Non-rapid eye movement sleep 3D maze. Participants were then trained in the maze for 4 hours and later, during the various sleep cycles of nonREM sleep, REM sleep and wakefulness, they were scanned twelve times using a PET scan during the night. The PET scan demonstrated a higher blood flow in the hippocampus during SWS/non-REM sleep due to the training from the previous day while the control group exhibited no increased blood flow and they had not received the training the prior day. The brain activity during sleep, according to this study, would show the events of the previous day do make a difference.
Rapid eye movement sleep tomography, and reports of dreamers upon waking, have all been used to study this phase of sleep. REM sleep is "paradoxical" because of its similarities to wakefulness. Although the body is paralyzed, the brain acts somewhat awake, with cerebral neurons firing with the same overall intensity as in wakefulness. Electroencephalography during REM deep sleep reveal fast, low amplitude, desynchronized neural oscillation (brainwaves) that resemble the pattern seen during wakefulness which differ from the slow δ (delta) waves pattern of NREM deep sleep. An important element of this contrast is the θ (theta) rhythm in the hippocampus that show 40–60 Hz