Dreaming, waking conscious experience, and the resting brain: report of subjective experience as a tool in the cognitive neurosciences.
Frontiers in Psychology September 23, 2013 DOI: 10.3389/fpsyg.2013.00637 (opens in new tab)
Study at a glance
AI-extracted from the abstract| Characteristics | Theoretical or philosophical paper Peer reviewed |
|---|---|
| Topics | Dreaming Lucid dreaming |
| Keywords | Memory Sleep Consciousness Cognitive neuroscience Default network Mentation |
| Key points | Argues that spontaneous experiences during rest, sleep, and dreaming are meaningful and unique sources of information about the resting mind and brain. Proposes that these experiences combine recent and remote memory fragments into novel scenarios and may reflect memory consolidation, an adaptive process for extracting general knowledge and preparing for future events. |
Abstract
Even when we are ostensibly doing "nothing"-as during states of rest, sleep, and reverie-the brain continues to process information. In resting wakefulness, the mind generates thoughts, plans for the future, and imagines fictitious scenarios. In sleep, when the demands of sensory input are reduced, our experience turns to the thoughts and images we call "dreaming." Far from being a meaningless distraction, the content of these subjective experiences provides an important and unique source of information about the activities of the resting mind and brain. In both wakefulness and sleep, spontaneous experience combines recent and remote memory fragments into novel scenarios. These conscious experiences may reflect the consolidation of recent memory into long-term storage, an adaptive process that functions to extract general knowledge about the world and adaptively respond to future events. Recent examples from psychology and neuroscience demonstrate that the use of subjective report can provide clues to the function(s) of rest and sleep.
Comparable studies
Other theoretical and historical papers on dreaming, most cited first.
| Study | Year | Design | Participants |
|---|---|---|---|
| Dreaming: a conceptual framework for philosophy of mind and empirical research | 2016 | Theoretical or philosophical paper | |
| Metaphor and hyperassociativity: the imagination mechanisms behind emotion assimilation in sleep and dreaming | 2015 | Theoretical or philosophical paper | |
| Varieties of Lucid Dreaming Experience | 2000 | Theoretical or philosophical paper | |
| Experimental Research on Dreaming: State of the Art and Neuropsychoanalytic Perspectives | 2011 | Theoretical or philosophical paper | |
| The Neurobiology of Consciousness: Lucid Dreaming Wakes Up | 2009 | Theoretical or philosophical paper |
Citations in the library
Cited by 22
- The myth of cognitive agency: subpersonal thinking as a cyclically recurring loss of mental autonomy. Frontiers in Psychology 2013
- Metaphor and hyperassociativity: the imagination mechanisms behind emotion assimilation in sleep and dreaming Frontiers in Psychology August 18, 2015
- Why are dreams interesting for philosophers? The example of minimal phenomenal selfhood, plus an agenda for future research1 Frontiers in Psychology 2013
- The Phenomenal Contents and Neural Correlates of Spontaneous Thoughts across Wakefulness, NREM Sleep, and REM Sleep Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience May 31, 2017
- Partial memory reinstatement while (lucid) dreaming to change the dream environment. Consciousness and Cognition August 1, 2020
and 17 more in the library
Cites 13
- Development of the Brain's Default Mode Network from Wakefulness to Slow Wave Sleep Cerebral Cortex February 17, 2011
- The threat simulation theory in light of recent empirical evidence: A review The American Journal of Psychology April 1, 2009
- A Comparison of Mental Activity During Sleep Onset and Morning Awakening Sleep August 1, 1998
- Experience-dependent induction of hypnagogic images during daytime naps: a combined behavioural and EEG study. Journal of Sleep Research February 1, 2012
- Dreaming and the brain: from phenomenology to neurophysiology. Trends in Cognitive Sciences January 14, 2010
and 8 more in the library