SAN FRANCISCO (KCBS RADIO) – Have you ever wondered why our eyes move when we sleep? Scientists have been asking that question since the 1950's with no definitive answers, until now.
Health experts know that our eyes move during sleep. This is the type of sleep they refer to as "Rapid Eye Movement," or "REM" sleep. But since its discovery 70 years ago, what causes those movements has remained a mystery.
According to a new study at UCSF, scientists believe we are looking at our dreams. The study's co-authors Professor of Physiology Massimo Scanziani and Post Doctoral Fellow Yuta Senzai explained the leading theory to KCBS Radio’s Melissa Culross on "As Prescribed."
"What we learned is that those eye movements are tightly coordinated with the activity going on in the brain during REM sleep," Scanziani said. "We're learning the neural mechanism of how dreams are generated by the brain, in particular how different parts of the brain, motor area or sensor area of the brain, are coordinated during REM."
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