...Charles Fisher and I were studying the effects of REM sleep deprivation. In this study, we hoped to learn whether dreaming represents an oral drive experience. If so, we could possibly substitute eating for dreaming by waking the subject as soon as a REM period started and by feeding him during each of these awakenings.

This theory was not substantiated by our experiment--but one of the dream sequences illustrated how the arousal and the interaction between the subject and the investigator can become incorporated into subsequent dreams.

The first subject we tested told us his favorite food was banana cream pie. Mrs. Fisher baked a delicious, creamy confection and we took it to the lab to begin the experiment.

Following the usual procedure in REM deprivation studies, we waited until there were several eye movements, then awakened the subject, who reported a short fragment of a dream about walking down a street in Greenwich Village. He ate his first piece of banana cream pie with great gusto and commented, "What a way to do research!"

He went back to sleep, began another REM period about an hour later, recalled another dream fragment when we awoke him, and again ate his pie with relish.

After three awakenings, three minute dreams, and three pieces of pie, the fourth arousal elicited the following dream: "I was having a cup of coffee and a cigarette." He ate his fourth piece of banana cream pie with a little less enthusiasm and commented, "I always have coffee and a cigarette at the end of meals."

Describing the fifth dream fragment, he said, "I was given some spaghetti, but I was scraping it off the plate into a garbage can." He ate his fifth piece of pie with obvious reluctance and left the crust.

In the sixth dream fragment he reported, "Dr. Dement, I dreamed I was feeding you banana cream pie!"

SOURCE: Some Must Watch while Some Must Sleep by William Dement (1972, p.64-65).

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