REM sleep dreams and the activation-synthesis hypothesis

The authors studied 104 dreams obtained from 14 subjects and quantified the formal aspects of the subjects' dream experiences by the following categories: movement in dreams, sensation, affect, dream bizarreness, and dream lucidity. Their results are compared with the predictions of the activation-synthesis hypothesis, which postulates that the characteristic formal aspects of dreams correspond to characteristic aspects of physiological activation during REM sleep. Although further experimental work is needed, the authors show that their results are consistent with and supportive of the activation-synthesis hypothesis.