Dement & Kleitman

Physiological Psychology

The Core Studies

 Background
REM
Rapid Eye Movement
Characteristics of REM
Body is paralysed
eyes & brain very active
dreaming
deepest type of sleep
EEG – Measures the gross electrical activity of the brain
NREM
The sleep cycle
Benefits & Limitations of using
an EEG machine
Very scientific way of measuring and finding results therefore
makes the study more reliable

Collects quantitative data that can be analysed statistically

The use of an EEG involves the attachment of electrodes to the

participant’s scalp. This may interfere with sleep patterns so
results may not reflect an individuals normal sleep pattern

An EEG doesn’t explain why the electrical activity is taking place.

The activity may not be caused by the participant dreaming but
by some other factors
 Aim & Hypotheses
The aim of the study was to investigate dreaming in an objective
way by looking at the relationship between eye movements in
sleep and dreamers-recall

Hypotheses
There is a significant association between REM sleep and
reported dreaming

There is a significant positive correlation between estimation of

dream duration and measurement of REM sleep

There is a significant association between the pattern eye

movement and reported dream content
 Sample
9 adults
7 males 2 females
All from USA
No age or gender details recorded

5 participants were studied in detail

4 were studied to confirm the results

The 5 stayed between 6-17 nights in the lab

The 4 stayed between 1-2 nights in the lab
 Method
Snapshot
Lab experiment

IV’s
Whether they were woken from REM/NREM
Whether they were woken after 5 or 15 minutes of sleep
Type of eye movement pattern

DV’s
Whether they could recall, if so, the detail
Their choice of 5 or 15 minutes
Recall
 Method

Participants were asked not to consume caffeine containing

beverages as caffeine is a known stimulant
which can affect an individual’s sleep pattern.

Controls

Same EEG machine, all restricted from alcohol and caffeine,

same laboratory, all were woken by a doorbell
 Procedure
Participants were restricted from consuming caffeine and alcohol upon the
day of arrival. The participants arrived to the lab at their normal bedtime.
They were then fitted with EEG electrodes (to measure brain activity) and
EOG electrodes (to measure eye movement). The participants slept with the
electrodes tied in a pony tail around their head, which ran into the
researchers room and fed into the EEG machine.

After falling asleep, the researchers woke participants up from either

REM/NREM and asked them if they had a dream. If so, they had to recall it
into a Dictaphone. Participants fell back to sleep and were then awoken
following 5 or 15 minutes of REM sleep. They then had to say their
estimation and recall the dream. After falling asleep again, researches
assessed a one minute session of REM of the participants and recorded
movements as “vertical, horizontal, both, little movement”.

Participants were then woken again and asked to recall their dream
 Results
REM awakenings NREM awakenings
Dream recall No recall Dream recall No recall
152 39 11 149

Quantitative and Qualitative data were gathered in response to

hypothesis 1 and 2 but only qualitative data was recorded for
hypothesis 3

More dreams were recalled from REM than NREM sleep (152:11) (1)
Less dreams were recalled from NREM sleep than REM sleep (149:39)

Participants could accurately estimate dream duration.

There was a positive correlation between length of recall and REM
length (2)

Participants’ eye movements were strongly related to dream content.

E.G. one participant mentioned looking up and down a ladder (vertical),
another said about watching a tomato fight (horizontal)
 Conclusions
Dreams are most likely to only occur in REM

Any dreams that are recorded from NREM are due to

remembering the last REM episode

People can accurately estimate dream duration

Eye movements are related to dream content

We dream in real-time
 Strengths of the study

Both types of data are collected

(quant : number of dreams recalled after awakenings in REM
and NREM sleep, accuracy of dream length when awakened
after 5 or 15 minutes of REM sleep)

Lab experiment so extraneous variables are highly controlled

Due to the high control we can establish cause and effect of the
IV

Very scientific so it can be seen as reliable

 Weaknesses of the study
Low ecological validity because participants are in an extreme
artificial environment (e.g. sleeping wired up to an EEG machine,
being restricted from caffeine and alcohol)

Dream recalls may not have been entirely true due to people
feeling annoyed, wanted to get back to sleep quickly, being
embarrassed etc..

Very small sample & only 2 women

No control of participants’ diet

 Evaluation of method

High control

Scientific so can be seen as reliable

Both data types were collected

However it is very low in ecological validity

The sample is not generalizable enough, especially to women

 Evaluation of sample

Due to it being a small sample it allowed researchers to put

more detail into each subject
It included both genders

However it was definitely not generalizable enough to women

All were from the USA so ethnocentrism is a problem
No background about participants which may have affected
sleeping patterns
 Changes to the study
A change that I would make to the study is to involve more
female participants. In the original study, only 2 females were
studied. A problem with this is that results and conclusions
collected are not generalizable enough to women as only 2
provided results. I would include 10 women and 10 men through
an advert in a newspaper. This way more women would be
involved, and the experiment wouldn’t be gender bias.

Another change I would make to the study is to improve

ecological validity. The original study took place in a lab and so
participants were not in their normal sleeping environment,
ultimately reducing ecological validity. I would conduct the study
at participants’ homes to increase E.V levels.
 Effects of the changes
By involving more women into the sample, this means that the
study will be much more generalizable to the wider population,
and women. Results collected may show that women have
different REM patterns and experiences during sleep and so may
benefit conclusions drawn from the study. However a problem
could be that it may be hard to find participants, perhaps
females, that are willing to be studied.

By doing the study at participants'’ homes, this means that they

are in their natural environment, in their normal bed and so
hopefully E.V would raise due to the study being more realistic
to the participants’ everyday life. However in practical terms, it
could be extremely hard to carry out, especially with the EEG
machine.