REM Sleep

"The foundation for much of what we know about sleep was gathered approximately 40 years ago by researcher, Michel Jouvet. This French scientist studied the effects of gross brain lesions and brain transections on sleep behavior and related phenomena. It was Jouvet who first suggested that a brainstem region is responsible for the initiation of events that result in the stage of sleep called REM sleep. REM sleep is a stage associated with rapid eye movements, a high degree of brain wave activity, relaxation of large muscles of the body, and increased frequency of dreams. More about the stages of sleep and how REM sleep fits into this overall picture is discussed elsewhere. REM sleep is initiated by high amplitude, low frequency (1 Hertz,
According to Diane Hales, author of "The complete book of sleep: how your nights affect your days" The subjective features involve vibration that occurs in the middle of the ear, relaxing of the muscles in the face, and limbs, and increased heart and pulse rate. Whereas the objective features involve vivid dream remembrance, and arousal, and wakefulness. The subjective and objective features provide reason to believe that REM sleep is similar to being in the state of wakefulness because the mind remains
Contrary, to these ideas the brain is in a state of activity to the same extent of consciousness. During this stage, dreaming as well as REM sleep result in an increase of heart rate rise of blood pressure, and faster and more irregular breathing habits. These periods last from a few minutes to as long as an hour, averaging in twenty minutes in length. The cycle is repeated throughout the night about every ninety minutes. Whenever they begin the pattern of activity from the sleepers brain changes to resemble that of alertful