Demet and Kleitman's REM Sleep Study ~ 1957

aims

* to find a link between dreams and sleep stages
* to find out the function of rem sleep
* to find out if eye movements during rem sleep were connected to dreams
* to find a link between the duration of a dream and someone's perception of their dream length

method

* 9 adult participants (7 males and 2 females)
* completed a polysomnography in a sleep lab and were told to avoid caffeine and alcohol during the day
* participants slept in the lab and were woken during the night several times by researchers
* when woken they were asked if they were dreaming, what about, and how long it lasted

findings

* participants more likely to dream during rem sleep
* 80% dreamt during rem sleep and 9% dreaming during non rem
* stated dreams would be shorter if woken during the first five minutes of rem sleep compared to 15 minutes after it started
* eye movement did link to what participants were dreaming about

evaluation

* small sample size with mostly male participants who are know for not remembering dreams as well as women
* all adult sample which could not include kids
* artificial lab setting with participants regularly being awoken impacting results
* strong link that rem sleep is dream sleep but harder to link dreams to eye movement