OT: No R.E.M Sleep (help)

When we switch into REM sleep, our breathing becomes more rapid, irregular, and shallow, our eyes jerk rapidly in various directions, and our limb muscles become temporarily paralyzed. Our heart rate increases, our blood pressure rises, and males develop penile erections.

Learning tasks that need high levels of concentration or the acquisition of new skills is followed by an increase in REM sleep. (1) Many studies show that learning after having reached a plateau can only take place with the help of REM sleep. A study at MIT has shown that volunteers' skill at key-tapping and speed-spotting tasks improved by 20 per cent after one night's sleep after training, and with more extra nights, it increased even more. (4) Karni and Sagi's establishing that changes in the plasticity of particular neuronal loci which underlie perceptual learning may happen during sleep, also argues for the importance of sleep to memory. (7) The increased production of proteins, which also occurs during deep sleep, may be tied to the learning process if those proteins are in fact associated with learning. (6) Finally, backing up the idea that suppression of REM affects memory consolidation is the study by Dinges and Kribbs that shows that REM deprivation impaired performance on longer tasks, while shorter tasks remained unimpaired. (5)

Experiments on humans found that REM sleep deprivation leads to poor performance on a variety of recall tests or logical tasks. It has also been found that memory loss occurs when sleep is deprived on the same night or two nights after material has been learned. Interestingly, memory has been affected only when subjects have been selectively deprived of one of the first two or last two REM episodes of the night. In addition, REM density, or the number of REM's per minute, increases for several nights after complex material has been studied (7)

Although the quiet rest and non-REM sleep groups received the same words prior to the association task, they displayed no improvement on the Remote Associates Test. However, the REM sleep group improved by almost 40 percent over their morning performances. The authors hypothesize that the formation of associative networks from previously unassociated information in the brain, leading to creative problem-solving, is facilitated by changes to neurotransmitter systems during REM sleep.

BlackSpinner wrote:And this contradicts the fact that REM is not required for learning

http://serendip.brynmawr.edu/bb/neuro/n ... ppman.html

Learning tasks that need high levels of concentration or the acquisition of new skills is followed by an increase in REM sleep. (1) Many studies show that learning after having reached a plateau can only take place with the help of REM sleep. A study at MIT has shown that volunteers' skill at key-tapping and speed-spotting tasks improved by 20 per cent after one night's sleep after training, and with more extra nights, it increased even more. (4) Karni and Sagi's establishing that changes in the plasticity of particular neuronal loci which underlie perceptual learning may happen during sleep, also argues for the importance of sleep to memory. (7) The increased production of proteins, which also occurs during deep sleep, may be tied to the learning process if those proteins are in fact associated with learning. (6) Finally, backing up the idea that suppression of REM affects memory consolidation is the study by Dinges and Kribbs that shows that REM deprivation impaired performance on longer tasks, while shorter tasks remained unimpaired. (5)

http://serendip.brynmawr.edu/exchange/node/1776

Experiments on humans found that REM sleep deprivation leads to poor performance on a variety of recall tests or logical tasks. It has also been found that memory loss occurs when sleep is deprived on the same night or two nights after material has been learned. Interestingly, memory has been affected only when subjects have been selectively deprived of one of the first two or last two REM episodes of the night. In addition, REM density, or the number of REM's per minute, increases for several nights after complex material has been studied (7)

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/20 ... 111456.htm

Although the quiet rest and non-REM sleep groups received the same words prior to the association task, they displayed no improvement on the Remote Associates Test. However, the REM sleep group improved by almost 40 percent over their morning performances. The authors hypothesize that the formation of associative networks from previously unassociated information in the brain, leading to creative problem-solving, is facilitated by changes to neurotransmitter systems during REM sleep.

So basically you have nothing to worry about if you are a couch potato. But for the rest of us who want to do intelligent things - get REM sleep.
And if you don't get REM sleep and you can't understand the above papers and links, I totally understand.

BlackSpinner wrote:I gather you can't really read either. I give up on you. Lack of REM sleep has obviously damaged you totally.

This is not a highschool student paper. There are plenty of links in it. Much research is done by grad students under the auspices of professors.
The last reference was 2010 article.
As for scouring - it was one Google search. Didn't take much effort to find the information anyone with 2 brain cells to rub together could have done it, even you.

And stop with the idiot screaming, I assume you are not 12 years old.

Jim-Bob wrote:Who said high school? College sophomore obviously. It's "Biology 202", hence a lower-division college course. Do you think a grad student is taking "Biology 202"? It's just one non sequitur after another in your posts. That and empty bravado. Yes, I gather we have both had our say. I apologize for getting testy earlier.

pats wrote:

Jim-Bob wrote:Who said high school? College sophomore obviously. It's "Biology 202", hence a lower-division college course. Do you think a grad student is taking "Biology 202"? It's just one non sequitur after another in your posts. That and empty bravado. Yes, I gather we have both had our say. I apologize for getting testy earlier.

All the graduate courses I took at UCSD had numbers beginning with 2. The undergraduate course numbers started with 1. Therefore it is at least possible that a grad student would be taking a course called "Biology 202".

Jim-Bob wrote:

BlackSpinner wrote:

Jim-Bob wrote: 1. R.E.M. sleep is not something you need. It is not restorative sleep. And what happened in a sleep study and what happens at home are two different things.

Lack of REM sleep causes failure of memory, lack of ability to learn new things and various kind of psychoses. But otherwise it is not needed.

Please support this. Some antidepressants virtually extinguish REM in folks who were having normal amounts of it before treatment. In fact, REM suppression in itself is a treatment for depression. Psychoses??? What have you been smoking? REM is likely more important the younger you are, and perhaps especially for fetuses.

The wild opinions seem to be flying fast and furious in this thread and perhaps it's best to bring some documentation to the table. I'll check in with mine tonight.