MelissaA
Brenton
Shilpa Karhik
The Facts About REM SLEEP And DREAMS!
July 5th 2007 00:25
- The science that led to the discovery of rapid eye-movement sleep, otherwise known as REM was not initiated until 1953, because the scientists involved were concerned about wasting paper.
- REM sleep occurs usually begins 90 minutes after falling asleep in bursts totalling 2 hours a night.
- Dreams, once thought to occur only during REM sleep, also occur in non-REM sleep, but to a lower degree. It's possible there may not be a single moment of our sleep when we are actually dreamless.
- REM dreams are characterised by bizarre plots, but non-REM dreams are repetitive and involve thought. For example, you may suspect you've left something valuable behind somewhere.
- Snoring occurs only in non-REM sleep
- No-one knows for sure if other species dream but some do have sleep cycles similar to humans.
- Elephants sleep standing up during non-REM sleep, but lie down for REM sleep.
- Some scientists believe we dream to fix experiences in long-term memory, that is, we dream about things worth remembering. Others reckon we dream about things worth forgetting - to eliminate overlapping memories that would otherwise clog up our brains.
- REM sleep may help developing brains mature. Premature babies experience 75% REM sleep, 10% more than those born at full-term.
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