Describe the nature of REM and non-REM and how they relate to the parasomnias.

Sleep is essential for survival since it is useful to daily routine, it helps brain to functions, for
example, how neurons communicate to each other but its biological functions ever remain
mystery. There are two types of sleep; rapid eye movement (REM) sleep and non-rapid eye
movement (non-REM) sleep. These types of sleep are linked to neuronal activity and brain
waves. They have the following stages; the first stage takes place with non-REM type of sleep
where the process of change from wakefulness to sleep occurs. This takes place for short period
of time where a number of body functions changes. The breathing, heartbeat and movements of
eyes slows, muscles relax and accompanied with occasional switches and lastly the waves of the
brain begin to slow.
The second stage, which is non-REM type of sleep, is the time of light sleep before one gets into
a deep sleep. The breathing and heartbeat slows down, muscles relax further, the temperature of
the body drops, and the movement of the eye stops and waves of the brain slows. However in
this stage one spend more repeated cycles than any other sleep stages.
The third stage, non-REM sleep, is the deep sleep where one need to experience refreshed when
waking up in the morning. During the first half night deep sleep occurs for a long time, the
heartbeat, breathing and waves of the brain are in their lowest levels while muscles are relaxed.
REM sleep occurs about ninety minutes after one has fallen asleep. Mixed frequency waves of
the brain activity becomes closer to the one seen in wakefulness, breathing becomes irregular
and faster and the blood pressure and heart rate increases to walking levels. During this type of

sleep most of dreaming occurs, leg and arm muscles become temporarily paralyzed hence
preventing one from acting dreams.
Parasomnias are disruptions which occur during partial arousals from non- REM and arousals
from REM. They are undesirable physiological, experiential or behavioral activities
accompanied by sleep. This disorder arise from either non-REM or REM states of sleep. Arousal
disorder occur during deep sleep abundantly