REM Sleep Affected by Orexin Hormone
Orexin is a hormone that controls eating and sleeping was discovered in 1998. Imbalance in this system can drastically affect sleep, REM sleep, wakefulness and eating.
Actelion, a drug company, is developing orexin-RA-1, a drug candidate that inhibits the orexin system. Rats given orexin-RA-1 sleep better and perform better in maze tests the following day. The rats experience more REM sleep.
From: Guardian Unlimited
http://education.guardian.co.uk/higher/news/story/0,,1703210,00.html
Less Sleep Equals More Dreams?
Scientific American ran an article in September about the duration of REM sleep in relation to missing sleep. The surprising observation is that sleep deprivation can increase REM sleep periods in subsequent night’s sleep.
For example, being deprived of thirty minutes of REM in one night can precede a 35% increase in REM state during the subsequent night’s sleep.
From: Scientific American
http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?
articleID=239C577A-E7F2-99DF-38DA961471472CDDÂ
