Thread: SP/Techniques Question

You will start to see hypnogoic imagery, some sounds too, but they aren't scary. They can be weird sometimes, but its like a transition into dreams.

Hey, just found an interesting study. Turns out its completely possible to have muscle atonia during non-rem sleep, and actually in some cycles its quite common (close to 40% of the time you are in NREM you are actually in atonia in some cases)

Selective REM sleep deprivation during daytime
II. Muscle atonia in non-REM sleep

Esther Werth, Peter Achermann, and Alexander A. Borbély Institute of Pharmacology and Toxicology, University of Zürich, 8057 Zürich, Switzerland



"One of the hallmarks of rapid eye movement (REM) sleep is muscle atonia. Here we report extended epochs of muscle atonia in non-REM sleep (MAN). Their extent and time course was studied in a protocol that included a baseline night, a daytime sleep episode with or without selective REM sleep deprivation, and a recovery night. The distribution of the latency to the first occurrence of MAN was bimodal with a first mode shortly after sleep onset and a second mode 40 min later. Within a non-REM sleep episode, MAN showed a U-shaped distribution with the highest values before and after REM sleep. Whereas MAN was at a constant level over consecutive 2-h intervals of nighttime sleep, MAN showed high initial values when sleep began in the morning. Selective daytime REM sleep deprivation caused an initial enhancement of MAN during recovery sleep. It is concluded that episodes of MAN may represent an REM sleep equivalent and that it may be a marker of homeostatic and circadian REM sleep regulating processes. MAN episodes may contribute to the compensation of an REM sleep deficit."

http://ajpregu.physiology.org/cgi/co...ull/283/2/R527


edit: Interesting, this might mean that for non sleepwalkers, whenever you dream (REM or NREM) you experience muscle atonia...just thought with all the SP discussion some might find this study interesting.