Abstract
DEMENT1, using the rapid eye movement method of dream detection, prevented subjects from dreaming on five successive nights by awakening them at the onset of each rapid eye movement period (REMP). The results included a steady increase in the forced awakenings necessary during the deprivation period, a marked increase in the percentage of dream time when subjects were allowed to sleep undisturbed and certain behavioural changes summarized as “anxiety, irritability, and difficulty in concentration”. From a psychiatric point of view we felt the implications of this apparent ‘need to dream’ were significant. We therefore elected to carry out a dream curtailment of our own to assess any quantitative or qualitative psychic changes through continual observation and psychometric testing.
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References
Dement, W., Science, 131, 1705 (1960).
Dement, W., paper presented at the annual meeting, Assoc. Psychophysical. Study of Sleep, Chicago (March 1962).
Berger, R. J., Science, 134, 840 (1961).
Jacobson, A., Kales, A., Lehmann, D., and Hoedemaker, F. S., Exp. Neurol., 10, 418 (1964).
Dement, W., Science and Psychoanalysis, 7, edit. by Masserman, J. (Grune Stratton, Inc., New York, 1964).
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KALES, A., HOEDEMAKER, F., JACOBSON, A. et al. Dream Deprivation: an Experimental Reappraisal. Nature 204, 1337–1338 (1964). https://doi.org/10.1038/2041337a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/2041337a0
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