A study of dreaming in the activated sleep (1)

Abstract

During the all-night natural sleep, the activated sleeps (REM period) were confirmed by the polygraphic method in which the EEG, eye movements, pulse rate, respiration rate and the EMG of the sleeping subject were simultaneously recorded. The sleeper was awakened five minutes after an activated sleep pattern appeared and was made to introspect his dreaming. The following results were gained from investigations of the physiological and psychological changes observed in this period. 1) The mean of frequency of occurrence of activated sleeps in the all-night natural sleep was 3.8±1.4, and that of the total length was 84.8±40.9 minutes. Hence the rate of activated to all-night sleeps was 19.5±9.0%. 2) Sleeping subjects were awakened 5 minutes after the initial onset of activated sleeps and were made to recollect the contents of their dreams. Of 69 REM periods of the 10 subjects, 48 were dreaming (+) (69.6%), 14 were dreaming (-) (20.3%), and the rest were indistinguishable from mere thinking. 3) The changes in the EEG integration values that were obtained by the band pass filter type automatic frequency analyzer were not significantly different between dreaming (+) and dreaming (-). However, two types were found of the changes in REM periods: the one dominant in the slow band (1-7HZ) and the other in 8—9HZ. 4) The REM patterns in activated sleeps could be classified into 4 categories from the criteria of amplitude, interval and appearing modes of REM. 5) Upon examination of the relationship between the occurrence or non-occurrence of dreaming and the REM patterns, the appearance of the RD (the stair-type REM pattern) in dreaming (+) was significant at the 5% level, but there was no difference in respect to the hour of sleep or the electrode positions for the eye-movement recording. 6) The contents of dreaming were dominantly visual: acoustic and tactile imageries of dreaming were also reported from a few subjects. © 1970, The Japanese Psychological Association. All rights reserved.