Dement and Kleitman (1957)

REM and dreams

The relation of eye movements during
sleep to dream activity: An objective
method for the study of dreaming
Journal of Experimental Psychology 53
pp339 - 46

psychlotron.org.uk Mark Souter

 Dement and Kleitman (1957) REM and dreams

introduction
• long standing point of interest
• tradition of dreams as prediction
• tradition of dreams as subconscious mind
• D&K => breakthrough re frequency &
length of dreams
• also relationship of dreams to health

psychlotron.org.uk Mark Souter

 Dement and Kleitman (1957) REM and dreams

the study: starting points

• D&K noticed rapid eye movement (REM)
• apparent connection with dreaming
• 3 Qs
• 1 does dream recall correlate to REM?
• 2 is there a correlation between REM duration
and estimates of dream length
• 3 is REM connected to content of dreams?

psychlotron.org.uk Mark Souter

 Dement and Kleitman (1957) REM and dreams

the study: subjects

• 9 adults: 7M 2F
• 5 studied intensively
• 4 minimal data to confirm data on 5

psychlotron.org.uk Mark Souter

 Dement and Kleitman (1957) REM and dreams

the study: procedure

• S report to lab before bedtime
• asked to eat normally BUT avoid caffeine /
alcohol on day of study
• 2 electrodes near eye (record muscle
activity)
• 2 or 3 others record brain activity
• electroencephalograph (EEG)

psychlotron.org.uk Mark Souter

 Dement and Kleitman (1957) REM and dreams

the study: procedure

• woken at various times to test dream recall
• bell woke S - they recorded dream recall on tape
[why?]
• (to avoid experimenter effects)
• waking times:
– 2x random;
– 1x at whim of experimenter (!);
– 1x 3xREM + 3xnREM;
– 1x random (told only during REM)

psychlotron.org.uk Mark Souter

 Dement and Kleitman (1957) REM and dreams

the study: procedure

• 'dream' only counted if recall clear
• return to sleep <5 mins
• 9 S studied over 61 nights: 351
awakenings (av 5.7 per night)
• Subjects awakened as soon as four
predominant pattern of movement had
persisted for at least 1 minute

psychlotron.org.uk Mark Souter

 Dement and Kleitman (1957) REM and dreams

results: REM patterns

• all subjects showed REM every night
• REM had regular pattern
• pattern varied per individual
• av gap 90 mins - norm 70-104 mins
• duration of REM 3 - 50 mins

psychlotron.org.uk Mark Souter

 Dement and Kleitman (1957) REM and dreams

results: REM–EEG patterns

• REM correlates to EEG patterns
• REM EEG - low voltage fast pattern
results: REM–dream reports
• reports of dreams correlates strongly to
REM sleep
• few dreams reported in non-REM sleep

psychlotron.org.uk Mark Souter

 Number of wakenings associated with recall or no recall of dreams after REM and
non-REM sleep

160 152 149

140

120

100

80

60
39
40

20 11

0
REM dream reacall REM no recall non-REM dream recall non-REM no recall

psychlotron.org.uk Mark Souter

 Dement and Kleitman (1957) REM and dreams

results: deep sleep - dream reports

• in deep sleep (indicated by EEG) Ss
reported confusion
• reported thinking that they had been
dreaming …
• but could not describe dreams
• often reported strong emotions

psychlotron.org.uk Mark Souter

 Dement and Kleitman (1957) REM and dreams

results: dream duration – REM estimates

• woken 5 or 15 mins in REM and asked to
estimate duration of dream
• strong correlation between estimates and
REM times
• i.e. most subjects could usually estimate
times accurately

psychlotron.org.uk Mark Souter

 Results of dream-duration estimates 5 or 15 minutes after onset of
REM - Average accuracies
10
9.4
9
9

3 2.6
2
1.2
1

after 5 mins - right after 5 mins - wrong after 15 mins - right after 15 mins - wrong

psychlotron.org.uk Mark Souter

 Dement and Kleitman (1957) REM and dreams

results: eye movement - dream content

• a) vertical eye movement > operating a hoist
• b) Horizontal > throwing tomatoes
• c) Both vertical & horizontal > talking to people
close to them (friends)
• d) Very little or no movement > staring at fixed
objects.

psychlotron.org.uk Mark Souter

 Dement and Kleitman (1957) REM and dreams

discussion: the study

• well controlled lab experiment
• small sample
• (may be less important because study of
physiological condition rather than
psychological)
• breakthrough in dream research
• close correlation REM - dreams
• nature of relationship remains unclear

psychlotron.org.uk Mark Souter

 Dement and Kleitman (1957) REM and dreams

discussion: later studies

• Goodenough et al
• self reported hi/lo dreamers
• hi dreamers - many REM-dream links
• lo dreamers - much lower REM-dream link rates
•  highly variable

psychlotron.org.uk Mark Souter

 Dement and Kleitman (1957) REM and dreams

discussion
• Dement and Wolpert
• tried to influence dreams
• sprayed water, flashed lights, played tones
• some influence on a few subjects
• people blind from birth and newborns show REM

psychlotron.org.uk Mark Souter

 Dement and Kleitman (1957) REM and dreams

discussion: variations in D&K’s results

• the following tables indicate variations
between subjects
• they use data on the 5 main subjects
• variations do not fatally undermine D&K’s
study, but should serve to show that we
need to be cautious about generalisations!

psychlotron.org.uk Mark Souter

 DN PM KC

KC

DN PM KC

REM dream reacall REM dream reacall

REM no recall REM no recall
non-REM dream recall non-REM dream recall
non-REM no recall non-REM no recall

IR WD

IR WD REM dream reacall

REM no recall
REM dream reacall non-REM dream
REM dream reacall recall
REM no recall REM no recall
non-REM dream recall non-REM no recall
non-REM dream recall
non-REM no recall
non-REM no recall

psychlotron.org.uk Mark Souter

 Results of dream-duration estimates 5 minutes after onset of REM

15

10

0
DN IR KC WD PM
after 5 mins - wrong 2 1 0 1 2
after 5 mins - right 8 11 7 13 6

psychlotron.org.uk Mark Souter

 Results of dream-duration estimates 15 minutes after onset of
REM

15

10

0
DN IR KC WD PM
after 15 mins - wrong 5 3 1 1 3
after 15 mins - right 5 7 12 15 8

psychlotron.org.uk Mark Souter