• Question: why do we get rapid eye movement when we dream?

    Asked by Emily to Chris, Josh, Rebecca, Rob, Susan on 16 Jun 2015.
    • Photo: Rebecca Dewey

      Rebecca Dewey answered on 16 Jun 2015:

      I’m not entirely sure, but basically the muscles in the eyes are just working like they would do if you were awake – it reflects the fact that the brain is still very much active despite being unconscious. The muscles throughout the body will make small unconscious movements because the brain is so active (like dreaming).

    • Photo: Susan Cartwright

      Susan Cartwright answered on 16 Jun 2015:

      REM sleep – dreaming sleep – has a lot of similarities with being awake: some of the brain waves recorded by EEG machines look more like the waking brain than like other stages of sleep. Quite possibly the eye movements relate to the dream – you are simply moving your eyes to look at things as you would normally do, but the “things” aren’t real. Your body, however, is paralysed because the motor neurons, the brain cells and nerves controlling motion, are turned off during sleep, so you can’t act out your dream – you can only watch it. (In a few people, this doesn’t work, and they actually do act out their dreams!)

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