What impact does reduced NREM sleep and increased REM sleep have on behavior?

Glad to help. :)

Thanks!

I think we've discussed handedness before, but not in this context. My youngest is a lefty, and so anytime I see stuff about it and the differences, I get intrigued. With this one, I was more interested because I know sleep impacts behavior. My youngest always seems to have ants in his pants, to the point where some (non-professionals) want to label him as having ADD or ADHD. And, of course, people still want to gravitate toward medications for that. I'm not a fan of meds for lots of reasons unless they're absolutely 100% necessary and although my son is wiggly and has a shorter attention span, he's still malleable. When he has to focus, he can. 

In seeing this article, it got me wondering... what if the decreased sleep quality is what's producing these symptoms? If he's really more jittery because his brain is wired differently as a lefty. O_o And, if that's the case, maybe there's a way to improve sleep for him. But, none of this appears to have been explored by science much. I seem to recall my older brother (a lefty) being similar to my son in this way. He was smart, but he struggled in school because he "didn't want to do the work," which arguably could have meant he wasn't able to. He needed movement more and shorter bursts of study. 

Anyway, if you have thoughts or experiences here, I'd love to hear them. 

It sounds like you got most of the traits of a traditional lefty- from what I've seen as well. :) 

I was never an antsy child. My sister was but she is a righty. 

All of three my kids are rightys. My middle son was the same way. When he would get home from school, would literally be bouncing off the wall. His 1st grade the teacher wanted to have him evaluated for learning difficulty. She had never seen. He seemed to hear things backwards...similar to dyslexia but with hearing. And short term memory tests. 
Anyway the did their tests and come back that I should put him on the meds for ADHD. That it would help him focus like eye glasses would. The lady explaining said her child was on something similar.  I was mad, That was not what they were supposed to be evaluating. His teacher was just kind of quiet. And just said well that is alot to think about. She caught me about a week later and asked if I had any feelings about what they said. She apologized for them and was happy to know I was not willing to go the medical route. And she had done some research on her on and gave me some exercises to do with him and she would do at school as well. She told me that he was simply an active boy and needed to move around some during the day. And she gave him that freedom as long as he did not disturb anyone else in the class. She was such a great teacher...we were lucky enough to get her for both 1st and 2nd grade. I do wonder if I would have had to fight with another teacher in 2nd grade if she were more strick. 

Anyway, no meds. I have never seen a child that needed them. They are young and need to be active and they will learn to be calmer as they grow. I have seen too many parents use the meds as an excuse to not be a parent. (Child is misbehaving means it is medicine time) My son is a senior this year and no issues with no use of meds. Sorry....end of rant.

Does he sleepwalk or get night terrors (these are awful to deal with as a parent)? There are products that sort of wake the sleeper preventing that really deep sleep. 

This may interest you:

 https://www.everydayhealth.com/add-adhd/7-sleep-disorders-linked-to-adhd.aspx 

Thank you for sharing that. I wouldn't call it a rant. It was helpful.

We were lucky in that my son's teacher last year was like your son's. She had "wiggle chairs" that let the kids fidget some, let them stand at their desks, and mostly do whatever, so long as they were listening and not disrupting others. This year, there were some pretty big conflicts and I tried to have my son moved to another classroom. It wasn't a viable solution, but I eventually worked things out with his existing teacher, so she's now giving him a bit more space and understanding and he's doing much better in class and enjoys going again. Ugh. The first couple months of school this year were rough. Lots of tears, from all of us. lol 

I've never noticed anything odd about my son's sleeping behavior. He fights going to sleep, but once he's out, he seems good. I usually have to put a focus on physical activity to make sure he's tired enough for bed, but other than that, he doesn't seem to have any other odd sleep symptoms. 

Wiggle chairs...I like that. Glad you were able to work something out with the new teacher.  Sounds to me like he is a normal active boy.