The relationship of small limb movements during REM sleep to dreamed limb action.

Ten adult subjects, selected for good dream recall and ability to produce spontaneously fine limb movements in the laboratory, reported their last dream experience after awakenings from REM sleep during various limb movement and no movement conditions. The reports were rated for amount and girdle location of dreamed actions by judges blind to the awakening condition. There was a significant correlation between the number of girdles moving before awakening and the amount of dreamed action. Also, when dreams from single girdle movement awakening conditions were examined, the girdle active before awakening was dreamed as moving to a significant degree.