In plain words
REM sleep, short for rapid eye movement sleep, is one stage of the night's . It is when most vivid dreaming happens, and the body is very relaxed, apart from the eyes and breathing. Many people in pregnancy report more vivid or unusual dreams, and some wake more often in the second half of the night. Research on why dreams change in pregnancy is limited, though hormones, stress, and body discomfort are often named. REM sleep is not the same as , and a change in dreams does not on its own mean something is wrong. Nightmares that frighten you, or waking that leaves you feeling unsafe or very low, are worth mentioning to your provider. A can help if night-time feelings carry into the day.
The deeper version
REM sleep is characterized by desynchronized cortical EEG, atonia of skeletal muscle with phasic eye movements, and irregular respiration and heart rate, and it accounts for roughly a quarter of adult sleep time. Pregnancy brings changes in sleep architecture, with more awakenings and fragmented sleep, and reports of increased dream recall. Polysomnographic studies in pregnancy are limited in size, and survey work such as Facco and colleagues (2010) describes frequent sleep disturbance. Changes in REM proportion across pregnancy are inconsistently reported. and restless legs, both more common in pregnancy, can fragment REM sleep as well. Standard sleep medicine texts (Kryger, Roth, and Dement, 2017) describe REM physiology. The controversy concerns whether reported dream changes reflect hormonal effects, sleep fragmentation, or altered recall.
Where it comes up
- Vivid dreams, mood swings, and crying at commercialsPregnancy: Mind and Life
- Sleep deprivation: what it does and how to survive itPostpartum: Your Body
What mothers here say about REM sleep
No one has posted under this term yet.
Sources
- Facco FL, Kramer J, Ho KH, Zee PC, Grobman WA — Sleep disturbances in pregnancy. Obstetrics and Gynecology (2010)
- Kryger MH, Roth T, Dement WC — Principles and Practice of Sleep Medicine, 6th edition (2017)