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Emily Katanic
Mr. Ratica
Microsoft Applications

Sleep and Dream Research

The brain is fully active during sleep. There is a great amount of things going on in the
mind when sleeping. It is helping change from different sleep states. The brains is constantly
picking and choosing dreams. The body is resting but the brain is hard at work.
There are two types of normal sleep. REM (rapid eye movement) sleep is described to be
state of sleep you experience three to five times a night. Each REM state may last five minutes to
an hour. This sleep state has a low voltage of EEG, or low electrical currents from the brain.
REM sleep also consists of bursts of Theta waves. While in the REM state you will have
frequent eye movements, irregular breathing habits, and may experience many muscle jerks.
(Definition of REM Sleep) (Freemon, 4)
The NREM sleep or non-REM sleep state is almost the opposite of the REM state.
NREM is a stage where you will not dream. The EEG brain waves are mostly slow and have a
high voltage. In contrast to REM, in the NREM stage your breathing and heart beat are normal.
Your blood pressure is low and you are relatively still. About eighty percent of human sleep is
non-rapid eye movement sleep. (Definition of REM Sleep) (Freemon, 3)
More than half people report having dreams without color. Only eleven through forty-six
percent have colored dreams. Even the ones that dream with color have reported that after time,
not only, does the dream drift away from memory, but the color does also. Like sleep, dreams are
categorized. According to the writers from Dreaminterpretation-dictionary.com, there are ten

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types of dreams. The first four types of dreams are more related to science. They consist of
psychological healing dreams, belief dreams, problem-solving dreams, and physiology dreams.
Psychological healing dreams are more distressing. Unlike nightmares, they help with negative
emotions we may have. Belief and problem-solving dreams are more self-explanatory.
Physiology dreams refer to direct reflections. Dreams of daily life is the fifth category of dreams,
which is also is pretty self-explanatory. The sixth is compensatory, which reveals the "dark side"
to our personalities. Recurring dreams follow compensatory dreams. These dreams are exactly
what they are called, they repeat themselves. The eighth dream style is called lucid dreams. In
this particular category the sleeper knows he or she is dreaming. The characters tend to be more
exaggerated. Psychic is the dream style where the dreamer has detailed dreams about his or her
future. It resembles dj vu and the dreamer will know that the dream is real. Finally, there are
nightmares. These are proven to be the most emotional for the sleeper. A multitude of people
wake up everynight with nightmares. (Barrett and McNamara 144)
Sleep is not just a state of which the body relaxes. Sleep is not a simple thing. There are
two different models of sleep starting and ending throughout the night. There are over ten
varieties of dreams that the brain has to work with.

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Works Cited
Dictionary, Dreaminterpretation. Dreaminterpretation Dictionary. Web. 23 February 2016.
<http://www.dreaminterpretation-dictionary.com/types-of-dreams.html>.
Freemon, Frank R. Sleep Research. Springfield: Charles C Thomas, 1972.
Horne, James. Why We Sleep. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1988.
McNamara, Deirde Barrett and Patrick. Encyclopedia of Sleep and Dreams. Santa Barbara:
Greenwood, 2012.
MedicineNet. MedicineNet.com. 28 August 2013. Web. 18 February 2016.
<http://www.medicinenet.com/script/main/art.asp?articlekey=8677>.

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