REM Sleep: Rapid Eye Movement Sleep

This is the last stage in our sleep cycle - the deepest stage which also lasts the longest. Each sleep phase is a slight bit deeper. This means that you are in each phase a little longer than the previous one. It's in this stage - during REM sleep - that dreaming occurs and most of the recuperative functions associated with sleep take place.

1. Your body goes through 4 stages of sleep. REM (rapid eye movement) is the 4th stage and when you do most of your dreaming. “While you are dreaming, your body undergoes noticeable changes.  Your adrenaline rises, your blood pressure increases, and you heart beats faster. Given this hyperactivity, it should be no surprise how someone with a weak heart can die in their sleep (dreammoods.com).” It usually takes 30-90 minutes to reach REM, a person goes in and out of REM 4-7 times a night. During REM your eyes rapidly move back and forth under the eyelids. Our bodies are completely immobile and muscles are relaxed. You may shift around in your sleep but when in REM you are completely still.

REM sleep helps to learn and memorize what was learned during the day. During REM sleep the body and brain are still “awake” and proceeded to dream (What is REM sleep). REM sleep involves strong emotions, learning, and balancing moods which helps create a dream or nightmare. During REM sleep signals are sent to the brain’s cerebral cortex brining out memories and to the spinal cord, which puts the body in a heavy paralysis like state, during this process some stray signals are also sent to the brain which results in a dream. “The reason for these random signals creating a story in a person mind is not yet understood” (What is REM

Have you ever not gotten enough sleep, or cut your sleep short for a class? Show of hands? Alright, well today I will be speaking with you about a subject that is near and dear to all of our hearts. Today I will be talking about sleep, specifically about REM sleep. First off does anyone know what the initials REM even stand for? REM stands for rapid eye movement, and it is the stage of sleep in which most dreams occur. It gets its name from the way your eyes move back and forth in this stage. Though those movements are slower than how your eye would move when you are awake. During a typical night, you cycle between REM and non-REM sleep, but spend the majority of your time asleep in non-REM.

By having a sleep disturbance is not a good thing because a lot of issues could happen if you are suffering from any of the disturbances like, first off, Sleep apnea where you will have trouble breathing while trying to get your rest. If there is an issue you have while sleeping and it is concerning you breathing then is could be the issue that you are not aware of. With the loss of REM sleep there is no way you can remember what is going on during the time of you waking up.

The REM Sleep Behavior Disorder (RBD) is characterized clinically by a history of changes in the nature of the patients' dreams

Only 0.5 percent of the whole world suffers from Rapid Eye Movement Sleep Behavior Disorder (“REM Behavior Disorder and Sleep”). Even though only a small percent of people have it, it is a serious condition. Rapid Eye Movement Sleep Behavior Disorder is vividly acting out dreams, and can be a serious and dangerous disorder.

the deep sleep that occurred during the first hour after going to sleep.This sleep is exceedingly restful and is associated with decrease in both peripheral vascular tone and many other vegetative functions of the body. For instance, there are 10 to 30 per cent decreases in blood pressure, respiratory rate, and basal metabolic rate.Although slow-wave sleep is frequently called “dreamless sleep,”dreams and sometimes even nightmares do occur during slow-wave sleep. The difference between the dreams that occur in slow- wave sleep and those that occur in REM sleep is that those of REM sleep are associated with

Rapid eye movement (REM ) sleep behaviour disorder (RBD) is characterized by loss of the normal voluntary muscle atonia during REM sleep, associated with excessive motor activity while dreaming. REM sleep behaviour disorder (RBD) is a parasomnia characterized by the loss of normal skeletal muscle atonia during REM sleep with prominent motor activity accompanying dreaming. Polysomnography is record your heart,breating,brain waves, oxygen level in your blood. Also,leg movements during the study. clonazepam appears to decrease REM sleep phasic activity but has no effect on REM sleep atonia. The most intense dreams are experienced during the rapid eye movement periods of REM sleep and motor inhibition is at its most intense during these same periods(Chase

This stage is believed to help people enter deeper stages of sleep (4). Stage 3 sleep consists of 20-50 percent delta activity and stage 4 sleep of more than 50 percents delta activity (4). Stages 3 and 4 are characterized as being slow wave sleep in addition to being the deepest levels of sleep. Approximately 90 minutes after being asleep, people enter rapid-eye-movement (REM) sleep (4). REM sleep consists of rapid eye movements, a desynchronized EEG, sensitivity to external stimulation, muscle paralysis and dreaming (4).

Does REM sleeps physiological features has a relationship with specially and sort of dreams? This question was answered by early studies reports which had proved that there is a positive correlation between REM periods of sleep and dreams which are more effective and sentimental (Alan S. Eiser, 2005, Physiology and psychology of dreams). This subject tells that physiological characteristics of REM stage of the sleep are directly related with dreams that the person experiences in that stage. On the other hand, there is a relation between NREM and REM sleep characteristics and wakefulness. These similar characteristics indicate that how physiological cases have almost same activity level with wakefulness situation in the REM sleep. According to National Academy of Science, REM sleep causes an increased risk of having hearth attack because of the considerably high hearth rate and blood pressure compared to wakefulness. Also, sympathetic-nerve activity shows a rise in REM sleep while is decreasing in NREM sleep. Cerebral blood flow and metabolic rate reduce in NREM sleep; however, just like sympathetic-nerves they come up with a substantially level to compare wakefulness

Our sleep cycle is usually five ninety-minute long cycles and consists of four stages of NREM sleep and is followed by REM sleep. Constant disturbances with the sleep cycle may result in sleep deprivation. After being sleep deprived, people tend to develop microsleeps which are episodes of sleep lasting only a few seconds that occur during wakefulness. People who are sleep deprived experience disruptions in mood, mental abilities, reaction time, perceptual skills, and complex motor skills and tend to consume more calories and gain weight. When sleep becomes uninterrupted after being sleep deprived, the person will experience REM rebound. REM rebound is the amount of time spent in REM sleep increases by as much as fifty percent. The brain needs to experience the full range of sleep states, making up for missing sleep components when given the

part of their time in engaged in REM sleep, a state that may provide them with

 REM Sleep (Rapid Eye-Movement Sleep): a stage of sleep associated with dreaming, and characterized by frequent eye movements, suppression of the muscles.

REM sleep disruption insists that the sleeper is having troubling transitioning into various stages of sleep, like a computer failing to process data. Scientists have yet to uncover any empirical evidence that could explain this faulty transition. The paralysis remains, yet the mind is aware. This might explain why many who have experienced this phenomenon feel as though they have woken up in a coffin or grave. Michael Breus, Ph.D., clinical psychologist and fellow at the American Academy of Sleep Medicine helps elaborate: “Most patients say the same thing to describe sleep paralysis: that it feels like you woke up dead. You know