The function of 'brain waves': a cybernetic model of electroencephalography

Electroencephalograms recorded from sleeping subjects are reinterpreted, from first principles, to explain the relationship between the observed wave-forms and cerebral processes. The manifestations of narcolepsy, namely, sleep paralysis, hypnopompic hallucinations and cataplexy are consistent with a hypothesis that the disorder is the result of entrainment of cerebral waves, causing almost instantaneous descent into a REM sleep state.