Danielle Sanchez

Hen114 Speech

Professor Watson

REM Sleep

Do you ever wonder why sometimes you remember your dreams and sometimes you

don’t? Sleep occurs in five different stages. One through four then REM sleep. Each stage lasts

around 5-15 minutes. First cycles are short REM sleeps and long periods of deep sleep but later

in the night, REM periods lengthen and deep sleep increases. The first stage is light sleep when

you drift in and out of sleep, this is where muscle contractions occur and you feel like your

falling. The second stage eye movement stops and brain waves slow. Heart rate slows and body

temp lowers. Stage three is deep sleep. This is where sleep walking and night terrors occur. Stage

four deep sleep continues. This all leads to the final step of REM sleep. It is rapid eye movement,

you are sleeping but your eyes are constantly moving around, your dreaming and your breathing

and impulse increase.

Now that I’ve discussed what REM sleep is, I will now examine the benefits of REM

sleep.REM is beneficial to mental health and development and lack of REM causes ,any negative

effects. REM sleep plays an integral role in the maturation of central nervous system and neural

development. It also helps us to commit to long term memory, make new and useful associations,

feel rested and better deal with emotional conflicts. REM sleep helps the brain separate

important memories from non-important ones. It is also a way for people to prepare for

challenges or play through scenarios. For example, people who achieve REM sleep during a nap
were better to judge facial expressions afterward than those who’d nap without it. The more

REM, the weaker the fear-related effect.

I have always been interested in REM sleep because it deals with the brain and how

dreams work and why we sometimes remember them and don’t. I’ve researched the stages, and

bad effects of missing REM sleep to better understand it and apply it to the real world or my own

life. 80% of adults remember dreams when they wake up from REM sleep.

Now that I’ve discussed the benefits of REM sleep, I will now examine the effects of

lacking REM sleep. Lack of REM sleep or REM sleep loss, is a health hazard that silently

wreaks havoc with lives, contributing to illness, depression, and erosion of consciousness. It is

linked to neurodegenerative disorders, such as Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s. REM sleep is

required to feel rested, if it isn’t achieved sleep inertia may occur, which is a mental state

characterized by brain fog. Also, a big effect is the “REM rebound.” REM is so essential that the

body has a built in system to make up for loss. If the body is deprived we experience “REM

rebound” in which the length and frequency of REM times throughout the night increase from

the usual.

REM is beneficial to mental health and development and lack of REM causes many

negative effects. Now that you know when your dreams occur and the benefits of REM sleep, it

is essential to maintain it by always getting well rested.

 Work Cited

Naiman, R. (2017). Dreamless: The silent epidemic of REM sleep loss. Dreamless: The

Silent Epidemic of REM Sleep Loss.

T. (2018). Stages of Sleep and Sleep Cycles. Stages of Sleep and Sleep Cycles.

Blanco, Wilfredo, et al. “Synaptic Homeostasis and Restructuring across the Sleep-Wake

Cycle.” PLOS Computational Biology, vol. 11, no. 5, 2015,

doi:10.1371/journal.pcbi.1004241.

Paliano, Alissa. “25 Things You Probably Didn't Know About REM Sleep.”

NestMaven.com, 31 Aug. 2017, www.nestmaven.com/sleep/rem-sleep/.