Dreaming in the late morning: summation of REM and diurnal cortical activation.
J Antrobus, T Kondo, R Reinsel, G Fein
Consciousness and Cognition September 1, 1995 DOI: 10.1006/ccog.1995.1039 (opens in new tab)
Study at a glance
AI-extracted from the abstract| Characteristics | Experimental study Peer reviewed |
|---|---|
| Topics | Dreaming |
| Key findings | The major determinant of vivid visual imagery and enhanced cognitive activity during sleep is a pattern of subcortical and cortical activation common to both the REM phase of the REM-NREM cycle and the activated phase of the 24-h diurnal wake-sleep cycle. |
Abstract
Since the discovery that the characteristics of dreaming sleep are far stronger in Stage 1 rapid eye movement (REM) sleep than in any other biological state, investigators have attempted to determine the relative responsibility of the tonic versus the phasic properties of REM sleep for the different characteristics of dreaming--features such as the amount of information in the dream report, the brightness and clarity of the visual images, shifts in thematic continuity, and incongruities of image and meaning. The present experiment is designed to identify dream characteristics that are specifically associated with tonic changes in level of cortical activation within sleep. It samples reports of imagery and thought during spontaneous variations within one phase of the 24-h diurnal rhythm and across the REM-NREM (non-REM) sleep cycle in order to identify the independent and joint contributions of the two cycles to imagery and thought. The rising phase of the diurnal cycle in the late night and morning was estimated from clock time during the late night and early morning and was varied by delaying the sleep onset and waking time of the subjects. Considered together with other studies, the results suggest that the major determinant of vivid visual imagery and enhanced cognitive activity during sleep is a pattern of subcortical and cortical activation that is common to both the REM phase of the REM-NREM cycle and the activated phase of the 24-h diurnal wake-sleep cycle.
Comparable studies
Other experimental studies on dreaming, most cited first.
| Study | Year | Design | Participants |
|---|---|---|---|
| Lucid Dreaming Verified by Volitional Communication during Rem Sleep Selected subjects proficient in lucid dreaming | 1981 | Experimental study | n = 5 |
| Slow Wave Sleep Dreaming Fifty volunteers sleeping in a sleep laboratory | 1992 | Observational study with counterbalanced within-subject awakenings | n = 50 |
| Incorporation of concern- and nonconcern-related verbal stimuli into dream content. Seven male subjects studied during sleep Stages 2 and REM | 1981 | Experimental study | n = 7 |
| Lucid Dreaming and Alpha Activity: A Preliminary Report Good dream recallers | 1982 | Experimental study | n = 10 |
| Lucid dreaming during NREM sleep: Two case reports | 2012 | Sleep laboratory study |
Citations in the library
Cited by 41
- Dreaming as mind wandering: evidence from functional neuroimaging and first-person content reports. Frontiers in Human Neuroscience 2013
- Assessing sleep consciousness within subjects using a serial awakening paradigm Frontiers in Psychology 2013
- Dreaming in NREM Sleep: A High-Density EEG Study of Slow Waves and Spindles Journal of Neuroscience September 10, 2018
- Exploring the neural correlates of dream phenomenology and altered states of consciousness during sleep Neuroscience of Consciousness 2017
- Structural differences between REM and non-REM dream reports assessed by graph analysis PLoS One July 23, 2020
and 36 more in the library