REM sleep is a stage of sleep where the brain becomes extremely active, and people often have vivid dreams that they remember when they wake up. It is characterized by jerky movements of the eyes under the lids and is believed to allow the brain to consolidate and process memories.
Rapid eye movement (REM) is a physiological phenomenon that occurs during fifth stage sleep, the part of the sleep cycle in which people dream. Some people refer to this stage of sleep as REM sleep, referring to the physiological markers that can be used to identify it. The first rapid eye movement research was done in 1950s Chicago by Nathaniel Kleitman and Eugene Aserinsky, and the two revealed a number of interesting things about sleep and cognition with their research.
Humans aren’t the only animals to demonstrate rapid eye movement. Birds and other mammals also appear to have REM cycles in their sleep. The younger an animal is, the more time it spends in REM sleep; children, for example, can spend up to seven hours a day in REM sleep. The exact function of this sleep stage is not fully understood, although scientists have a couple of hypotheses.
As you can imagine, rapid eye movement is characterized by jerky movements of the eyes under the lids. This movement is totally involuntary and is typically accompanied by a still body, as the brain appears to block the neurotransmitters that allow muscles to move during REM sleep. During REM sleep, people often have vivid, distinctive dreams that they remember when they wake up; researchers who have disrupted REM sleep often cause subjects to recall up to 80 percent of their dreams, and these researchers also noted that subjects compensate for the disruption with a long phase of rapid eye movement sleep.
There are five distinct stages in sleep, which repeat over and over again. A full cycle takes about an hour and a half, which has led some people to suggest that sleep should occur in hour-and-a-half increments; in other words, six hours of sleep may actually be better than seven. The first four stages of sleep start out light and get progressively deeper, with brain waves slowing down dramatically. In the fifth stage, REM sleep, the brain becomes extremely active, almost as if the sleeper were awake.
The rapid eye movements associated with this phase can be used to identify it, but researchers can also identify REM sleep patterns using machines that measure brain activity. The REM sleep signature is quite distinctive and recognizable to many sleep researchers. It is believed that this stage of sleep may allow the brain to consolidate and process memories, and may also be a rest period for the mind, allowing it to recharge after a busy day.
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