Less you sleep, craziest the dreams!

Posted on September 20, 2007 by | 3 Comments

There is an intriguing article in Scientific American about the consequences of sleep deprivation. When the brain is finally allowed to catch up with sleep, it tries to make-up for the loss of slow-wave sleep, but it also tries to make up for the loss of REM sleep as well – by making it more intense! As a result, the dreams are like scenes from something like “Jumanji” – wild animals running around and other crazy stuff. A very good article about various ideas on the function of sleep and dreams.

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3 responses to “Less you sleep, craziest the dreams!”

  1. Novathecat's avatar Novathecat | September 20, 2007 at 3:31 pm |

    No wonder my dreams are like action movies on the weekends when I can sleep in.

  2. Brigit's avatar Brigit | September 20, 2007 at 11:37 pm |

    Exactly the same as Novathecat- and I thought that was a bizarre glitch of mine, go figure…

  3. Eleanor's avatar Eleanor | September 21, 2007 at 5:26 am |

    That’s because we need REM sleep as much as slow-wave sleep to de-arouse stress and keep our instincts intact!