Understanding REM Sleep: Dreams and Brain Activation

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Since the beginning of time we have used the function of sleep to digest the previous day’s events but At a University in Chicago, in 1952 Eugene Aserinsky, Nathaniel Kleitman, and William C. Dement, discovered phases of rapid eye movement during sleep and classed a difference between what is now known as REM sleep and NON REM sleep. Recent discoveries have concluded that REM sleep occurs during the dream phase of sleep and NON REM covers all other periods.
Many associate sleeping with peace and quiet, but actually our brains are found to be more active during sleep than at any other time of the day. After reading the title to my essay many would put this paper down and claim that they have never experienced REM sleep, but that’s not entirely true, we all dream, every time we sleep, yet only 40% of people can recall they had one and only 32% will be able to recall some content with a smaller percentage being able to recall the dream in detail. ‘There's a time limit to how much you can remember about your dream’ . …show more content…

When deciphering the importance of dreams on behaviour, the study itself has to come to a universal definition to fit the term ‘dreaming’. The University of California Santa Cruz defines dreams as ‘a form of thinking that occurs when there is certain yet minimal brain activity going on’. However some do ‘argue that dreams themselves are just our day’s thoughts running wild’ . Nevertheless, there is a steady increase in the number of people growing an interest into Oneirology. The confusing picture behind the lack of knowledge in this area is due to the lack of equipment that can be used to study the brain mid sleep. ‘However this is an issue that is improving and scientists are making further developments every day to finding the

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