Dement & Kleitman (1957)

Question 1

What were the 3 aims if Dement & Kleitman’s study?

Answer 1

• Does dream correlate to REM?
• Is there a correlation between REM duration and estimates of dream length
• Are rapid eye movements connected to the content of dreams

Question 2

Method of Dement & Kleitman (1957)?

Answer 2

• Used 9 adults (7 male, 2 female) who came to a sleep laboratory for a polysomnography
• Participants had been told to avoid alcohol and caffeine
• Participants slept in the sleep laboratory and were woken several times during the night
• They were asked if they were dreaming and if so, what the dream was about and how long it lasted

Question 3

Results of Dement & Kleitman (1957)

Answer 3

• Participants more likely to say they were dreaming if woken up during REM sleep, doing so on 80% waking
• Compared to 9% if woken during nREM sleep
• Also said their dreams were shorter if woken up 5 minutes after the REM phase started compared to 15 mins
• Eye movements did link to dreams (tomato guy)
• After waking, participants got to back to sleep inside 5 mins

Question 4

Evaluation of Dement & Kleitman (1957)?

Answer 4

• study used a small sample and its in an artificial setting— including frequent wakings— may have affecting quality of sleep/ content of dreams
• Strong evidence that REM sleep is dream sleep
• however, study focused on adults, cannot be generalised to children

Question 5

What is the activation synthesis theory?

Answer 5

This theory believes dreams are random and meaningless, suggests that during REM sleep the cerebral cortex is activated, causing certain memories to be recalled by chance, we then synthesise these memories into a story

Question 6

Evaluation of the activation-synthesis theory?

Answer 6

Activation synthesis theory can explain why dreams often have relevance to our day, however it cant explain dreams which make no sense or have no relevance to anything we have ever experienced