Unravelling the mysteries of sleep: how the brain ‘sees’ dreams

We’ve known for some time that our eyes move around during the dreaming phase of sleep, much like when we’re awake and looking at a visual scene. The phase of sleep is called rapid eye movement sleep, or REM sleep. New research, published today in the journal Nature Communications, shows brain activity during the dreaming phase of sleep is remarkably similar to brain activity when we’re awake and processing new visual images, suggesting the brain “sees” dreams. While researchers have suspected this may be the case, it’s the first time investigators have been able to record brain activity from within the brain.

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