Dement and Kleitman (1957)

The relation of eye movements during sleep to dream activity: An objective method for the study of dreaming
Dement & Kleitman (1957) 1

What is REM?

R.E.M. is a rock band formed in Athens, Georgia in early 1980 by drummer Bill Berry, guitarist Peter Buck, bassist Mike Mills and vocalist Michael Stipe.

Dement & Kleitman (1957)

No, but what is R.E.M. really.?

It stands for Rapid Eye Movement It happens while youre asleep You can see it happening when the sleepers eyes are closed You can measure it with a device called an ELECTROOCULAROGRAM (E.O.G.)
Aserinsky & Kleitman (1955) had already shown a link between dreaming and R.E.M.
Dement & Kleitman (1957) 3

How else can you study dreaming?

You can measure peoples BRAINWAVES while theyre sleeping You use a device called an ELECTROENCEPHALOGRAM (E.E.G.) which attaches to the scalp

Dement & Kleitman (1957)

So what do we know?

Cycle back through stages

People go through different stages while theyre asleep Stages 1 is light sleep, stages 2, 3 and 4 get deeper and deeper These stages are non-REM (NREM) sleep Stage 5, the deepest, is REM sleep After a while of REM, you drop back to a lighter stage then repeat the cycle

REM

Dement & Kleitman (1957)

The Procedure

Natural experiment in a lab setting Also: a controlled observation Sample: 7 men, 2 women (volunteers) IV = woken in NREM or REM DV = self reports of dreaming

Dement & Kleitman (1957)

What happened?

Ps turn up at the lab at bedtime They sleep attached to an EEG and an EOG A buzzer wakes them up at odd intervals They describe their dream into a tape recorder They are woken on average 5.7 times a night, 6 hours sleep

Dement & Kleitman (1957)

Any controls?

No alcohol or caffeine drunk 5 Ps studied intensively (6-17 nights), other 4 only studied for 1 or 2 nights This is to check sleep disruption isnt affecting results No talking directly to a researcher (demand characteristics)
Dement & Kleitman (1957) 8

What was being tested?

Did dreams happen during REM or during NREM? Did the duration of the dream match the duration of the REM? Did the content of the dream match the direction of the eye movements?

Dement & Kleitman (1957)

Do dreams happen in REM?

Everyone had REM at some point in their sleep often several times REM matches up with fast low-voltage brainwaves on the EEG REM lasts 3-50 minutes (average 20) and gets longer as the night goes on Sleepers woken in REM usually reported a dream

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Lets see that as a graph

REM AWAKENINGS

NON-REM AWAKENINGS

Dement & Kleitman (1957)

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Show me the figures

Pattern Dream? REM
NREM

152
11

No recall 39
149

Total 191
160

Dement & Kleitman (1957)

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Explain the anomalies

Half of the NREM dreams were reported within 8 minutes of leaving REM maybe remembered dreams Most dream-less REM was early in the night

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Lets look at individuals

Participant
DN

REM sleep
17/26 (65%)

NREM sleep
3/24 (12%)

IR Does anybody stand out as different?

KC

26/34 (76%)
36/40 (90%)

2/31 (6%)
3/34 (9%)

WD
PM

37/42 (88%)
24/30 (80%)
Dement & Kleitman (1957)

1/35 (3%)
2/25 (8%)
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What about the length of dreams?

Ps couldnt estimate this, so researchers randomly woke them after 5 or 15 mins of REM and asked them to guess Most Ps could guess correctly So it looks like time passes in a dream the same way it passes in waking life
Dement & Kleitman (1957) 15

Lets see that as a graph

5 MINUTES AFTER AWAKENING

15 MINUTES AFTER AWAKENING

Dement & Kleitman (1957)

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Show me the figures

Estimate
Match

5mins
45

15mins
47 13 60
17

No match 6 Total 51
Dement & Kleitman (1957)

What about the direction of eye movements?

VERTICLE movements (3 out of 35) Looking up a cliff, climbing a ladder, aiming basketballs at hoops HORIZONTAL (1 out of 35) Watching two people throw tomatoes at each other BOTH TYPES (21) Looking at things close up NO MOVEMENT (10) Looking at things in the distance

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Discussion

Does the evidence support the idea of dreams occurring in REM? Do dreams occur at the same rate as real experiences? Does REM reflect what youre looking at in your dream? What problems are there with this sample? Does this study have ecological validity? How else can dreams be studied?
Dement & Kleitman (1957) 19