This is a very early study of dreaming based on the observation that people have long periods of Rapid Eye Movement (REM) when they are asleep. It was suggested that these periods of REM might correlate with dreaming. 

NOTE: This study does not attempt to answer questions about the reasons why we dream or to explain what our dreams mean.

This study had THREE Research questions:

Who were the participants in this study?

Outline the procedure for this study and comment on the ecological validity of this.

Did all the participants show REM?

Describe THREE characteristics of REM sleep.

1.

2.

3.

What does an EEG record? Outline one problem with using an EEG to investigate dreaming.

Research Question 1: Does dream recall correlate with periods of REM?

Subjects were woken at various points during the night by a doorbell, they then had to speak into a tape recorder, stating whether or not they had been dreaming and if they had, describing the content of their dream.

Why did they use a doorbell?

How many times in total were the subjects woken from REM sleep?

In what percentage of these awakenings did participants report dreams?

How many times in total were the subjects woken from N-REM sleep?

In what percentage of these awakenings did participants report dreams?

Evaluate the criteria used for recording when a dream had take place.

Looking at the above results, do you think that they support Research Question 1 or not?

Research Question 2: correlation between estimate of dream length and time in REM?

Summarise the results of the study into estimation of dream length.

Does this support Research question 2 or not?

Research Question 3: Is type of eye movement related to content of dream?

Describe the FOUR patterns of REM that the researchers looked for and give an example of the type of dream that might have been occurring.

Does this support Research question 3 or not?