People consuming even moderate amounts of alcohol in the afternoon and/or evening are thus depriving themselves of dream sleep. There is a sad and extreme demonstration of this fact observed in alcoholics who, when drinking, can show little in the way of any identifiable REM sleep. Going for such long stretches of time without dream sleep produces a tremendous buildup in, and backlog of, pressure to obtain REM sleep. So great, in fact, that it inflicts a frightening consequence upon these individuals: aggressive intrusions of dreaming while they are wide awake. The pent-up REM-sleep pressure
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