An appetite for sleep?
Rapid eye movement (REM) sleep is one of the least understood aspects of neuroscience. Much of the mechanisms and purposes behind this extraordinary brain state remain unknown, but it has been associated with sensorimotor development (Rio-Bermudez et al. 2017), consolidation of memories (Li et al. 2017), and dreaming (Perogamvros et al. 2013). As opposed to the dominating stage of sleep, non-REM, REM sleep is characterized by its signature behavior of rapid eye movement during sleep, which is remarkably similar to eye movement during wake states (Figure 1).