To Sleep, No Doubt to Dream By Sierra Hieronymus and Sierra Carrel
Regularly occurring periods of eye mobility and concomitant phenomena, 1953 Psychologists: Eugene Aserinsky and Nathaniel Kleitman Aserinsky noticed periods of eye movement in sleeping babies Theorized that these periods of active eye movement were associated with periods of dreaming Decided to expand the research to see if adults’ eye movement was also associated with dreaming
The Experiment & Results 20 adults participated Subjects were awakened Asked if they had been dreaming and what their dream was Total of 27 awakenings during the experiment: 20 vividly recalled dreams, 7 only recalled having dreamt Aserinsky discovered the concept of rapid eye movement sleep- REM sleep
The effect of dream deprivation, 1960 Psychologist: William Dement Dement realized that everyone dreams a substantial amount Would it be possible for human beings to function normally when deprived of dreams?
The Experiment & Results 8 men ages 23-32 Recorded baseline sleep cycle- 7 hours per night on average, 19.5% dreaming Woken up right before entering REM sleep Number of times the subjects were woken up from REM sleep increased as the experiment progressed Post-experiment, total dream time increased to 26%
Significance of each Experiment & Subsequent Research Aserinsky’s discovery of REM sleep led to researchers improving their understanding of sleep Four stages of sleep, after which the body moves back through the stages, reaches REM sleep During REM sleep, the body undergoes sleep paralysis All humans dream, even if they don’t remember dreams Dement discovered REM rebound effect
Ethical Issues & Recent Applications Both Aserinsky’s and Dement’s experiments involved waking subjects up frequently during the night, thereby depriving them of sleep Dement wasn’t sure of the possible long-term effects of dream deprivation controlled this by only depriving subjects for a few nights and then allowing a recovery period A recent study found REM sleep is necessary for better learning Daytime sleep produces different REM patterns than nighttime sleep