In a study, researchers monitored EEG, EMG, and EOG recordings from sleeping participants across the night. They observed periods of fast, low-amplitude brain waves accompanied by rapid eye movements and near-paralysis of skeletal muscles. When awakened during these periods, 87 percent of participants reported vivid story-like dreams, compared with 25 percent in other stages.
According to the activation-synthesis hypothesis, the vivid dreams reported in this stage are best explained as
- Acheck_circle
The cortex's attempt to make sense of random neural activity originating in the brainstem
- B
Symbolic expressions of repressed unconscious wishes
- C
Hallucinations caused by sensory deprivation
- D
Memories being literally replayed in real time
Explanation
Activation-synthesis (Hobson & McCarley) proposes that REM dreams arise as the cortex synthesizes a coherent narrative from random brainstem signals.