Question about the REM cycle.

Hi,
I know that the REM cycle lasts for approximately 90 minutes but does that include the REM stage. I mean do you have 90 mins of sleep stages then the REM stage then back to 90 mins of sleep stages then REM again.

Thanks in advance

Paulh

As far as I know paul, you seem to be right. Around 90 minutes for each cycle seems to be the correct amount. To bad most of us can't take advantage of all that time. :(

This is discussed some on the main dreamviews page. Your sleep cycle is approximately 90 min. This is an oversimplification, but roughly you go 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 (REM). After cycling around a few times, stage 1 and 2 don't manifest themselves as I recall.

Basically though, in the first 90 min, your stage 5 experience is about 5 minutes or so, maybe a few more. The time spent in stage 5 increases monotonically thorugh the night (every 90 minutes) until after 7 or 8 hours of sleep, most of you 90 min cycle is spent in REM (50-60 min if I recall - double check me on that).

I would go to the lucidity institute site. I know they have published on this subject, in relation to LDing.

Thanks for the quick replys guys.

That makes sense now, I want to to wake up in or near my every REM stage tonight so I can record my dreams.

So I do literally want to set my alarm every ninety minutes.

Thanks

Paulh

The main DV site has a good overview of sleep stages:

http://www.dreamviews.com/sleepstages.php

One thought, though: Clinically, REM sleep is generally not referred to as "Stage V" sleep (at least not in the lab I worked in, or in the literature I read), as it is not just a step beyond Stage IV sleep. In fact, it's almost the opposite of deep-stage sleep: The brain activity during REM sleep looks almost identical to waking brain activity. The only easily-observed difference is that, while the eyes display definite EMG (muscle) activity, the rest of the body is normally still and the mandibular muscles are tetanic. Breathing and heart rate become more erratic as well. Because of this mix of wake and sleep indicators, REM sleep is commonly called "paradoxical sleep." If you check into this, of course, you will probably find a lot of references to "Stage V/REM" sleep, but this is just my experience.

Most people hold fairly closely to that outline given on the link above, unless they're having sleep disruptions from snoring or something. Snoring screws your sleep stages up badly.