Early-night serial awakenings as a new paradigm for studies on NREM dreaming.
Valdas Noreika, Katja Valli, Hetti Lahtela, Antti Revonsuo
International Journal of Psychophysiology October 1, 2009 DOI: 10.1016/j.ijpsycho.2009.06.002 (opens in new tab)
Study at a glance
AI-extracted from the abstract| Characteristics | Experimental paradigm Peer reviewed |
|---|---|
| Sample size | 5 |
| Population | Participants in a sleep laboratory |
| Intervention | Early-Night Serial Awakenings |
| Duration | 20 experimental nights, sessions lasting on average 193 minutes |
| Topics | Dreaming |
| Key findings | ENSA produces static, content-limited dreams with stable EEG and recall across sessions. |
Abstract
A new experimental paradigm called "Early-Night Serial Awakenings" (ENSA) was explored to find out its strengths and weaknesses for psychophysiological studies of NREM sleep dreaming. Five participants spent 20 experimental nights in the sleep laboratory, and were serially awakened with approximately 24-minute intervals during Stages 2 and 3 of NREM sleep. As a total, 164 awakenings were conducted during the sessions that lasted on average 193 min. Altogether, 30% of NREM sleep awakenings led to dream reports, 39% to reports of white dreaming, and 31% to reports of dreamless sleep. Results also show that sleep EEG spectral power, dream recall frequency as well as dream complexity remained stable throughout the serial awakening sessions. We conclude that, as ENSA dreams appeared to be static and very limited in content, the paradigm we identified could be used in future studies to reveal the psychophysiological mechanisms of relatively simple forms of early-night NREM sleep dreaming.
Comparable studies
Other experimental studies on dreaming, most cited first.
| Study | Year | Design | Participants |
|---|---|---|---|
| Lucid Dreaming Verified by Volitional Communication during Rem Sleep Selected subjects proficient in lucid dreaming | 1981 | Experimental study | n = 5 |
| Incorporation of concern- and nonconcern-related verbal stimuli into dream content. Seven male subjects studied during sleep Stages 2 and REM | 1981 | Experimental study | n = 7 |
| Lucid Dreaming and Alpha Activity: A Preliminary Report Good dream recallers | 1982 | Experimental study | n = 10 |
| Lucid dreaming during NREM sleep: Two case reports | 2012 | Sleep laboratory study | |
| The Dream Catcher experiment: blinded analyses failed to detect markers of dreaming consciousness in EEG spectral power. Human participants during sleep | 2020 | Experimental study with blinded classification | n = 9 |
Citations in the library
Cited by 41
- Assessing sleep consciousness within subjects using a serial awakening paradigm Frontiers in Psychology 2013
- The myth of cognitive agency: subpersonal thinking as a cyclically recurring loss of mental autonomy. Frontiers in Psychology 2013
- Why are dreams interesting for philosophers? The example of minimal phenomenal selfhood, plus an agenda for future research1 Frontiers in Psychology 2013
- Nondual Awareness and Minimal Phenomenal Experience. Frontiers in Psychology 2020
- Consciousness lost and found: subjective experiences in an unresponsive state. Brain and Cognition December 1, 2011
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