For decades when people occasionally asked me if I remember dreaming at night during sleep, my answer was always the same – “I haven’t remembered my dreams in decades.” When I was an adolescent, I used to write them down because they were abundant and occurred every night. Dreaming, which takes place during REM sleep, is very important and is very critical for health for reasons discussed below.
Do you frequently dream? Do you remember your dreams?
REM gets its name from Rapid Eye Movements that your eyes make when your mind is active but your body is paralyzed to keep you from acting out your dreams.
We go through 4 stages of sleep every night that cycle in 90 minute increments.
N1 – Transition from wakefulness to sleep
N2 – Light sleep
N3 – Deep sleep (body repairs and regrows tissues, builds bone and muscle and strengthens the immune system). Deep sleep occurs more frequently during the beginning part of the night.
N4 – REM Sleep (concentration, focus, memory consolidation, and pain perception). REM sleep occurs more during the later half of the night. For many, REM is impaired because people only get 6.8 hours of sleep per night on average and sleep is disrupted due to waking early to start the day.
There is a number of physical, physiological and cognitive processes which happen while we are in the REM stage of sleep:
- Brain activity increases while muscles remain paralyzed (REM atonia)
- Eyes move rapidly
- Breathing becomes irregular and shallow
- Heart rate increases
- Neural connections are formed (information from the day before is processed)
- Serotonin and dopamine levels are replenished
- Vivid dreams happen
- Brain waves are similar to those during wakefulness
Studies have shown that a lack of REM sleep can affect your memory, mess with your mood, impact your cognitive performance, and affect cell regeneration. Therefore, not getting enough REM sleep can impair athletic performance, motivation due to decreased mood, and get you to not think as clear.
“The results of one study suggest that baseline rapid eye movement (REM) sleep may serve a protective function against enhanced fear encoding through the modulation of connectivity between the hippocampus, amygdala, and the ventromedial PFC.” In other words, getting more REM will help buffer fear responses, trauma and PTSD.
Sleep researchers hypothesize that REM sleep is like a data dump that helps the brain distinguish between important memories from non-important ones, or a way for people to prepare for challenges and run through different scenarios in their heads.
How can we get more REM sleep?
One supplement has made a big difference for when it comes to REM sleep – tryptophan.
Tryptophan is an amino acid that people talk about around Thanksgiving because of its presence in turkey, making people sleepy. Interestingly, chicken has just as much tryptophan, so turkey is not special in that regard. Here is why tryptophan is important.
Tryptophan -> 5-HTP -> Serotonin -> Melatonin
Tryptophan gets converted into both serotonin and melatonin. Many people with sleep issues nowadays have been prescribed or take melatonin. Melatonin does work, but I much prefer giving the body the most basic raw material, tryptophan, so both serotonin (our feel good chemical) and melatonin (to help us get to sleep) can be made. You can get the benefits of both worlds by taking tryptophan.
So about 1.5 months ago, I started to take in between 1- 3 (500 milligram) capsules per night of tryptophan at around 5pm. Some nights I would take 1, some nights I would take 2 or 3 just to experiment and see what the effect was on my body. The nights I took 3 capsules, I was extremely sleepy and tired by 9-10pm. I was very ready for sleep. It definitely made an impact.
Another thing I noticed immediately was that for the first time in decades I started to dream and remember my dreams every single night. I started dictating them into my phone if I woke in the middle of the night to use the restroom. They have been some of the coolest dreams. My sleep has also been more restful.
In addition to improving sleep, melatonin is also involved in managing immune function, blood pressure and cortisol levels. It is also a powerful antioxidant that can affect many health conditions positively. Other studies show that melatonin may improve eye health, reduce symptoms of seasonal depression and even provide relief from acid reflux.
Things to note about Tryptophan
Some symptoms have been noted in some people taking tryptophan including nausea, vomiting, stomach pain, headaches, dry mouth, sexual dysfunction, lightheadedness, fatigue and muscle weakness. Additionally, those that are taking an SSRI, other antidepressant medications, MAO inhibitors, migraine medications and cough syrup should not take tryptophan. This is not medical advice and is information only. Take it at your own risk.
Tryptophan is an inexpensive supplement that could make a difference for you when it comes to the quality of your sleep. So if you have trouble falling asleep or have not remembered your dreams in a very long time, it could offer help.
Other things that really upset the quality of sleep is alcohol use, coffee consumption, irregular sleep times, white light at night (pitch black is best), lack of a cool environment, eating to late at night and a poor diet.
