Published in 2022, When Brains Dream - Exploring the Science and Mystery of Sleep by Antonio Zadra & Robert Stickgold was my latest choice in books about sleep and dreaming. Largely academic in nature, the book mentions many scientific sleep studies and may be a dry read for some.
According to the authors, we dream in all phases of sleep and most people dream for at least two-thirds of the night. Some researchers believe we dream all night but if you don't believe you dream at all, you do, you just don't remember your dreams on waking. Often something can happen later in the day to trigger the memory of a dream and I can still conjure the memory of dreams from days, weeks and months ago.
I'll admit I was excited early on in this book when I read:
"... we can think of dreams as either real life; portals into equally real or alternate worlds; messages and prophecies from the gods; unfulfilled wishes; random brain noise; nocturnal entertainment; communications from the future, the dead, or other minds; sources of personal insights, problem solving, and creativity; or a window into memory processing." Page 9Hopes the authors were going to expound on each of these topics were soon dashed as I realised I was in for a scientific and academic look into dreams and dreaming. Having said that, I'd love to share my key takeaways.
It was reaffirming to read about the process proving stimuli received during sleep like smells and sounds can actively influence the dream you're having. I'm pretty sure we've all experienced the phenomenon where the sound of your alarm begins as something else in your dream before you wake up and realise it's actually your alarm going off. In one study, the smell of a burnt match or drop of water on a participant's forehead had a direct impact on the content of the dream they were having. Interesting, right? Although I did find myself chuckling at the thought of the participant waking up to a researcher with a lit match near their head.
Also reaffirming previous learned information was the correlation between the use of smart phones and insomnia. You can't fail to notice that most people turn to their phones in moments that were once spent zoning out or gazing into the distance while waiting for something or someone. Now, any moment of spare or dead time has users reaching for their device, however this leaves no time for the brain to process thoughts during the day.
Later, when the lights go out and the phones and tablets are silent and on charge, our mind is flooded with all sorts of thoughts from the day. This makes sense as pre-sleep is the brain's opportunity to sort through the day and tag any concerns for later processing during sleep. With that in mind, we should allow ourselves to zone out and be with our thoughts more often. This doesn't mean we need to meditate but you don't need to kill time or multitask all the time, just be with your thoughts.
"Our dreams rarely come to neat endings. The most common end for a dream report is, 'And then I woke up.' the dreaming brain doesn't plot out whole stories." Page 142When we dream the mind wanders from topic to topic in a haphazard manner in the same way our daytime thoughts have no logical structure during waking hours. Another interesting tidbit in When Brains Dream was the fact that those who were born before the introduction of colour TV actually dreamed in black and white about 40 per cent of the time.
On the content of dreams:
"At a more global level, the dreamer is usually faced with some kind of problem. These can range from relatively minor difficulties - planning a course of action, trying to make sense of a situation, or finding a lost object - to serious physical or psychological dangers such as being lost, falling ill, facing interpersonal conflicts, dealing with environmental hazards, or fleeing from physical perils." Page 157Typical dreams include dreaming of falling, being late for something, being chased, and school and study related dreams. Do you have a recurrent dream? I'd love to know!
I'm a lucid dreamer but researchers have now been able to communicate with advanced lucid dreamers in a lab with a set of pre-arranged signals. When the participant enters a dream state they communicate with researchers via a series of eye movements at the beginning of a pre-set task and when they complete it. Now that's wild!
I enjoyed seeing the list of reality checks to perform while dreaming to determine if you're awake or dreaming, they include:
"These can take many forms, including trying to read, staring at yourself in a mirror, turning on a light in a dark room, or trying to push your fingers through your palm. In most dreams, you will experience difficulties reading, mirror reflections quickly become unstable, light switches fail to work properly, and your fingers may pass through your palm or give rise to other unusual sensations." Page 238According to the authors, carrying out these reality checks can help you realise if you're dreaming or not.
It's widely accepted that most people can't read in their dreams, but after reading this book I focussed on my lucid dreaming ability and was actually able to read in a dream I was having! I was on a plane and was able to read the title of the book the person across the aisle from me was reading. I could also read the text on a computer screen that showed an email sent by the previous passenger. Apparently this is a rare feat so I'm pretty proud to have taken my love of reading into my dreams.
When Brains Dream - Exploring the Science and Mystery of Sleep by Antonio Zadra & Robert Stickgold is recommended for the dedicated non fiction reader familiar with the basics of sleep who wants to delve into the latest scientific developments.
