Nathaniel Vasquez

Professor Bhadha
Psych 002
10/28/15

Revised REM Paragraph

Dr. Smith researched participants in his sleep lab, and recorded their brain activity on an
electroencephalograph. He found results that supported the existing knowledge in sleep research.
As the night progressed each subject spent equal amounts of time in all five stages of sleep so
that a subject who spent 90 minutes sleeping spent first 18 minutes in stage 1, 18 in stage 2 and
so on until they finally spent 18 minutes in REM sleep (which stands for Rapid Eye Movement).
He also found particularly high neural activity in the raphe nuclei of the reticular formation
which indicated that REM circuits are located in this area of the brain. While his study did not
actually investigate it, Dr. Smith knows (because he is such a smart guy) when the light is turned
on, the information from the optic nerve is sent to the circadian rythym of the hypothalamus
which is the biological clock. These neurons relay information about light to the pineal gland
where the sleep hormone melatonin is produced, telling it to suppress melatonin production.
Consequently the sleeper wakes up.