The veil between dreamworld and reality is perhaps thinner than we thought. In a new way study released on Thursday, scientists in four countries say they have shown that it is possible to communicate with humans while dreaming. At least some of the time, the dreamers were reported to be able to answer yes-no-no questions and answer simple mathematical problems through face and eye movements; after that, some remembered hearing the questions during their dream.
Cognitive neuroscientist and study author Ken Paller and his colleagues at Northwestern University in Chicago have been studying the link between sleep and memory for years. Sleep is commonly believed to be essential for the strong storage of memories created during the day. But little is yet understood about this process and how dreams can play a part.
“We study dreaming to learn more about why dreams happen and how they can be useful for mental activity during waking up,” Paller told Gizmodo in an email. “As in our other work, we recognize that sleep experience events can be beneficial for memory work. ”
One reason it is hard to understand a dream is that most of us have a hard time remembering our dreams once we wake up, less telling them to others. But Paller and his team have been trying to communicate with sleepers for a long time. Their previous research confirmed that people can influence sounds from the outside world while they are asleep. Other research on ragged dreaming – people who claim to have control over their dreams – has suggested that they can signal to external observers through eye movements while dreaming (in in 2018, study) recommended that these eye movements could be used to tell when a person has entered a lucid dream state).
Many people are familiar with one-way communication with a sleeper, as sleepwalking and talking sleep are common surprises. But Paller’s team reasoned that it should be possible to have two-way communication between dreamers and waking viewers and that dreams should be able to bring back those conversations. They also argued that this communication could be stimulated and reproduced under the right conditions in the laboratory, which would be great for future sleep research. As it turned out, they were not the only scientists who had this idea. At least three other research organizations in France, Germany, and the Netherlands had pursued the same goal.
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“The research groups carried out independent studies, after which we found that we had carried out similar studies in different countries. Then we decided to publish our results together – collaboratively rather than competitively, ”said Paller.
The study was published Thursday in Biology right now, while the work will also be featured in a PBS documentary on Friday (the section can already be seen on YouTube here).
In total, 36 volunteers were involved in the study. Some were self-professional experts in lukewarm dreaming, most notably a 20-year-old French partner with narcolepsy that enabled them to achieve REM sleep (the level of sleep when dreams are most common) within the first minute of 20- minute nap. Other participants had no experience with ragged dreaming, but Paller’s team tried to train all their subjects to start a ragged dream when they heard a certain sound played while they were asleep. Some teams used spoken words or tones to communicate; others relied on shower lights or light rubbing on the sleepers. The volunteers were also monitored through routine sleep measurements such as EEG, which records brain activity.
During 57 sleep sessions, participants were able to report that they had entered a rash dream through eye movement 26% of the time. In these successful sessions, the scientists were able to find at least one correct answer to a question through dream eye movements or facial movements almost half the time. Overall, out of the 158 attempts they attempted to communicate with lucid dreaming during these sessions, they received a correct response rate of 18% (the most common response, approximately 60%, was no response ).
When the volunteers were asked about their experiences, some said that they remembered the pre-dream instructions they received and tried to achieve them. Some also said that they heard the questions they received while in the dream, although they were not always in the same ways. Some said that they heard words that clearly felt as if they came from outside their ordinary reality, while others said that it felt as if they heard them through radio. or another means of communication within the dream. But there were still times when people did not clearly remember what had happened or when the questions they said they received in the dream did not match the questions they received.
Tantalizing as the findings of the study, they are based on a small sample size, so any conclusions should be looked at carefully. But they show that it is possible to at least have two-way communication with a dream, Paller said. And because there were different groups of scientists, in different parts of the world and using slightly different methods, they were able to record this showing that it is not just something strange or unknown. ‘he said.
The team has been a symbol of “interactive dreaming.” And now that they feel that they have shown that it is possible, they intend to continue to develop the ability of people to enter that state.
“We are currently exploring opportunities to run experiences in people’s own homes rather than in the sleep laboratory. There may be some benefits to doing so, as the unconventional environment of a sleep laboratory or the diagnostic technology we use will not affect people, ”said Paller. One route they are exploring for future research is to use a smartphone app that teaches people how to dream and how they can be better – an app that already available, for any weird viewer out there.
The hope is that this invention will allow researchers like Paller to get a little closer to scanning the mysteries of our dream lives and how they might affect our waking hours. Over time, this research could be proactively applied to improve people’s lives through the improvement of their sleep and dream habits.
“The applications could be developed for problem-solving, using well-respected skills, spiritual development, nightmares, and strategies for other psychological benefits,” Paller said.