Aserinsky Discovers Rapid Eye Movement (REM) in Sleep and Dreams

At a glance:

Article abstract: Aserinsky’s discovery of rapid eye movements (REMs) in normal human sleep provided the first objective method of studying neural function and behavioral patterns associated with dreaming.

Summary of Event

As early as 1867, a German psychiatrist named Wilhelm Griesinger speculated on the occurrence of eye movements during dreams. These eye movements, he believed, occurred both during the transition from wakefulness to sleep and during dreaming. From these observations, he concluded that sleep was not a passive but rather an active...

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