H-reflex suppression and autonomic activation during lucid REM sleep: a case study.
A single subject, a proficient lucid dreamer experienced with signaling the onset of lucidity (reflective consciousness of dreaming) by means of voluntary eye movements, spent 4 nonconsecutive nights in the sleep laboratory. The subject reported becoming lucid and signaling in 8 of the 18 rapid-eye movement (REM) periods recorded. Ten lucid dream reports were verified by polygraphic examination of signals, providing a total of 12.5 min of signal-verified lucid REM. H-Reflex amplitude was recorded every 5 s, along with continuous recording of electroencephalogram, electrooculogram, electromyogram, electrocardiogram, finger pulse, and respiration. Significant findings included greater mean H-reflex suppression during lucid REM sleep than during nonlucid REM and correlations of H-reflex suppression with increased eye movement density, heart rate, and respiration rate. These results support previous studies reporting that lucid REM is not, as might be supposed, a state closer to awakening than ordinary, or nonlucid, REM; rather, lucid dreaming occurs during unequivocal REM sleep and is characteristically associated with phasic REM activation.
University of Texas Medical School, Houston 75235-9070.
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Brylowski
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L
Levitan
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S
LaBerge
D000328:Adult; D001143:Arousal / Q000502:physiology*; D001341:Autonomic Nervous System / Q000502:physiology*; D004325:Dreams / Q000502:physiology; D004576:Electromyography; D006181:H-Reflex; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D009119:Muscle Contraction; D012023:Reflex, Monosynaptic; D012894:Sleep Stages / Q000502:physiology; D012895:Sleep, REM / Q000502:physiology*; D013979:Tibial Nerve / Q000502:physiology; D014851:Wakefulness / Q000502:physiology