什么事快速眼动(REM)睡眠

Rapid eye movement (REM) sleep is a unique stage of sleep characterized by random rapid movement of the eyes (via Medical News Today). During this phase, your body undergoes a number of physical and neurological changes, including increased brain activity, elevated heart rate, fast and irregular breathing, rapid eye movement, high blood pressure, changes in body temperature, increased oxygen consumption by the brain, sexual arousal, and twitching of the face and limbs.

快速眼动(REM)睡眠是一种独特的睡眠阶段，其特征是眼球的随机快速运动。在这一阶段，你的身体会经历一系列的生理和神经变化，包括大脑活动增加、心率加快、呼吸急促和不规则、眼球快速运动、高血压、体温变化、大脑耗氧量增加、性唤起以及脸部和四肢抽搐。

Your first REM cycle occurs around 90 minutes after you fall asleep and usually lasts for 10 minutes. As the night goes on, each REM cycle will get progressively longer and recur every 90 minutes. Since REM sleep is associated with increased brain activity, it is common to experience vivid and intense dreams during this stage of sleep. Because of the intensity of these dreams, your muscles are immobilized to prevent you from acting out your dreams, leaving your limbs temporarily paralyzed. As a result, REM sleep is also sometimes referred to as paradoxical sleep.

第一个快速眼动周期发生在入睡后90分钟左右，通常持续10分钟。随着夜晚的继续，每个快速眼动周期会逐渐变长，每90分钟重复一次。由于快速眼动睡眠与大脑活动增加有关，在这个睡眠阶段通常会经历生动而强烈的梦境。因为这些梦的强度，你的肌肉被固定住，阻止你执行你的梦，使你的四肢暂时瘫痪。因此，快速眼动睡眠有时也被称为矛盾睡眠。

REM sleep is crucial to your overall health and plays an important role in brain function and development. For instance, REM sleep can impact your memory (via Shape). Studies have shown that REM sleep benefits learning and memory by allowing you to process new memories and maintain essential neural pathways responsible for learning and creating new memories.

快速眼动睡眠对你的整体健康至关重要，对大脑功能和发育起着重要作用。例如，快速眼动睡眠可以影响你的记忆。研究表明，快速眼动睡眠有利于学习和记忆，因为它能让你处理新记忆，并保持负责学习和创造新记忆的基本神经通路。

During sleep, your brain is sort of replaying certain things you've experienced and trying to figure out if it should put that experience into your short-term or long-term memory-or to just forget about it, Dr. W. Chris Winter, a sleep specialist and neurologist, told Shape. "Unlike deep sleep, which is really concerned with rest and recovery, REM sleep has lots more to do with concentration, focus, memory consolidation, and pain perception."

睡眠专家、神经学家w·克里斯·温特博士在接受《Shape》杂志采访时表示:“在睡眠中，你的大脑会回放你经历过的某些事情，并试图弄清楚是应该将那段经历纳入短期记忆还是长期记忆，或者干脆忘掉。”“与真正关注休息和恢复的深度睡眠不同，快速眼动睡眠更有助于注意力、注意力集中、记忆巩固和疼痛感知。”

REM sleep can also impact brain development in infants (Verywell Mind). That's because the increased brain activity that occurs during REM sleep is responsible for developing and strengthening mature neural connections.

快速眼动睡眠也会影响婴儿的大脑发育。这是因为快速眼动睡眠期间大脑活动的增加负责发展和加强成熟的神经连接。