Dement & Kleitman's REM Sleep Study (sleep & dreams) Flashcards
aim
to find out if there was a relationship between REM sleep and dreaming
one hypothesis was…
the dream would link to the pattern of eye movement
another hypothesis was…
that the duration of eye movement would match up with the reported duration of the dream
participants
- 9 adults
- Kleitman took part
when woken in REM sleep, participants were much more likely to report…
that they had been dreaming
the pattern of eye movement was linked with…
the type of dream
the duration of REM sleep matched up with…
the reported length of dreams
conclusions (4)
- dreams can be measured objectively
- REM sleep is the stage where most dreaming occurs
- patterns of eye movements reflect what we are dreaming about
- we can accurately judge the length of our dreams
small sample size means that…
it is difficult to generalise
the relationship between REM sleep and dreaming was not found in all cases, meaning that…
the results are not reliable
the experiment took place in an artificial setting and included several wakings, which…
- reduced quality of sleep
- reduces ecological validity
the study was only done on adults, so…
cannot be generalised to children
use of a clear method means that
it is easy to replicate the study, increasing reliability
