What is Rapid Eye Movement?
REM sleep is also called out-of-phase sleep, and some people call it active sleep. It refers to the period of time during which the brain wave frequency becomes faster and the amplitude becomes lower. Increased blood pressure, muscle relaxation, penis erection, and the strangest thing is that the eyeballs are constantly swinging left and right.
REM sleep
- Chinese name
- REM sleep
- Foreign name
- rapid eye movement sleep
- Alias
- Active sleep
- Symmetric
- Quiet sleep
- Features
- Brainwave frequency becomes faster and amplitude becomes lower
- REM sleep is also called out-of-phase sleep, and some people call it active sleep. It refers to the period of time during which the brain wave frequency becomes faster and the amplitude becomes lower. Increased blood pressure, muscle relaxation, penis erection, and the strangest thing is that the eyeballs are constantly swinging left and right.
- Sleep other than rapid eye movement is called slow wave sleep, and it is also called quiet sleep.
- After sleep, many internal physiological functions of the human body will change significantly, such as reduced heart rate, decreased blood pressure, slow metabolism, and reduced breathing frequency.
- The biggest changes in the body after sleep, the most researched is the changes in EEG. When a person is awake during the day, the most common brain waves from normal EEG are alpha (alpha) and beta (beta) waves. When a person is drowsy, theta (theta) waves appear. The general trend of EEG changes after people fall asleep is that the frequency becomes slower and the amplitude increases. Generally, sleep is divided into four periods, and brain waves have different performances in each period. [1]
- People's sleep can be divided into two parts: rapid eye movement (REM) sleep and non-rapid eye movement (NREM) sleep. Rapid eye movement sleep is also called fast wave sleep or synchronized sleep. Compared with non-rapid eye movement sleep, there is a fundamental difference in rapid eye movement sleep, especially in terms of brain activity. The pontine reticular structure located at the root of the brain plays an active role in rapid eye movement sleep, sending signals to the spinal nerves, immobilizing the body, and causing rapid eye movement. However, awakening cannot directly enter REM sleep. The main characteristics of REM sleep: rapid horizontal movement of the eyeball due to paroxysmal convulsions of extraocular muscles. Eye movements can be seen in the closed eyelids. But people have fallen asleep. The whole body muscles are relaxed, especially the muscle group tension that maintains posture. Increased cerebral blood flow and metabolism, resulting in increased heart rate, rapid and irregular breathing, slightly increased blood pressure, and increased body temperature. The condition of the brain wave is similar to that when awake, showing a low voltage fast wave. 80% of people who wake up from REM sleep think they are dreaming. Because clear dreams will appear at this time. Rapid eye movement sleep is a biological need. Blocking people's rapid eye movement sleep for a long time can cause severe cognitive impairments like those in patients with mental illness. Generally speaking, after blocking REM sleep, the human body will have a compensation mechanism that will automatically extend the REM sleep time to supplement the deficiency. Rapid eye movement sleep is sometimes interrupted suddenly, and it is often a signal of the onset of certain diseases, such as angina pectoris and asthma.