[PurpleFlyingMonkeys]

So I've been noticing something, I wake up (and have been like this for as long as I can remember) numerous times throughout the night. So I take naps during the day and often I wake up numerous times throughout the naps as well.

So let's say I go to bed at 11pm, I'll wake up at 11:30pm, 1:30pm, 3pm and so on, not really getting more than two hours of sleep at one time. Often only (especially during naps) getting 15-30 minutes of solid sleep at a time before waking up. But I still have dreams.

Don't get me wrong though, a couple times a week when I'm exhausted I may sleep 4-6 hours straight before waking up constantly, and even during those times, when I take naps, I dream, even when it's a 15 minute nap.

But when you dream, doesn't it typically take REM sleep to dream? But in psych they said for those who lack sleep, they automatically go into REM sleep and dream. So that would make sense, but since I nap so much, and stay in bed for 9 hours and I do sleep quite a bit, it confuses me why I would go straight into REM sleep.

Last night I only woke up twice the whole night, I was pretty upset due to an ill relative and slept great. One of the rare times throughout the week. But I took a nap today and I never fully fell asleep. I was still partially awake able to feel my body laying in bed although I was in a dream. And I knew I was in a dream so each time these dreams turned "bad" I would say "OK it's time to wake up now" and would wake myself up (I've not been able to do this but maybe once in my life before today) but I do wake myself up when the dreams get to their worst. Part of the reason I wake up so much...

So anyways, I had a total of 5 dreams in two hours, each dream I woke myself up because they were getting bad. And these dreams would be long, yet when I'd look at the clock it would be only 15-20 minutes after I laid down.

So my question, after this long post (sorry by the way) is, even if you're not sleep deprived, would there be any other reason to always go into REM sleep when you fall asleep? It's a pain in the neck and I can tell when it happens when I fall asleep. My head starts to fill insanely with pressure and sometimes it feels like my body is vibrating. Then I start my dream, and today I was still able to feel the head pressure while I was in the dream, fully aware that I was in bed. I've also had dreams while I was 1/2 awake as well.

I can also tell when I'm doing into normal sleep, it's much more peaceful and relaxing. I just drift into sleep, I don't get sucked in.

Any ideas?

[medkev13]

First, the word "dream" is thrown around a LOT. There are actually two main types of imagery that happen in sleep that I've seen. First is the average "dream", which does typically require REM sleep. The other type is more of a heavy visualization. The visualization type of imagery happens with Theta sleep, and is typical if you're not getting enough time to go into REM sleep. It's not as restful, but you're still suggestively open enough for your subconscious to put images in your mind.

As for the REM sleep with the sleep deprived, the logic would be that those suffering from sleep dep are basically walking around on the verge of theta sleep to begin with (Theta is the first stage of sleep when you feel yourself slipping out of consciousness.) I wouldn't call your dreams REM dreams, but more like Theta visualizations.