In this discussion, Professor Tore Nielsen from the University of Montreal shares insights on imagery rehearsal techniques to transform nightmares into empowering experiences. He emphasizes how confronting anxiety in waking life can improve dream quality. Professor Mark Blagrove from Swansea University explores the fascinating realm of lucid dreaming, revealing its potential to enhance control in both dreams and daily life. The duo also delves into the intriguing 'dream-lag' effect, explaining how significant life events influence dreams days after they occur, shedding light on memory consolidation.
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Imagery Rehearsal for Nightmares
Rehearse modified nightmare scenarios while awake to reduce anxiety.
This practice generalizes into dreams, making nightmares less threatening.
insights INSIGHT
Control in Dreams
Imagery rehearsal therapy works by establishing a sense of control over unconscious processes.
This control, learned while awake, influences dream content and reduces nightmare intensity.
insights INSIGHT
Lucid Dreaming vs. Imagery Rehearsal
Lucid dreaming differs from imagery rehearsal as it involves conscious control during the dream.
The general desirability of lucid dreaming is debated, as it may disrupt other dream functions.
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Owen Flanagan's "Dreaming Souls" delves into the philosophical and scientific debates surrounding the nature and purpose of dreams. Flanagan meticulously examines various theories of dreaming, critically evaluating their strengths and weaknesses. The book challenges the notion that dreams serve a specific function, presenting a compelling case for dreams as essentially meaningless neural activity. It explores the implications of this perspective for our understanding of consciousness and the human mind. Ultimately, "Dreaming Souls" offers a thought-provoking exploration of the mysteries of dreams and their place in human experience.
When Brains Dream
Exploring the Science and Mystery of Sleep
Robert Stickgold
Antonio Zadra
When Brains Dream offers a detailed examination of dreams, debunking myths and presenting a new model called NEXTUP to explain dream functions. It explores various types of dreams, their psychological and neurological significance, and how they facilitate creativity and personal insight. The book also delves into dream-related disorders and the role of dreams in memory processing.
In this episode, we talk to Professor Tore Nielsen from the University of Montreal and Professor Mark Blagrove from Swansea University.
In part 2 of this two part episode, we carry on our discussion about nightmares and talk about Tore's work on imagery rehearsal. A process where the dreamer rehearses their nightmares finding solutions to them in waking life in order to reduce stress and anxiety around nightmares and find more control in their dream life.
Then we move on to lucid dreaming and how this differs from imagery rehearsal. We take a look at Mark's work on how lucid dreamers have more control in their waking life and go on to discuss the possibly positive and negative effects lucid dreams may have on our REM dreams.
Finally, we discuss work from both guests on the dream-lag effect. This phenomenon, first discovered by Tore, occurs when life events are incorporated into dreams the night after the event and also 5-7 days after, but not in between. We discuss how the dream-lag effect was discovered and how it only appears to happen in REM dreams. We also discuss what this may means biologically and what impact it may have on memory consolidation.
We hope you enjoy this episode!
If you haven't already listened to it, part 1 of this episode is available on all podcast platforms.
If you would like to find out more about either Tore's or Mark's work, check out the links below. Tore's page here and Mark's page here .
Lucid Dreaming - This is a type of dreaming where the dreamer is aware they are dreaming. The dreamer in some cases can have control over the dream content.
Metacognition - Where one is aware of their own thinking and thoughts.
Idiopathic - A disease or condition which seems to have no known cause or appears spontaneously.
Dream-lag effect - A phenomena where life events are incorporated into dreams the night after the event and also 6-7 days after, but not in between.
****If you think we need to add a term or two here, please let us know****.
Sleep Science Podcast 