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4 - The discovery of REM sleep: the death knell of the passive theory of sleep

from Section I - Historical context

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  07 September 2011

By
Adrian R. Morrison
Edited by
Birendra N. Mallick ,
S. R. Pandi-Perumal ,
Robert W. McCarley  and
Adrian R. Morrison
Adrian R. Morrison
Affiliation:
University of Pennsylvania
Birendra N. Mallick
Affiliation:
Jawaharlal Nehru University
S. R. Pandi-Perumal
Affiliation:
Somnogen Canada Inc, Toronto
Robert W. McCarley
Affiliation:
Harvard University, Massachusetts
Adrian R. Morrison
Affiliation:
University of Pennsylvania
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Summary

Summary

Withdrawal from the influence of the outside world seemed a reasonable explanation for the onset of sleep for many years. This view, the passive theory of sleep, held sway despite some evidence to the contrary from lesion and stimulation studies as well as the effects of natural disease of the hypothalamus. Discovery of the ascending reticular activating system did not demolish this idea; for this system was considered merely to transmit the effects of sensory withdrawal, a role previously assigned to long ascending pathways. Even the 1953 discovery of REM sleep, which presented features different from “classical” sleep, could not convince some to abandon the passive theory. By the end of the decade, though, so much evidence for complexity in the organization of sleep and wakefulness had accumulated, including the demonstration of REM sleep in decerebrate cats, that the active theory of sleep finally prevailed.

Type
Chapter
Information
Rapid Eye Movement Sleep
Regulation and Function
 , pp. 31 - 39
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2011

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