The relation of eye movements during sleep to dream activity. Dement and Kleitman (1957)

Aim

To test whether:

1) Significantly more dreaming occurs during REM sleep than non-REM sleep

2) There is a a significant positive correlation between lengths of time spent in REM sleep and duration of dreaming

3) There is a significant relationship between the pattern of rapid eye movement observed during sleep and the content of the dream reported on waking

Participants

7 adult males and 2 adult females

Design

Laboratory experimentation using observation

Procedure

Participants sleep individually in a sleep laboratory. Electrodes were placed near their eyes to record eye movement and on their scalp to measure brain waves. Participants were awoken several times during the night and they were asked to recall whether they had been dreaming, the length of the dream and the dream content

Results

1) Significantly more dreaming was reported during REM sleep than non-REM sleep

2) There is a a significant positive correlation between length of time spent in REM sleep and reported duration of dreaming

3) There is a significant relationship between the pattern of rapid eye movement observed during sleep and the reported content of the dream reported on waking.