REM (Rapid Eye Movement) is What Allows you to "Dream Big"

Today I am reviewing the article entitled "The Relation of Eye Movements During Sleep to Dream Activity: An Objective Method for the Study of Dreaming" by William Dement and and Nathaniel Kleitman.  This paper addresses dream activity as it relates to REM (rapid eye movement) sleep.  Various physiological measures were used to determine the proper environment (or lack thereof) for dreaming.  Seven adult males and two adult females participated in the study -- focused data coming from only five of these participants, the other four used for confirmation related to the findings of the first five.  EEGs recorded REM cycles: defined as "discrete periods during which [one's] eyes exhibit rapid movements" (Dement, Kleitman 340).  These sleep segments are identified by their low-voltage, fairly fast EGG patterns.  Absence of this phenomena indicated deeper sleep, perhaps pre-high voltage.  REM's were not recorded during initial sleep onset, following the traditionally self-reported pattern of dreams occurring later on in sleep rather than at the beginning.  The average REM period recording occurred roughly every 92 minutes, on par with the average assumed in the field.  Participants were aroused abruptly from sleep, often during apparent REM sleep, and asked to report if they were just dreaming and if so to describe/ recount the dream he or she just experienced.  It was noted that dream recall dropped quickly off when awoken out of a sleep that did not present as REM.  The study concluded, without total certainty, but with a fair amount of confidence that in fact dream cycles are directly related to onset of REM sleep and that dreams then in fact may only occur during REM, a phenomenon not altogether frequent during an average night's sleep.  This final point explains why we recall never more than one dream when we wake up in the morning -- if that.

In other words, the ability to dream requires a lot of sleep, because REM is not how we spend most of our limited sleep time.  Why shouldn't be different for lofty dreams about our lives and future?  The answer is apparently always to get a good night sleep.  I know that I am only able to recall dreams every so often, and when I do, I see it as a "big deal" because to me, the presence of a dream means that I was in a deep enough sleep to have REM cycles...I just wonder what I look like with eye balls that shake and move while the rest of my is still.  I am sure we do in fact look possessed or other-worldly during REM.  No matter, I am glad to dream because, if I remember a given dream, I am afforded an avenue through which to evaluate the previous day and psycho-analyze whatever thoughts were apparently running through my head.  Do I take these dreams with a grain if salt?  Is there some value to them, or meaning?  I think that its somewhere in the middle.  It is no wonder that people have historically (in some cultures) kept dream journals or prayed to the god or goddess of dreaming...because dreams allow us an escape from reality that is close enough to our lives for reflection and sometimes application.  Some of the best musicians say they wake out of sleep with a song idea and write down in the middle of the night before they forget about it.  My mom says she remembers important things she has to accomplish the next day in the wee hours of the morning.  I have before woken out of a dream and fell back asleep to the same one, waiting for its conclusion.  It is no surprise that human curiosity is peaked at the phenomenon of dreaming, because we can rest and recover from reality when we dream.  We aim to "keep dreaming" as they say; and must always look for more, reaching beyond our biggest dreams.