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Dreaming is characterized by formal visual imagery (akin to hallucination), by inconstancy of time, place, and person (akin to disorientation), by a scenario-like knitting together of disparate elements (akin to confabulation), and by an inability to recall (akin to amnesia). Taken together, these four dream features are similar to the delirium of organic brain disease. By studying the brain during rapid-eye-movement (REM) sleep-the phase of sleep in which most dreaming occurs-we can begin to understand its basis in the altered neurophysiology of REM.

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A new model describing the physiological basis of sleep cycle oscillation has already been applied to our understanding of the dream process. In this paper the implications of the model for other processes of interest to psychosomatic medicine are explored. They are: hallucinoid psychosis; periodic mood disorders; sleep disorders, especially apnea; and epilepsy. A particular concptual feature of the model is developed in discussing each example,

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The purpose of this study was to develop an inexpensive, simplified home monitoring system for prescreening certain sleep complaints and for long‐term home‐based experiments. Four subjects slept in the laboratory for 3–4 nights. In addition to a standard polysomnogram, piezoelectric ceramic transducers were attached to both hands, both feet, and over the right eyelid. The sleep from 2 nights of each subject was staged according to the standard criteria. The limb transducers identified major and minor body shifts and were used to signal possible state changes. The data from the eye movement sensor was used to develop a REM‐state algorithm. Using this algorithm, REM and NREM sleep were identified with 92% (SD=0.091) and 91% (SD=0.076) accuracy, respectively. The ultimate goal is to have a bedside device programmed with the algorithm that would either store information or score the data on‐line for waking, NREM, and REM states. We conclude that a system monitoring eye movements and major body shifts is a promising approach to an economical and accurate home recording system.

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