
Michel Jouvet, Who Unlocked REM Sleep’s Secrets, Dies at 91 - SREinSF
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/10/11/obituaries/michel-jouvet-who-unlocked-rem-sleeps-secrets-dies-at-91.html?module=WatchingPortal&region=c-column-middle-span-region&pgType=Homepage&action=click&mediaId=thumb_square&state=standard&contentPlacement=17&version=internal&contentCollection=www.nytimes.com&contentId=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.nytimes.com%2F2017%2F10%2F11%2Fobituaries%2Fmichel-jouvet-who-unlocked-rem-sleeps-secrets-dies-at-91.html&eventName=Watching-article-click&_r=0
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nashashmi
Once cats' pons were destroyed, the cats began to move on sleep suggesting
that they were dreaming.

Does that mean those who sleepwalk also have damaged pons?

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slau
I don't know the answer to your question, but I'm a very regular sleep walker.
I also have no recollection of my dreams (except a few).

I've been known to rip out electric outlets (in my sleep, I was convinced my
blankie was stuck in the wall), scratch plaster walls until my fingers were
bleeding (I was looking for a hidden door), conduct hour-long conversations
about topics that my conscious self knows nothing about, or throw all the bed
linen out the window into the swimming pool (this is related to a recurring
night terror where I think a spider has fallen on the bed). That last one
sounds funny, but it gets annoying for the hotel clerks after the second or
third night in a row.

There's also the issue of having intimate relations with people who happen to
be in the same bed/room/house, without me knowing about it.

Happy to answer questions if you have any.

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nashashmi
I am recalling my own sleepwalking experience. As a kid with severe allergies,
I would get out of bed, go downstairs, grab a tissue sometimes a towel tissue,
and then go back to bed. I would have no recollection of it when I woke up.

Was this muscle memory doing its thing? Or was this instincts? Or was it
something embedded in the mind? I am not sure.

What your comment does bring up the possibility of is that maybe the pons are
not damaged. But rather the other brain functions out power the pons of the
brain. Otherwise, you would always be sleepwalking. Maybe the pons are there
to absorb body movements that come from thought.

Very exciting questions indeed.

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tomcam
I hope he died in his sleep

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meatbags
No tears now, only dreams.

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buddhanature
In one of his experiments, Jouvet deprived cats of sleep until they drowned in
a vat of water. The cats survived an average of 35 days:
[http://web.archive.org/web/20140821072716/http://psychology4...](http://web.archive.org/web/20140821072716/http://psychology4a.com/sleep8.htm)

