Mental time travel to the future might be reduced in sleep.
Jana Speth, Astrid M Schloerscheidt, Clemens Speth
Consciousness and Cognition February 1, 2017 DOI: 10.1016/j.concog.2016.11.006 (opens in new tab) via PubMed
Summary
AI-generated from the abstractMental time travel to the future is reduced during REM and non-REM sleep compared to waking. Three independent judges analyzed 563 mentation reports from sleep onset, REM sleep, non-REM sleep, and waking using a validated linguistic tool based on grammatical and cognitive-semantic theories. The data indicate that both REM and non-REM sleep are characterized by a reduction in future-oriented mental time travel, supporting earlier physiological evidence at the level of brain function.
Study at a glance
| Characteristics | Observational study Peer reviewed |
|---|---|
| Sample size | 563 |
| Population | Mentation reports from sleep onset, REM sleep, non-REM sleep, and waking |
| Keywords | Hypnagogic hallucinations Linguistics Mentation reports Non-rem Quantitative linguistic analysis |
| Key finding | REM and non-REM sleep are characterized by a reduction in mental time travel to the future compared to waking. |
Abstract
We present a quantitative study of mental time travel to the future in sleep. Three independent, blind judges analysed a total of 563 physiology-monitored mentation reports from sleep onset, REM sleep, non-REM sleep, and waking. The linguistic tool for the mentation report analysis is based on established grammatical and cognitive-semantic theories and has been validated in previous studies. Our data indicate that REM and non-REM sleep must be characterized by a reduction in mental time travel to the future, which would support earlier physiological evidence at the level of brain function.