Textbooks that I have used have always stated that sleep walking occurs during Stage Four. The second question you have asked is one that text books are often fuzzy. My interpretation of the diagrams of our cycles of sleep is that we move through stages 1-4, then move back up through 4-1 and THEN have REM. Then, for Cyle Two, again we move down through the four stages and move back up through the four stages to REM. That is, REM doesn't (logically enough) immediately follow Stage 4 sleep as it takes our brain a bit of time to move back up from deep sleep to the lighter stages of sleep before it can enter the very active state of REM.
However, what I've never been clear on is what amount of time it takes our brain to get down into stage 4 sleep compared to how long it takes to get back up into light sleep and then REM. Joan [EMAIL PROTECTED] > I had a student who asked me when in the sleep cycle people are most > likely to sleep walk. > > Also, here is a question I am fuzzy on despite reading everything I could > find: > > We start with stage 1, go to 2, 3, 4, 5(REM) and then what happens? Do we > ease back up backwards, 4,3,2,1 or do we go from 5 to 1 and start over > again? I can't find a definitive answer--most of the intro books just have > the cyclic chart that doesn't help define that. > > Annette > > --- To make changes to your subscription contact: Bill Southerly ([EMAIL PROTECTED])
