Student Name

Study Name/ Author/ Year The Relation of Eye Movements during Sleep to dream activity: an objective method for the
study of dreaming Dement and Kleitman 1957
What is the Biological Approach
approach being
use?
Physiological psychologists are interested in how our biology affects our
physiology. They look at the role genetics, brain function, hormones and
neurotransmitters have on our behavior. Many physiological psychologists
believe that our behavior can be explained via biological mechanisms more so
that psychological mechanisms. However, others believe that there may be an
interaction between the two.

Psychology Being In the dream or rapid eye movement (REM) sleep stage, our eyes move under
investigated the lids.

● In Aserinsky and Kleitman’s (1955) study, participants woken from this

stage were more likely to report a vivid, visual dream than participants
work from NREM sleep
● It is possible to separate into 4 stages 1-lightest 4-deepest

● REM sleep resembles wakefulness in some ways (eyes move we often

experience vivid thoughts in the form of dreams, and our brains are
active)
● Different from wakefulness; we are quite difficult to wake up, we are
fairly insensitive to external stimuli, and we are paralysed.

Background • BEFORE THE STUDY TOOK PLACE, A CONNECTION BETWEEN REM (RAPID EYE
MOVEMENT) SLEEP AND DREAMING WAS COMMONPLACE BASED ON
SUBJECTIVE DATA
• PHYSIOLOGICAL APPROACH TO DREAMING IS THAT DREAMS ARE RANDOM
FIRINGS OF NEURONS THAT WE PUT MEANING TO
• VERY DIFFERENT THAN FREUD’S IDEA THAT DREAMS ARE OUR
UNCONSCIOUS THOUGHTS & URGES COMING TO LIGHT
• IN 1955, ASERINKSY & KLEITMAN CONCLUDED THAT THERE WAS MORE
DREAM ACTIVITY IN REM THEN NREM SLEEP
 • PROBLEM WAS DATA WAS BASED LARGELY ON SUBJECT RECALL THAT WAS
ERROR-FILLED FROM FORGETTING, FALSIFYING, OR DEMAND
CHARACTERISTICS
• STEMMING FROM THIS, DEMENT (HIS STUDENT) & KLEITMAN THEORIZED
THAT, THROUGH AN EEG, ONE CAN OBJECTIVELY MEASURE WHETHER
SOMEONE WAS DREAMING OR NOT BY INVESTIGATING WHETHER REM
SLEEP SIGNIFICANTLY CORRELATED WITH DREAMING

Measuring Sleep
● EEG- Electro (electric) Encephalo (in head) graph (writing)
o Detects tiny electrical charges associated with nerve and muscle
activity.
o Produces a chart that shows brain waves
▪ These change with frequency and amplitude (height- which
indicated voltage) of electrical output from the brain over time
▪ Frequency- # of events per fixed period of time (# of eye
movements per minute) or # of brain waves per second
▪ Amplitude: the ‘height’ of waves, indicating voltage
o New machines are computerized but D&K had continuously running
paper- the faster it moved the more detail could be recorded. (usually
moved at 3-6 millimeters per second. #mm for detailed analysis
● EOG- The EEG electrodes and machine can also be used to record eye
movements. The output (EOG) indicates the presence or absence of eye
movements, their size and their direction (horizontal or vertical)

Stages of Sleep ● DURING A TYPICAL NIGHT, A SLEEPER PASSES THROUGH DIFFERENT

LEVELS OF SLEEP IN A CYCLIC FASHION EVERY 90 MINUTES
● AWAKE (BEFORE DRIFTING OFF)
 ● MEASURED BY EEG (TYPICALLY BETA WAVES)
● BUT WHEN RELAXED, BRAIN WAVES SLOW, BECOME MORE
REGULAR, AND HAVE GREATER AMPLITUDE (NOW ALPHA WAVES)
● ASLEEP LEVEL 1 AND 2
● LIGHT SLEEP CHARACTERIZED BY IRREGULAR EEG PATTERNS.
● DRIFTING OFF TO SLEEP, THE BRAIN SLOWS FURTHER & YIELDS
GREATER WAVE FREQUENCY & AMPLITUDE (THETA WAVES)
● ASLEEP LEVEL 3 AND 4
● DEEPER LEVELS OF SLEEP CHARACTERIZED BY DELTA WAVES
(SLOWEST W/HIGHEST AMPLITUDE)
● LEVEL 4 CONSIDERED ‘DEEP SLEEP’
● MORE DIFFICULT TO WAKE SOMEONE, BUT WILL RESPOND TO
SIGNIFICANT NOISES (ALARM, BABY CRYING, ETC.)
Sleep Cycle ● SLEEP CYCLE GOES FROM 1-2-3-4… 3-2-REM… 2, 3, 4… 3-2-REM
ROUGHLY EVERY 90 MINUTES
● AFTER STAGE 4, THE SLEEPER GOES BACK DOWN THE ‘SLEEP
STAIRCASE’ TO STAGE 2 AND THERE IS A PERIOD OF REM
SLEEP LASTING 15 TO 20 MINUTES (REPLACES STAGE 1).
THESE SLEEP STATES ALTERNATE DURING THE NIGHT
STARTING WITH A RAPID DESCENT INTO DEEP SLEEP,
FOLLOWED BY PROGRESSIVELY INCREASED EPISODES OF
LIGHTER SLEEP AND REM SLEEP

REM Sleep NAMED FOR DARTING EYE MOVEMENTS THAT ARE VISIBLE TO THE
NAKED EYE AND MEASURED THROUGH A EOG
CHARACTERISTICS:
• FAST, IRREGULAR EEG ACTIVITY SIMILAR TO AWAKE STATE
• TEMPORARY PARALYSIS (LACK OF MUSCLE TONE)
• THROUGH THE NIGHT, REM EPISODES INCREASE AND DELTA SLEEP
• DECREASES (EVENTUALLY TO NONE)
• PONS PLAYS A ROLE IN SLEEP- SENDS SIGNALS TO VISUAL SYSTEM
(THALAMUS & CEREBRAL CORTEX) AND TO SPINAL CORD)
AIM Overall AIM: to investigate dreaming in an objective way by looking for
relationships between eye movements in sleep and the dreamer’s recall.
 ● Specific AIMS:
1. To test whether dream recall differs between REM and nREM
sleep.
2. To investigate whether there is a positive correlation between
subjective estimate of dream duration and length of the REM
period.
3. To test whether eye-movement patterns are related to dream
content.
Lab: Study 1 1. To test whether dream recall differs between REM and nREM sleep.
Participants were woken either from REM or nREM sleep, but were not told
which sleep stage they had been in prior to waking. They confirmed whether
they had been having a dream, and if so, described the content into a recorder.

● Natural Experiment in a laboratory setting.

● IV- REM Sleep/ nREM Sleep

● DV- whether a dream was reported and, if so, the detail

Lab: Study 2 To investigate whether there is a positive correlation between subjective

estimates of dream duration and the length of the REM period. Participants were
woken following either 5 or 15 minutes in REM sleep. They were asked to
choose whether they thought they had been dreaming 5 or 15 minutes. Longer
REM periods were also tested. Again, they gave a report of dream content and
the # of words in the dream narrative was counted.

• True Experiment- data was used in both experimental and correlational

designs:
• Experimental analysis- the levels of the
• IV were waking after 5 or 15 minutes
• DV was the participant’s choice of 5 or 15 minutes
• Correlational analysis- the two variables were the participants time
estimate and the number of words in the dream narrative
• Repeated measures- each Ps tested in both conditions
Lab: Study 3 To test whether eye-movement patterns are related to dream content0 whether
these patterns represent the visual experience of the dream content or whether
they are simply random movements arising from the activation of the central
nervous system during dream sleep. The direction of eye movements was
detected using electrodes around the eyes (EOG). Participants were woken after
exhibiting a single eye-movement pattern for longer than one minute. Again they
were asked to report their dream.

• Natural experiment conducted in a laboratory

• IV- eye-movement pattern type (cannot be manipulated by the
researchers
 • DV- report of dream content
Sample • 9 Adults- 7M & 2F
• 5 Intensely Investigated for 6-17 nights
• 50-77 awakenings
• 4 TO confirm findings for 1-2 nights
• 4-10 awakenings
• Each participant is identified with a set of initials

Sampling Opportunity
Method:

Strengths of Method
Sampling
method and ● Large numbers of participants can be obtained relatively easily, but in
Sample this study we use small numbers so this does not apply

Weakness of Method
Sampling
method and ● Suffer from a lack of generalizability, researcher is unlikely to gain a wide
Sample variety of participants to allow generalization because this technique
draws in one type of person
Sample

● Small sample

Data Collection ● Observation- which way was the eye moving

● Observation of EEG machine read out

● Interviews- Ps were asked to recall dream content

● Correlation- EEG machine read out and Ps responses

Research Natural Laboratory; observation, interviews, correlations
Method

Evaluation: High level of standardization and can be replicated to test reliability:

Strengths of this
● Standardised procedure- pre-study levels of caffeine and alcohol, the
method
doorbell sound, the EEG monitoring.
(with example
● Other researchers could easily replicate this study to test reliability
from the study
High level of control, researchers can be more confident it is the IV directly
affecting the DV
● High Control: all participants experienced the same conditions( see
standardization) mean that for each part of the experiment, the
researchers could confidently conclude cause and effect (dream recall is
affected by stage of sleep)
● Control for extraneous variables- If some Ps had woken slowly they
would have forgotten their dream, avoided using a loud doorbell

Evaluation: Artificial setting; low ecological validity

Weaknesses of
● In lab experiments participants take part in tasks that are nothing like
this method
real-life ones, so the tasks lack mundane realism
(with example o The task of being woken up and then asking to recall dream
from the Study) content or estimate dream length is not a normal activity for
people to engage in.
o Therefore study may lack mundane realism
● Low Ecological Validity
o Participants had to sleep in an unusual environment (a lab) with
electrodes on their head (EEG monitor) which is, of course, an
artificial setting for them.
o Ps who usually drink coffee or alcohol could have experienced
sleep or dreams that were not typical for them as they had been
asked to refrain from those drinks
Research design Repeated Measures- participants take part in all conditions of the IV

Evaluation: Using repeated measures eliminates any effect of participant variables

Strengths of the
Research Design
Evaluation: • Since all participants take part in all conditions there is a chance of demand
Weaknesses of characteristics
the Research
• Order effects can affect the findings of a study and reduce validity
Design
• Practice effects- participants get better at a task when they complete
a similar one

Variables: IV 1. IV- REM Sleep/ nREM Sleep’

2. IV were waking after 5 or 15 minutes
3. IV- eye-movement pattern type (cannot be manipulated by the researchers

Variables: DV 1. DV- whether a dream was reported and, if so, the detail
2. DV was the participant’s choice of 5 or 15 minutes
3. DV- report of dream content

Materials • SLEEP LAB @ UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO

• EEG MACHINE TO MEASURE SLEEP OBJECTIVELY
• ELECTRODES WERE GATHERED AT THE TOP OF PS HEAD INTO
A SINGLE CORD
• DOORBELL USED TO WAKE UP PS
• TAPE RECORDER USED TO RECORD PS RECOLLECTIONS OF
WHAT THEY WERE DREAMING ABOUT

Procedure: Part 1. During the day prior to arrival: Ps were told to eat normally and to avoid
1: Before coming alcohol and caffeine
to the lab and 2. Ps arrived at the laboratory just before their normal bedtime and were
getting hooked fitted with electrical recording apparatus.
up • Electrodes near the eyes (to record eye movements) and on the
scalp (to record brain waves)
• Once participants were in bed in a quiet, dark room, wires from
the electrodes (which fed to the EEG in the experimenter’s room)
were gathered into a pony tail from each participants head to
allow the person freedom of movement.

Procedure: 3. EEG ran continuously throughout the night to monitor participants sleep
Throughout the stages and to inform the researchers when participants should be woken up
night
4. Ps were woken by a doorbell that was loud enough to wake from any sleep
stage
• Researcher did not have to enter the room so they were all treated
the same
5. Doorbell was wrung at various points throughout the night and
participants indicated:
• Whether they had been dreaming prior to being woken up
• If so describe the dream into the voice recorder
• Occasionally researcher entered the room after a Ps had finished
speaking in order to ask questions.

Pattern for • Patterns of Rem and nREM wakings differed between the participants. The
Waking Ps Ps with the initials:
• PM and KC were determined randomly to eliminate any possibility of
an unintentional pattern.
• WD was treated the same way, although he was told he would be
woken only from dream sleep
• DN was woken in a repeating pattern of 3 REM followed by 3 nREM
• IR from REM and nREM was chosen by the researcher
Procedure: • Ps were woken by a doorbell that was loud enough to wake from any
sleep stage
Study 2
• Researcher did not have to enter the room so they were all
treated the same
• Doorbell was wrung at various points throughout the night and
participants indicated:
• Whether they had been dreaming prior to being woken up
• If so describe the dream into the voice recorder
• Occasionally researcher entered the room after a Ps had
finished speaking in order to ask questions.
• Estimate how long you have been dreaming either 5 or 15 minutes

Procedure: • Ps were woken by a doorbell that was loud enough to wake from any sleep
stage
Study 3
• Researcher did not have to enter the room so they were all treated
the same
• Doorbell was wrung after a single eye movement pattern had lasted for
more than 1 minute.
• Mainly Vertical
• Mainly Horizontal
• Both Vertical and Horizontal
• Little to no eye movement
• Describe the dream into the voice recorder
• Occasionally researcher entered the room after a Ps had
finished speaking in order to ask questions.

Data Type and • Study 1:

Collection
• Quantitative- measured EEG patterns in REM and nREM
• Qualitative- Dream content
• Dream was only counted if there was a coherent fairly
 detailed description of the content
• Study 2:
• Quantitative- EEG patterns in REM sleep and Ps estimated time of
dreaming, number of words in the dream narrative
• Qualitative- Dream content
• Dream was only counted if there was a coherent fairly
detailed description of the content
• Study 3:
• Quantitative- EEG patterns in REM sleep
• Qualitative-
• Dream content- Dream was only counted if there was a
coherent fairly detailed description of the content
• Observation- the movement of the eyes

TOTALS= 351 AWAKENINGS OVER 61 NIGHTS (5.7/P)

Awakenings ● 21% IN FIRST 2 HRS
● 29% IN 3-4 HRS,
● 28% IN 5-6 HRS
● 22% IN 7-8 HR
General Findings • All participants dream every night
• Uninterrupted dream stages:
• Lasted 3-50 minutes (mean 20)
• Typically longer later in the night
• Showed intermittent bursts of around 2-100 REM
General findings: • REM never occurred at the start of sleep, although brain waves similar to
Sleep Cycle REM sleep occurred
• All PS showed periods of REM, characterized by a low voltage, fast pattern
EEG
• The mean occurrence of REM sleep was once every 92 minutes, range 10-
104
 • When woken from nREM sleep Ps returned to nREM sleep but when woken
from REM sleep they typically did not dream again until next REM phase
(except sometimes at the final REM cycle of the night)

Results: Question REM- 79.6 (152/191) of

1 awakenings produced dream recall
nREM- 93% (149/160) of
awakenings did not produce dream
recall
Participant WD was no less
accurate even though he was misled
to expect to be dreaming every time.
Ps did not become more accurate
with practice

1. Participants frequently described dreams when woken from REM but rarely did from
nREM
a. There were some individual differences
2. When Ps were woken in nREM they described feelings rather than dreams
3. Least likely to remember a dream if they were awoken during sleep stage 2- tended to
be bewildered and report feelings such as anxiety, pleasantness and detachment
4. When Ps were awoken closer to REM sleep (w/in 8 mins), they displayed better recall
of dreams.
5. Awakenings from REM sleep did not always produce dream recall, absence of
dreaming in REM was more common early in the night
•39 REM awakenings when dreams were not reported, 19 occurred in the 1st 2
hours of sleep, 11-2nd 2 hours, 5 3rd 2 hours, 4 from the last 2.
•Awakenings from nREM always produced a low incidence of dream recall

Results Question
2

● Initially researchers tried to wake Ps at various times of REM and Ps about duration,
 although answers were close, this was too difficult
● Instead researchers asked if they thought they were asleep for 5 or 15 minutes, Ps
responded more accurately
● Results revealed that all but one of the participants were able to choose the correct
dream duration fairly accurately (SEE DN)
● Correlations were found to be sig .40-.71 for each participant

● Findings show that we dream in relatively real time

Results: Question ● Using REM periods over a range of durations, narrative from 152 dreams were
2- Dream Recall
collected, 26 were not used because of recording quality (15-35 per participant
● Number of words in the dream narrative was counted.

● Even though they was affected by how expressive the participant was, a significant
positive correlation was found between REM duration and # of words in the
narrative
● Dream narratives for very long durations (30-50 min) were not much longer than
those for 15 minutes, but participants did report the felt as though they had been
dreaming for a long time and could not recall the beginning of the dream

Results: Question ● This part of the study is based on 35 awakenings after the Ps had a specific eye movement
3 o Periods of only vertical or only horizontal were rare
● Vertical Eye movement- 3 dreams
o Dreamer was standing at the bottom of a tall cliff operating a hoist and looking up
at climbers, then down at levers
o A man was climbing up a series of ladders, and looking down
o Dreamer was throwing a basketball, looking at the net, shooting, then looking down
for the next ball
● Horizontal- 1 dream
o Dreamer was watching 2 people throw tomatoes
● Mixed Eye Movement- 21 awakenings
o Ps reported looking at objects or people close to them.
o Talking to a group of people, looking for something, fighting someone
● Little to no movement- 10 dreams
o All reported looking at something in the distance
o 2 had large eye movements to the left just a second or two before waking
o Ps had been driving a car and staring at the road, approached a road junction and
was startled by a speeding car suddenly appearing to his left (as the bell rang)
o Ps was also driving a car and staring at the road, immediately before being woken
 he saw a man standing to his left and acknowledged him
● Findings suggest that the eye movements of the subjects are related to the dream
content
● Indicated that the eyes were moving as if seeing what the P was dreaming about

Conclusion 1. Dreams probably (although not certainly) occur during REM sleep, which occurs
regularly throughout the night. Dreams recorded when woken from REM are ones
from previous REM episodes. As REM is later in the night dreams are more likely
to occur.
2. It is often believed that dreams happen in an instant. If the length of REM periods is
proportional to subjective estimates, this would help to confirm that the two are
related and would provide information about the rate at which dreaming progresses.
Dreams happen in “real time”
3. Eye movements during REM sleep correspond to where, and at what, the dreamer is
looking in the dream. This suggests that eye movements are not simply random
events caused by the activation of the central nervous system during dream sleep,
but are directly related to the dream imagery. Furthermore they correspond in
amplitude and pattern to those we experience when awake

Discussion/ ● ALL THREE HYPOTHESES CONFIRMED

Conclusion
o RESULTS OBTAINED BY WAKING SUBJECTS STRONGLY
SUPPORT THE CORRELATION B/W REM SLEEP AND DREAMING
● CANNOT DEFINITIVELY SAY THAT DREAMING DID NOT OCCUR IN
OTHER STAGES, BUT DOUBTFUL IN MANY CASES
o INSTANCES OF ‘DREAMING’ IN NREM WERE NOT RELIABLE IN
THE RECORDINGS & MAY HAVE BEEN FROM REM MEMORIES
● BASED ON DATA, DREAMS ‘OCCUR IN REAL TIME’

● COMPARING TO PREVIOUS STUDIES, D&K SAID THAT PREVIOUS

METHODOLOGY LACKED ENOUGH MEASUREMENTS
o SUCH AS NOT AMPLIFYING THE EEG ENOUGH
▪ OR RECORDING ONLY SAMPLES OF SLEEP

Evaluation: Strengths
Ethics
● Confidentiality: Researchers only used Ps initials when publishing the data to
ensure that specific dreams could not be linked to individuals
Weaknesses

● Protection: As the Ps were sleeping in an unnatural situation it may have altered

their normal sleeping patterns. The persons ability to concentrate at work or at
 home the next day could have been affected. There was no chance to ensure a
normal sleeping night before the study ended.
● Deception: Ps WD was misled about the stage of sleep he was being woken in.

Deception can cause stress and means Ps cannot give informed consent

Evaluation: Is this Strength

study
● Both genders in the sample- there may be differences in dreaming between me
Generalizable?
and women

Weakness

● Only 5 people were studied in detail with 4 more used to confirm these findings.
The small sample size could make it difficult to generalize beyond the sample
● These 5 + 4 people may not represent a wide cross section of society in terms of
how we dream and what we dream about

Evaluation: Is this ● The study could identify when participants ere entering REM or nREM sleep.
study useful?
o The EEG monitor that did this could help sleep scientists to identify
(are there
whether a person has a disorder based around REM sleep. A person
applications to complaining of poor sleep could come into a sleep laboratory and be
everyday life?) wired up to an EEG. The persons brain wave pattern could be monitored
to see whether they were typical or a typical
● The study was a generative one, it sparked new waves into sleep research
o Subsequent studies have not supported D & K’s findings that there is a
relationship between eye movements and what the person is dreaming
about

Evaluation: N/A
Individual or
situation
Evaluation: ● The study could be considered to be relevant to the nature v nurture debate as it is
Nature vs
believed that the experience of REM and nREM sleep are universal and therefore
nurture due to nature
o All participants in the study experienced both types of sleep and the majority
 of dreaming too place during REM, suggesting dreaming during REM is due
to nature
● However, there were individual differences between participants and this could be
as a response to the environment as some of the participants had very disturbed
sleep, possibly due to the uncomfortable environment of the sleep laboratory.
o This shows that environmental factors can also affect sleeping patterns

Evaluation: Self- ● Ps had to recall dream content once woken up, the researchers could not know for
Report
sure that what the Ps reported was exactly what they experienced. Due to changes in
brain chemistry, memories for dreams can disappear quickly once someone is in the
waking state and therefore some Ps may have “filled in the gaps” of their dream to
make it a coherent story rather than reporting the exact dream.
o This would reduce the validity of the findings

Evaluation: ● Ps were not told about their EEG pattern or whether their eyes were moving.
Demand
Characteristics ● If they expected to remember more detailed dreams in REM they may have made a
greater effort to recall

Evaluation: ● Ps were not told about their EEG pattern or whether their eyes were moving.
Correlation
● If they expected to remember more detailed dreams in REM they may have made a
greater effort to recall

Evaluation: ● The definition of ‘dream’ was clearly operationalized, as a recollection that included
Validity
content and not just an impression they had been dreaming- this helps to raise
validity as D&K could be more sure the Ps was dreaming
● At the beginning of the study Ps were asked to estimate how long they were
dreaming but this was difficult (even though many were very close) so they changed
it to 5 or 15 minutes- this increases validity as it reduced participant variables such
as the ability to recall dreams

Evaluation: Data Objective

● An EEG is an objective way to investigate dreaming as it is a biological measure

● Reliable because it is unaffected by the experimenters personal views, and

supported by the similarity of the results to previous studies
 Subjective

● Differences in narrative length depend not only on the length of the REM phrase
but also how expressive the Ps was
Quantitative

● Brain waves, eye movement patterns and REM sleep duration

Qualitative

● Dream narration- providing insight into the reason for the eye movements
detected.

Overall
Evaluation: Using
the study as
examples

Bullet point an
evaluation essay