time period isn’t consecutive. Early in the sleep phase, they are quite short, increasing in time toward the end.

Interestingly enough animals like cats and dogs also experience REM. People who own pets have often observed them in a dream state to the extent their legs may actually move. A large majority of mammals display REM sleep.

As a person grows older, their REM ratio to sleep decreases. As a newborn, they will spend 80% or more in REM sleep. This percentage will decrease with age.

The activity in the brain during REM is similar to daytime activity. This is known as paradoxical sleep. Paradoxical sleep means there are no brain waves that dominate.

During the REM stage of sleep, a person is much more likely to have vivid life-like dreams.

In physiological studies, it has been found that certain neurons in the brain are very active. These neurons are called REM sleep on cells. It is thought that the activity in these neurons is what brings on REM.

During REM sleep, the heart and breathing rate can be irregular. During REM, body temperature can become erratic. Another couple of conditions that occur during REM sleep are penile and clitoral erections. It is not uncommon to spend from one to three hours being erect. If a male has nighttime erections but is unable to achieve erection during waking hours, then that is an indication of psychological problems rather than a physical problem like low blood pressure.

A study in the Dec.1 issue of the journal Sleep shows that dream-enacting behaviors are common in healthy young adults, and the prevalence of specific behaviors differs between men and women.

Results indicate that 98 percent of subjects (486/495) reported experiencing one of seven subtypes of dream-enacting behavior at least “rarely” in the last year. The most prevalent behavior subtype was “fear,” with 93 percent reporting that they had felt signs of fear in their body after awakening from a frightening dream. Seventy-eight percent reported that they had awakened from an erotic dream to find that they were sexually aroused; 72 percent had awakened from a happy dream to find that they were actually smiling or laughing. Each of the other four behavior subtypes was reported by more than 50 percent of participants: They awakened from a dream to find that they were talking, crying, acting out an angry or defensive behavior such as punching or kicking, or acting out other movements such as waving or pointing. Women reported more speaking, crying, fear and smiling/laughing than men, and men reported more sexual arousal.

Lead author and co-investigator Tore Nielsen, PhD, professor of psychiatry at the Universite de Montreal in Canada, was surprised by the high prevalence of dream-enacting behavior. Nielsen noted that more studies will need to be conducted to create a distinction between normal dream-enacting behavior and actions that are associated with REM sleep behavior disorder (RBD), which is characterized by abnormal behaviors emerging during rapid eye movement (REM) sleep that cause injury or sleep disruption.

“Normal episodes are usually extremely mild, for example, briefly jerking an arm or leg while waking up from a nightmare, once or twice a year,” said Nielsen. “This is far different from RBD cases, which are typically very intense, and might involve repeatedly flailing an arm or a leg or smashing into something in the middle of a dream, not waking up easily from it, with occurrences several times a month.”

A total of 1,140 first-year undergraduate students who were enrolled in introductory psychology courses voluntarily participated in the study. Approximately two-thirds were female. Participants completed several questionnaires concerning personality and dreaming.

To determine the type of questions that are best for eliciting reports of dream-enacting behavior, students were divided into three groups. Group one (mean age 19.9 years) was provided with general questions concerning dream-enacting behaviors, group two (mean age 20.1 years) received the same questions with examples, and group three (mean age 19.1 years) received questions describing specific behavior subtypes. The prevalence of dream-enacting behavior increased with increasing question specificity (35.9 percent in group one, 76.7 percent in group two and 98.2 percent in group three). According to the authors, these findings suggest that dream-enacting behaviors are common in the general population but are difficult for subjects to identify if detailed descriptions of the behaviors are not given.

The study distinguished the dream-enacting behavior of speaking out loud some of the words of a dream about talking from somniloquy (sleep talking), which was defined as speaking or making sounds during sleep without clear recall of an accompanying dream. Acting out the movements of a dream was distinguished from somnambulism (sleepwalking), which was defined as moving or walking during sleep without clear recall of a dream. Almost 61 percent of subjects in group three reported experiencing somniloquy at least “rarely” in the last year, and 40.9 percent reported somnambulism.

The authors speculate that there is a possibility of a personality trait involvement and a genetically determined predisposition for frequent dream-enacting behaviors. It remains unknown whether the dream-enacting behaviors of healthy subjects may predict future RBD symptoms.

Source:
Kelly Wagner
American Academy of Sleep Medicine

All of us dream while sleeping. Sometimes we see our dear ones, sometimes our enemies and even sometimes the horrible things too. We talk, we dance, we fight, we also sing during dreaming. It also happens sometimes that we feel that whatever we are dreaming is actually happening in reality and after waking up we get confused that what was happening earlier. Dreams may be defined as a vast collection of images, sounds, emotions and thoughts that are frequently occurring in our mind during the sleep cycle. The exact logic behind dreaming is still not clear and the facts are accepted only theoretically. The scientific study of dreaming is designated as oneirology.

Ancient people thought that dreams tell something. Physiologists think that dreams are certain responses of neurons that come to play during sleep. Psychologists believe that dreams are the messages from god and are a source of future foretelling. There is no fully accepted biological definition of dreaming yet present and many scientists have described it according to their understanding. Eugene Aserinsky in 1952 discovered REM stage of sleep while performing surgery of his Ph.D. advisor. Aserinsky noticed the movements of the eyelids and recorded the brain waves with the help of polygraph which confirmed that the patient was dreaming. Aserinsky and his advisor published a very good ground breaking paper in the journal Science. Studies suggest that the process of dreaming mainly occurs during the rapid eye movement (REM) stage of the sleep cycle and the electroencephalogram shows the activity of the brain almost similar to that found during the wakefulness. The dreams that are observed during the non-REM sleep are generally non-memorable. A normal human being spends six years in dreaming during his complete life span. Most dreams are of 5-20 minutes duration. The origin of dreams is supposed to be from brain but nothing is clear in this regard.

The release of certain neurotransmitters is suppressed when a person is in REM sleep as a result the motor neurons are not stimulated. This condition is termed as REM atonia and this stops the physical movements of the body during sleep. Animals also dream but their dreams are very complex and very difficult o interpret. Sigmund Freud interprets that dreams are not retained for a long time as they are of a prohibited character. The REM sleep and the length of the dreams are correlated. The length of the dreams increases at the end of night ranging more than 15 minutes.

A number of theories have been given to explain dreaming in organisms. J. Allan Hobson and Robert McCarley in 1976 proposed the activation synthesis theory. This theory interprets that the sensory experiences are constructed by the cortex as signaled by the pons of brain. They suggested that the cholinergic PGO (ponto-geniculo-occipital) waves activate the forebrain and the hindbrain cortical structures to cause the rapid movements of eye during REM sleep. The forebrain that has come into action is responsible for the generation of dreams from the collected information. Forebrain is also responsible for the generation of the sensory information. Mark Solms suggests that REM sleep and dreams are not correlated at all as suggested by Hobson. Jie Zhang later on proposed the continual activation theory which suggests that dreaming is a complex process that is the result of brain activation and synthesis and both the REM sleep and dreaming are under the control of different brain mechanisms. Zhang suggested that the major role of sleep is to encode, transfer and process the data in the form of facts from temporary memory center to the long term memory center since this fact lacks any strong scientific evidence so it is called consolidation. NREM sleep is responsible for the processing of the declarative memory which is the conscious related memory and the REM sleep processes the procedural memory which is the unconscious related memory. According to Zhang the pulse like activation of brain is responsible for the generation of dreams.

Eugen Tarnow says that dreams are the ever- present excitations of the long term memory when a person is awake. The strange types of dreams are the results of the format of the long term memory store. Penfield & Rasmussen interpret that dreams are the result of the electrical stimulation of the cortex of the brain. According to a study of 2001 the illogical situations, characters and the dream flow are helpful in the formation of semantic memories. When we are asleep our eyes are closed and our brain is isolated from the outside world during that period. The thalamic activity of brain is suppressed during sleep.

During the mid 1990s William Domhoff has analyzed dreams on the basis of their contents. Individuals experience emotions while dreaming and the most common is the anxiety. The other emotions include abandonment, pain, joy, fear, laughter and the negative emotions are much more pronounced than the positive ones. The youngsters dream about sexual matters which constitutes about 10% of their dreams. Men and women also dream of sexual orgasm and nocturnal emission. Such types of dreams are called wet dreams. 70% of females and 65% of males often experience recurrent dreams. Recurrent dreams are those dreams which are experienced after certain occasions including the same format. Some people experience black and white dreams.

Dreams form a essential part of our life making us happy sometimes and making us sad sometimes. So keep dreaming.

Ever wondered what happens to your body and mind during sleep? At this time, scientists believe we go through five stages of sleep. These are known as stages 1, 2, 3, 4, and REM or rapid eye movement sleep. These stages occur in a cycle and we experience all of them whenever we sleep.

Of the different cycles, sleep experts say we spend about 50 percent of our total sleep time in stage 2 sleep and about 20 percent in REM sleep. The remaining 30 percent, on the other hand, is spent in the other stages. With infants its a different matter; they spend about half of their sleep time in REM sleep. What happens in each of these stages?

In stage 1, we drift in and out of sleep. This is known as light sleep since we can be awakened easily. Here the eyes move slowly and there is slow muscle activity. People awakened during stage 1 sleep usually remember fragmented visual images.

In stage 2 sleep, eye movements grind to a halt and brain waves are slower except for occasional bursts of rapid waves known as sleep spindles. With stage 3, even slower brain waves called delta waves appear together with smaller, faster waves.

When stage 4 arrives, all we see are delta waves. Stages 3 and 4 are collectively known as deep sleep. At these stages, its hard to wake someone. Eye movement and muscle activity are absent. People awakened at this time usually feel groggy and disoriented.

During REM, breathing is more rapid, irregular and shallow. The eyes move rapidly and limb muscles become paralyzed for a while. At this stage, brain waves increase at levels similar to when a person is awake. The heart rate increases and blood pressure may rise. This is the period when dreams usually happen. If someone wakes you during REM sleep, you can easily remember your dreams.

To help you sleep better, why not depend on a good alarm clock with soothing sounds?

Snoring can be an annoyance to those who have to sleep next to the snorer. It can also have serious effects on the snorer who does not have to listen to his/her own snoring. A condition called sleep apnea may be at the bottom of a lot of people’s snoring. Sleep apnea is a disruption of sleep when someone misses taking one or more breaths. This condition can cause several different illnesses. High blood pressure and cardiovascular accidents (aka strokes) are two of the more serious diseases caused by sleep apnea. It can also cause heart failure in snorers so it is important to treat snoring to prevent these more serious consequences.

Another problem, sleep apnea, causes is the frequent waking of the snorer. This prevents a snorer from getting a restful night’s sleep and they are not always aware of the fact that they have been awakened during the night. The next day they are tired and feel sleep-deprived. Some snorers even get into the habit of preventing themselves from entering into a deep sleep stage such as REM (Rapid Eye Movement) Sleep because they are aware that they have trouble breathing during sleep. This condition can be caused by the muscles of the throat and the tongue. When these muscles become too relaxed during deep sleep it results in snoring and an obstruction of the airways. The snorer prevents this by remaining in lighter sleep stages. It is not in the snorer’s best interest to prevent deep sleep stages. The REM stage of sleep is believed to be the stage that aids in retaining memory. For the reasons listed above, it is important for chronic snorers to cure their snoring.

How does one cure snoring? There have been several answers to this question with varying ranges of success. The concern for some people is medication; they may or may not be in favor of taking medication for snoring and would prefer a natural cure for snoring that does not require medication. For these people there is help. Exercises have been discovered that can help cure snoring. These exercises can be found in the e-book, Snore-No-More Cure, in which you will learn how to do exercises that will relieve your snoring. These exercises will eliminate the need for things such as nose clips. These exercises may even prevent the need for surgery. It’s worth a try and would be an incredible money-saver.

Research led by a leading expert on the positive benefits of napping at the University of California, San Diego School of Medicine suggests that Rapid Eye Movement (REM) sleep enhances creative problem-solving. The findings may have important implications for how sleep, specifically REM sleep, fosters the formation of associative networks in the brain.

The study by Sara Mednick, PhD, assistant professor of psychiatry at UC San Diego and the VA San Diego Healthcare System, and first author Denise Cai, graduate student in the UC San Diego Department of Psychology, shows that REM directly enhances creative processing more than any other sleep or wake state. Their findings were published in the June 8th online edition of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS).

“We found that - for creative problems that you’ve already been working on - the passage of time is enough to find solutions,” said Mednick. “However, for new problems, only REM sleep enhances creativity.”

Mednick added that it appears REM sleep helps achieve such solutions by stimulating associative networks, allowing the brain to make new and useful associations between unrelated ideas. Importantly, the study showed that these improvements are not due to selective memory enhancements.

A critical issue in sleep and cognition is whether improvements in behavioral performance are the result of sleep-specific enhancement or simply reduction of interference - since experiences while awake have been shown to interfere with memory consolidation. The researchers controlled for such interference effects by comparing sleep periods to quiet rest periods without any verbal input.

While evidence for the role of sleep in creative problem-solving has been looked at by prior research, underlying mechanisms such as different stages of sleep had not been explored. Using a creativity task called a Remote Associates Test (RAT), study participants were shown multiple groups of three words (for example: cookie, heart, sixteen) and asked to find a fourth word that can be associated to all three words (sweet, in this instance). Participants were tested in the morning, and again in the afternoon, after either a nap with REM sleep, one without REM or a quiet rest period. The researchers manipulated various conditions of prior exposure to elements of the creative problem, and controlled for memory.

“Participants grouped by REM sleep, non-REM sleep and quiet rest were indistinguishable on measures of memory,” said Cai. “Although the quiet rest and non-REM sleep groups received the same prior exposure to the task, they displayed no improvement on the RAT test. Strikingly, however, the REM sleep group improved by almost 40 percent over their morning performances.”

The authors hypothesize that the formation of associative networks from previously unassociated information in the brain, leading to creative problem-solving, is facilitated by changes to neurotransmitter systems during REM sleep.

Additional contributors to the study include Sarnoff A. Mednick, University of Southern California, Department of Psychology; Elizabeth M. Harrison, UCSD Department of Psychology; and Jennifer Kanady, UCSD Department of Psychiatry and Veterans Affairs San Diego Healthcare System, Research Service. Funding was provided by the National Institutes of Health.

Source:
Debra Kain

University of California - San Diego

Various sleep disorders exist and vary in degree and their nature. These include dyssomnias / insomnia, hypersomnia / sleeping excessively, and parasomnias (subject’s sleep pattern is abnormal).

Sleep Disorders described: There are two distinct states of sleep. 1. Rapid eye movement (REM) and 2. Non-REM sleep. In most cases dreaming occurs in the REM state. Sleep is a cyclic occurrence compiled out of 4-5 REM cycles during night which amount to approximately 25% of the total night’s sleep.

Sleep Disorder Treatment often includes 1. modification of behavior targeting sleep hygiene and completely avoiding sleep deprivation (psychological programming) and 2. the avoidance of the supine positioning while sleeping and 3. avoidance of all and any sedative medications (sleeping pills)

Many have turned to alternative sleep disorder treatments that include 100% natural ingredients and do not require a prescription. After numerous tests, it is believed that the development of these natural sleep disorder treatments might be the solution to the majority of the consumers as it provides a quick and easy fix for their problem.

The sleeping pills that we have grown accustomed to, have limited uses. For example, it may help for an overnight airplane flight, a crisis and it might even prevent an acute sleeping problem from turning into chronic insomnia but as both the doctors and the consumer have come to learn, sleeping pills have more risks than benefits. Presently, insomnia patients are not given sleeping pills but rather the natural alternative as explained above. When using sleeping pills in the long-run, users might experience generalized anxiety disorder or even a chronic physical illness stimulated by anxiety.