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REM and dreams

The discovery in the late 1950s/early 1960s of the connection between REM sleep (see page 20) and dreaming was one of the most exciting in sleep science because it proved without doubt that the brain was active during sleep. The findings marked the beginning of a new impetus in sleep research which lasted through the 1960s, when psychedelia was much in vogue. By the 1970s, interest had declined.

• In 1939, while working at Chicago University, Nathaniel Kleitman – often called ‘the father of sleep’ – published the first major book on sleep, Sleep and Wakefulness (1939). The generally held view of the scientific and medical establishment was that sleep is a passive condition. Kleitman was one of the few people in the world working on sleep at the time.

• In 1953, PhD student Eugene Aserinsky, while working with Kleitman, noted that the eyes move rapidly during sleep, eventually leading to the name of this state as Rapid Eye Movement (REM) sleep. Around this time, William (Bill) Dement joined them and all three were involved in the discovery that subjects awoken out of REM sleep often report dreaming – a turning point in knowing, as opposed to inferring, what goes on in the mind.