Dement & Kleitman

• 3 hypotheses;
• (1) There will be a significant association between REM sleep and dreaming.
• (2) There will be a significant positive correlation between the estimate of the duration of dreams and the length of time spent in REM sleep.
• (3) There will be a significant association between the pattern of eye movement and the context of the dream.

• A controlled investigation.
• 9 participants: 7 adult males and 2 adult females.
• 5 were studied intensively, while only a small amount of data was collected on the other 4 just to back up the findings.
• The participants were studies under controlled laboratory conditions, whereby they reported to the lab just before their usual bedtime.
• They had been asked to eat normally but to avoid caffeine or alcohol on the day of the study.
• The participants went to bed in a quiet, dark room.
• An electroencephalograph (EEG) was used to amplify and record the signals of electrodes which were attatched to the participants' eyes to record electrical changes caused by eye movement.
• 2 or 3 further electrodes were attatched to the scalp to record brain activity which indicated the participant's depth of sleep.
• At various times during the night (both during REM and NREM sleep) the participants were awakened to test their dream recall.
• The participants were woken up by a loud doorbell ringing close to their bed.

• The participant then had to speak into a tape recorder near the bed.
• They were instructed to first state whether or not they had been dreaming and then, if they could, to report the content of the dream.

Hypothesis One:

REM SLEEP

• 192 awakenings in total.
• 153 dream reports.
• 39 no dream reports.

NREM SLEEP

• 160 awakenings,
• 11 dream reports.
• 149 no dream reports.

Hypothesis Two

51 Tests - woken after 5 mins REM

• Correct = 45
• Incorrect = 6

60 Tests - woken after 15 mins REM

• Correct = 47
• Incorrect = 13

Hypothesis Three

• There did appear to be some relationship between the dream content and the type of eye movements.
• For example, periods of pure vertical or horizontal eye movements were rare, but when the participant was woken up after a series of vertical eye movements they reported dreams
• In the only instance of horizontal eye movements, the dreamer was watching two people throwing tomatoes at each other.

• The research suggests that there is a link between REM sleep and dreaming.
• This study also supports the idea that dreams can be studied in an objective way, opening up many areas of research.