How does REM work? (the sleep state, not the band)

[abbot lau]

I was under the impression that REM (Rapid Eye Movement) sleep , the state you are in while dreaming, kicks in something like 40 minutes after you go to sleep.


However I sometimes drop off  and go immediately into a dream and awake ten minutes later feeling pretty well rested and alert, like I've been asleep for a long time.   Is this what they call a 'Power nap'?  I  find that when I've had a sleep of this type I'm not tired for hours afterwards- which is great if I need to work but a pain in the arse if I'm trying to get  a full night's sleep.

And another thing:  I seem to get my best ideas when I'm in that just-dropping-off-but-not-quite-asleep state.  It's annoying to have to get up and write them down, but if I don't I invariably forget them by the next morning. Is this  Delta sleep, where one's brain is supposed to be in  a creative mood?

Do any Whores out there know more about sleep and REM patterns?  I know I could just spool through some websites on the topic, but I'd prefer to hear some personal experiences.

I'm also lazy.

[Claude the Racecar Driving Rockstar Super Sleuth]

Isnt it just that you don't remember sleep if you don't dream, so you think that dreams start instantly?

[Munday's Chylde]

I'm dredging back memories from my stooodent days but im pretty sure REM is a two hourly thing and you can dream without being in it so theres no reason why you cant be dreaming 10 minutes after falling asleep.

[slim]

There's this thread which might have a similar question in if you want a look. I think there was some discussion about sleep states in it, but I can't be arsed looking through 33 pages of thread for you. :)

[abbot lau]

Isnt it just that you don't remember sleep if you don't dream, so you think that dreams start instantly?

Maybe, but sometimes I'll  have a dream and wake up thinking  I've been asleep for ages but the clock says it's been only 10 minutes.

Then again, it could have been 24 hours and 10 minutes...

[Claude the Racecar Driving Rockstar Super Sleuth]

According to Wikipedia, REMsleep and dreaming haven't been conclusively linked.

[Baxter]

I recall a few studies into this primarily that although people who have been woken up from non-REM sleep can often report that they have been dreaming immediately prior to taking it is far more common to experience a dream while in REM sleep giving arise to the opinion that although REM sleep is not exclusively the dream state that dreams occur in it is bar far the most common, along with the connection between REM sleep and a greater tendency to dream a study by Horne in 1988 showed that if subjects are deprived of sleep for a period of time when they finally go to sleep although they will not sleep for very much longer in total they will spend more time in stage 4 and REM sleep giving the impression that the lighter forms of sleep are less focused on bodily restoration.

I also recall a really cool experiment in which a cat is put onto a disk and it mush use it's claws to hold onto or it will fall into a bath of water, when the cat falls asleep it looses muscle control and promptly gets a bath, I really do love all that crazy stuff they used to do in the 50's

[Claude the Racecar Driving Rockstar Super Sleuth]

Apparently the body is paralysed during REMsleep. Except for the eyes obviously.

[abbot lau]

Christ, now I'm remembering an episode of QED in about 1988 about this . It was presented by Bill Oddie and they got him to go to sleep in a lab and while he was in REM they showered him with water. Then he woke up and they asked him what he'd been dreaming. He said he'd dreamed he was at sea and getting soaked by waves.

Then he looked down at his wet pyjamas and said "I seem to have pissed myself" with what I thought was admirable dignity. I would have taken the QED producer by the neck and mashed his face into the ECG machine.

In the same episode they also pulled a complete stranger off the street  (after he gave a vox pop saying he didn't dream) , put him in the sleep lab and viewed him by heat sensing cameras when he was in REM. Then the scientists pointed out that he had an erection.

An erection!  This was some innocent bloke they'd vox popped on the street!


Can anyone corroborate this story as I'm beginning to wonder if I didn't just make it all up. (or did I dream it, ha ha)

[Claude the Racecar Driving Rockstar Super Sleuth]

I hope that did happen. That has to have been one of the best documentaries ever.