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REM and NREM Sleep Mentation Differences:
A Question of Story Structure?
Tore Nielsen, Ph.D., Don Kuiken Ph.D., Robert Hoffmann Ph.D., and Alan Moffitt Ph.D.
Although it is widely accepted that mentation can occur during NREM sleep,there is dis-
agreement over whether such mentation is qualitatively equivalent to that occurring during
REM sleep.This study approaches the problem from the perspective of narrative structur-
al analysis,assessing sleep mentation reports for evidence of the basic attributes of story
narratives.Twenty-four college students,of whom 12 wer high and 12 wer low frequen-
cy habitual recallers of their dreams,contributed mentation reports after experimental
awakenings from stage REM and stage 2 sleep.A story grammar tool was used to parse
these reports into their constituent components (actions,scenes,characters)and to iden-
tify the causal precursors and consequences of the constituent actions.Three measures of
story coherence wer derived:story constituent recall,story constituent co-occurrence,
and episodic progression.For these measures,it was found that (a)more stage REM than
stage 2 reports contained at least one story constituent,but only for the late night reports
of high frequency r callers;(b)stage REM and stage 2 reports contained at least one
instance of story constituent co-occurrence in about equal proportions;and (c)a greater
proportion of stage REM than stage 2 reports contained at least one minimal story unit �
episodic progression �but again only for high frequency recallers.Results support the
notion that stage REM dreams are stories in the specific sense suggested by our
microstructural criteria for episodic progression.They also speak to discrepancies among
prior attempts to discriminate stage REM from stage 2 mentation reports,specifically,they
underline the need for considering time-of-night and habitual dream recall frequency in
such analyses.(Sleep and Hypnosis 2001;3(1):9-17)
| Keywords: sleep mentation, dreaming, REM sleep, NREM sleep, narrative analysis,
story structure |
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