Dreams and REM Sleep

Some of dreams' mysteries are explanable: such as why you sometimes wake up from a dream and can't move, or why your husband appears to be "happy to see you" when he wakes up. Other questions are not so clear. Do dreams occur only during REM sleep? How are dreams produced? And of course there's the big one: do dreams mean anything?

Podcast Lecture: The Somniloquy

Readings:

Bulkeley, An Introduction to the Psychology of Dreaming: Ch. 5

Dement, The Promise of Sleep: Ch. 13

Lavie, The Enchanted World of Sleep: Ch. 7

Questions:

1. What are some of the physiological characteristics of REM sleep?

2. What is Hobson's Activation-Synthesis Hypothesis? How does it explain the character of dreams?

3. What is the purpose of REM sleep according to Hobson?

4. Explain Crick and Mitchison's Reverse Learning Theory.

5. What happened when Dement substituted food for REM sleep in one of his test subjects?

6. Do scientists believe that dream and REM sleep are identical? What happened when David Foulkes reworded the question his dreaming test subjects were asked when awakened in the middle of different sleep stages?

Activities:

Dream Journal: Take stock of the dream journal you started in lesson one. Has your dream recall changed at all? Do you notice common themes or characters in your dreams?

Dream Experiment: If you can, enlist a helper for this activity. Ask a friend to wake you up in the middle of a nap or nighttime sleep, and pose the question: "Did anything cross your mind?" Be sure to note what time you went to sleep and have the friend note what time she or he wakes you, as well as your response. Repeat a couple of times, and compare your results, being sure to note how long you had been asleep roughly before you were awakened. Can you estimate which sleep stage you were in? What are your responses like?