Meanings
nounNREM (uncountable)
- attributiveuncountablemedicineNon-rapid eye movement, non-REM; designating the stage or stages of sleep when there is no dreaming and brain activity is reduced.First known use 20th c.
[A] key function of deep NREM sleep, which predominates early in the night, is to do the work of weeding out and removing unnecessary neural connections.
2017, Matthew Walker, Why We Sleep, Penguin, published 2018, page 45
Synonyms & antonyms
Opposite
nouna recurring sleep state during which rapid eye movements do not occur and dreaming does not occur; accounts for about 75% of normal sleep time
Similar
orthodox sleepnonrapid eye movement sleepNREM sleepnonrapid eye movement
Synonym sets from Open English WordNet, CC BY 4.0.
Origin
Initialism of non-rapid eye movement.
Full word history & related roots →Rhymes & wordplay
Anagrams
Cite this entry
APA
NREM. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 2, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/NREM
MLA
“NREM.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/NREM. Accessed November 2, 2026.
Chicago
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “NREM,” accessed November 2, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/NREM.
Source: NREM on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.