[Affected]

I seem to recall reading somewhere that REM periods - the periods of sleep when you dream - come in cycles of roughly 90 minutes. I've also been told that you need to sleep for some time before you can enter an REM state. The thing is, this doesn't seem to be true. For instance, this morning, between about 9.30 and 12.15 AM I woke up 5 times or so, quite fully as well, and each time I fell asleep again, I had a dream. I can dream even if I only fall asleep for half or even a quarter of an hour. So, I'm wondering whether what I've heard is a load of crap or if there's something odd here.

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Affected

Democracy is a lie

http://affected.xs.mw

[This message has been edited by Affected (edited August 06, 2000).]

[Nex]

thats true.

Theory says that rem sleep comes after about 4 hours normally, but I think this depends on the ammount of stimuli that have to be processed and the ammount of rem sleep you had recently.

I happen to fall asleep for 2 hours too and dream, so I think this 4 hour formula is just very approximative.

[edit] with rats scientists proved that constant lack of rem sleep leads first to hallucinations and later to death (in rats), even if normal sleep is held.

[This message has been edited by Nex (edited August 06, 2000).]

[JohnGone]

Nevermind.

[-incarnation-]

There is a lot of talk of how lack of rem sleep can cause someone to gradualy grow halucigenic or even die. However its also been claimed that REM works as a radiation released in a person's brain. In other words REM radiation can absorbed from other people at a close vicinity. So someone could live easily without entering an REM state themselves, as long as they interact with others who do.

[JohnGone]

Nevermind.

[Affected]

Not learning so much as dreaming... Although I haven't been able to help absorbing some information, even though I haven't tried to find out about this stuff all that much.

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Affected

Democracy is a lie

http://affected.xs.mw

[Dean Welsh]

REM stands for Rapid Eye Movement.

REM radiation???? ha haha cool. I'm gonna go wiggle my eyes around in front of my enemies and see if I can't give them cancer

[Nex]

good tactic.. maybe they die of laughing too hard about your facial expressions then

[Dean Welsh]

My favorite theory on dreaming is everynight your brain has to Filter out the garbage and File all the information you gained that day when you were awake. So as you're ripping through all this info your brain does its best to make some sense of all the Trash that you've accumulated.

And that takes the form of dreams.

[Thorn]

From memory, that 90 minute cycle sounds about right for a normal pattern of sleep. That pattern can be disturbed by a lot of things. Lots of mental activity, and no time out. Sleep deprivation. Study. Anxiety. Drugs. Depression is another. People who are depressed often show a sleep pattern with lots of dreaming, little or no slow wave sleep (which we need to feel rested), and they wake up after the REM phase quite often. (Not saying your depressed or anything, its just one of the things that can happen).

The other phase we dream in is the first five minutes as we sink into sleep. We can think we're awake, but are actually dreaming we're awake. A lot of people who think they have insomnia have this sort of dream. And they'll keep dreaming like that right through the night. The funny thing is they wake up feeling just as tired as if they have been awake all night.

Anyway, my 2c's worth.


[oops, quick edit. Some strange sounding typos in this post].

[This message has been edited by Thorn (edited August 08, 2000).]

[Wrath]

I haven't dreamed since I was in 7th grade (about 5 years ago). When I lay down to sleep, I close my eyes and it seems like 5 seconds later I open them and it's a new day. I know it's common to not remember your dreams, but not for this long of a period of time. I've thought about seeing a head doctor. Thoughts?

[Transcendence]

I dream constantly and I'm always tired. On average I can crank out 2-4 dreams that I remember the next morning when I wake up..later on in the day I remember bits and pieces of others, if there are others


I've read somewhere[long ago] that a person usually has about 22 dreams amidst the course of sleep..but you remember only a few, if that many.

[SaltyDog]

Okay...let's see if I can dig out the info from my college Psych course. The REM cycle is one of several phases in our sleep pattern and we ascend and descend through them on an average of 90 minutes or so every evening. This 90 minutes however includes the entire descending so we only stay in REM for a short amount of time.
What REM basically does, is give the brain time to process the day's events in a controlled environment.(i.e. No outer stimuli)--- Your brain cuts off the receptors to eyes, ears, legs, etc...but sometimes one or so makes it through, and we twitch or jump. During this process period of REM, the brain actually thinks it's awake and treats situations in that manner. However, the Subconscious also tosses in some goodies and many times our dreams are indeterminate and surreal.
Now it IS possible to dream in other phases besides REM, but REM is the phase that helps the brain the most. Here's the theory. If you get only, let's say 4 hours of sleep one night..you *might* wake up not feeling so groggy (this happens to me alot)
But if you've gotten a full 8 hours or more, it feels like you've been hit by a bus. It's because your brain has had time to do it's "full workout" and is fatigued. Now here's the kicker! If you missed that full workout the preceding night, your body will FORCE REM on you the next night, increasing the wave pattern. So you'll get a large amount of REM in a short period of time and you'll wake up feeling like Mike Tyson bit off more than your ear in your boxing dream that night.
As for REM radiation, that's a load of shite. Remembering dreams (or not remembering) has nothing to do with the whether or not you had them.
Here's a secret to remembering them. Like, I said, during phases of your sleep, your brain thinks it's awake and is acting like it is..once physically awake, it continues with a constant approach, and immediately accepts outside stimuli. This stimuli then takes the place of the last events and you lose the dreams. It's a bit tricky, but when you wake up..DON'T MOVE. Lie very still in bed and keep your eyes closed. This will limit the amount of outside stimuli that your brain recieves and will keep the dreams in your short term memory for you to be able to ponder them lucidly. Once you think you have a handle on them, go and write them down immediately.

*Ack!* I feel like Freddie Flick Stones with my small novella here!

[This message has been edited by SaltyDog (edited August 07, 2000).]

[Transcendence]

wow...now I know why my weekends are shite. I have the average of 2-3 hours of sleep on the week, and on the weekends..I sleep all day and dream a lot.


So how about explainging deju vu?

[JohnGone]

Nevermind.

[Dean Welsh]

Deja-Vu.

Theory I've heard is the message from one Eye hits the brain faster than the other ee occasionally. So you seriously feel like you've done it before.

I think that's a bit of a Load though.

[SaltyDog]

Well, here's what I believe Deja-Vu to be. The human brain records virtually everything we encounter with our senses. And it does it all in a very precise chronological manner.
(The reason we know this is that people suffering from Alzheimer's lapse back to specific instances in their lives and remember even the smallest nuances from that time period..even if it happened over 50 years prior)
Although the human brain is so accurate, we rarely have access back to the entire log, since it would flood our mind with experiences. So many times we simply remember unique things..sights, sounds, smells. For me...my sense of smell is the most acute of my senses and therefore triggers the most response.
So here's what I believe deja-vu to be based on those principles. When the mind encounters something, it automatically begins to catalog it. A search-engine for your brain if you will. If it encounters something similar, even possibly exact in a lot of ways it floods your memory with alot of that information. Thusly, feeling like you've done this Exact thing before.
As I said, my sense of smell does that for me. I had a case of deja-vu once in an elevator and the smell of Taiwanese cooking (coming from the 4th floor as I passed it going up) triggered the sensation. Odd.
Anyhow..that's my opinion!

[JohnGone]

Nevermind again.