[mtippett]

I've often wondered if dreams are fully constructed stories during REM or REM is more or less random vignettes of cognition that are assembled into a constructed story upon awakening.

Rewriting memories seems to be reasonably well understood, and if the recall mechanism for waking memories reconstructs a plausible story from memories, is it reasonable that the same is happening with dreams?

We always remember dreams, have there been experiments where the paralytic effect of sleep has been blocked? I remember seeing a cat video (ironic) of a cat having that part blocked by drugs or surgery and it jumping like it is catching a bird.

[thydun]

All my real dreams have been stories, however I've had a few dream like displays after waking up, but keeping my eyes closed. It's usually been repeating patterns of objects that change every 5-10 seconds, e.g fir trees, chairs, cars, hot air balloons etc. However, at least once, it was more akin to a film with people doing something in it like talking, driving vehicles etc. The display only appears in a small rectangular area on the right side of my vision, when I have my eyes closed and disappears when I open my eyes.