While we sleep, our body gets to work making major changes causing our REM sleep, and we still don't actually know why.
The reason that Rapid Eye Movement (REM) is so important to this blog is it is home to our incredible dreams - but to see why it is important for other reasons is to learn more about what actually happens to make this state possible every night of our lives.
The odd characteristics of the REM sleep state
REM is entirely different from all the other sleep states - logically called "Non-REM". Non REM is what you think of when you think of sleep. Slow breathing, relaxed muscles, slow heart rate - just very relaxed - including brain activity. REM pretty much does the opposite.
While we sleep and are unconscious, our brain decides that it is time to go int the REM sleep mode and kick off some very realistic dreams. This usually happens several times during the night. The effects include paralyzing our major muscles, increasing our breathing and heart rate, our eyes appear to focus (move together) and rapidly move back and forth, and our body temperature becomes less regulated than it normally is during Non REM sleep.
You can Google "REM" to get into all the facts and research - which I recommend because it is fascinating. But here we just focus on the big picture. For reasons we still don't understand, our brain decides on its own to release a cocktail of chemicals that direct our nervous system to do bizarre things like become paralyzed, set our eyes in motion, fire up our heart rate and breathing and dream like crazy! Minutes later, our brain shuts it all down.
REM sleep is not controlled or directed by us consciously at all, it is completely controlled by our subconscious. It is hard to think of anything else we experience that is so pervasive, so powerful and is literally out of our control and offers no obvious reason to exist! (side note: all animals and birds also experience REM sleep)
The "Why" question
As research continues into the REM effects it is touching on the mystery of why it even exists. After all, sleep is considered a way for us to regenerate and rebuild to get ready for the next day. REM doesn't come close to fitting into that concept. It is like we are running while we are asleep and paralyzed.
Research has focused on our memories as a core issue that is the reason for REM. Often called memory consolidation, researchers believe REM is when we sort out daily memories and clean up our files. There is also research to prove that there is also memory extinction (a form of consolidation) where new memories are "attached" to older memories - making changes in our emotional reactions (while awake) to past events.
The popular term "it's complicated" applies.
Why we care
You can see that the dreams during REM are the obvious key to the door into what we are doing during our nightly REM trips. Lucid dreaming is the way many people have been successful in interacting with their dreams (their subconscious) and been able to shed light on the phenomenon. For our purposes, we hope that many more people will take the REM adventure and share their experiences because form many data, a clearer picture should appear of a part of each of us that is obviously important but mainly hidden from view.
Future posts - people who have experienced lucid dreaming
Reading the experiences of people who have been able to enter their dreams consciously will help us find a starting point for our adventure into our subconscious - our silent partner.