Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- noun A period of sleep during which dreaming takes place, characterized by rapid periodic twitching movements of the eye muscles and other physiological changes, such as accelerated respiration and heart rate, increased brain activity, and muscle relaxation. REM sleep is the fifth and last stage of sleep that occurs in the sleep cycle, preceded by four stages of non-REM sleep.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- noun The stage of
sleep during which most brain activity anddreams occur, characterised byrapid eye movement (REM ).
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- noun a recurring sleep state during which dreaming occurs; a state of rapidly shifting eye movements during sleep
Etymologies
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition
[r(apid) e(ye) m(ovement).]
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