I experienced REM

[BCWrangler]

Has anyone else woken during a REM cycle, just enough to experience the feeling of REM?  I have, and it's an incredible experience.  I would like to write it out to share with the scientific community, but am not sure of the proper forum to do so.  It might provide some interesting insight to what the sleeper experiences from the inside.  Any suggestions?

[cindysin]

I just did a sleep study in a lab, i awake as soon as i start REM, its nightmares, and u awake and feel still asleep almost, its not fun to me.

[Suri123]

Hi BCWrangler, how are you? Surely it will benefit some of the reader of this column who might be suffering from similar problems and looking for some help out here or to know more about the treatment aspect. Why did you get a sleep study done? How is your sleep pattern now? You can very much post your thoughts or experience in this forum as most of sleep disturbance post are done here. Are you under care of any sleep specialist? Take care and post your thoughts.

[BCWrangler]

1) I didn't do a sleep study  2) this was an experience (good, not bad), and my sleep patterns are usually very good and restful.  It actually felt really good, and I've wished many times since I could experience it again.  I'll post the rest of the story below.  Let me know if anyone you know has experienced anything like this.

[BCWrangler]

     Has anyone else ever experienced Rapid Eye Movement by partially waking up during the REM cycle?  I have, and it was an incredible experience.  I think my experience might provide incite and be of interest to scientific studies on the topic, but I don’t know what forum to express such in.  Would this be of any interest to you, or do you know of any physicians who this might interest?    

What REM Feels Like

Data at the time of occurrence:
Person:  25 Y.O. Female,  in good health, no known history of sleep disturbances, other than talking in sleep occasionally; taking no medication or OTC pain relievers  (occasionally I took vitamins)
December 23 or 24, 2005:  After taking 12 hour auto trip, and had one night of sleep at destination (Haines, Alaska, staying at a friend’s house).  This happened the second or third night of my stay there.
Time: sometime between 2 and 3:59 AM

Something in the house awoke me, possibly a sound (like a cat), but I’m not sure.   I realized I was partly awake, partly asleep still.  The first thing I was conscious of was that my eyes were moving very quickly, like when you  twist a rope as tight as possible and then let it go, watching is spin loose very quickly.  There is no way I could possibly make my eyes go that fast by willpower.  There wasn’t a specific pattern to it (circular or lateral or vertical), but it felt very good, like my eyes had been very tired, and this was causing them to “unwind” and all the tightness was going out of them.  I was conscious enough to think things through-- “Oh, this must be REM.”  I tried to look at the clock, and could read it, sort of focusing, but it maid me very dizzy.  My eyes were open, but still moving incredibly fast.  I could tell on the digital read out it was 2 or 3 something.  
     I thought, “This is really cool!  I could either wake all the way up or go back to sleep.”  I closed my eyes, just lying there enjoying the sensation of my eyeballs fluttering rapidly.  Then I suddenly realized I could HEAR my eyes moving.  There was a buzzing inside my head from REM!  It was incredibly exciting, because I never knew one could hear their eyes moving.  It was also at that moment that I realized that until this point, my ears (hearing) had been “asleep”… I was seeing and thinking, but I had not been Hearing anything… total silence!  But the sounds came all at once… the buzzing in my head, the wind outside with window, the quiet noise of the cat walking downstairs, the heater coming on.  I lay there with my eyes closed, listening to the buzzing in my head as the REM continued, and  fell back to sleep fully.  The whole incident may have taken a few minutes, or up to 15 minutes.  
Since Then:
Now that I knew what it felt like, I have felt it every so often since, as an almost imperceptible flutter as I’m going to sleep.  It’s not anything as strong as that first occasion, nor have I heard the buzzing since then, but I can identify it.  I believe that others probably have felt that same flutter, but have been oblivious to it.  
   I have a job as a live-in caregiver which requires me to get up in the middle of the night to assist someone else.  They call me to wake me up any time between 1 and 4 AM, and sometimes early in the morning, so I am familiar with the way my eyes feel when I open them.  Sometimes, they feel very heavy, and I can hardly hold them open.  I know that it because REM has not yet occurred yet.  That is the way my eyes felt before they “unwound” during REM.  Other times, I know that I have been awakened after a REM cycle has occurred because my eyes feel rested, and it is much easier to be alert in my nocturnal duties.  I’m usually only up for about 15 minutes, and then right back to sleep.  I have found that waking up before or during REM makes me feel more exhausted during the next day’s activities than getting woken up just after REM.  The amount of energy I have in the day is noticeably increased.                
       I hope this experience will be helpful toward the research and understanding of  REM and it’s affect on people.