Saccades during sleep?
Matthew.Kirkcaldie at removethis.newcastle.edu.au
Tue Dec 2 17:55:30 EST 2003
In article <bqfjj8$e3g$1 at grapevine.wam.umd.edu>,
"Didier A. Depireux" <didier at rai.isr.umd.edu> wrote:
> I hope somebody who _actually_ knows can answer: do mammals' eyes saccade
> during sleep, outside of REM sleep that is?
If the eyes are saccading, they are moving rapidly, and hence that
period of sleep would be defined as REM sleep. So no, no saccades occur
outside of REM sleep. The only other eye movements during sleep are in
the very early stages of falling asleep, when they do slow rolls back
and forth. Otherwise, there is REM sleep in which there are
saccade-type movements, and slow wave sleep in which there are no eye
movements to speak of.
Hope that helps.
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