REM sleep and dreaming: towards a theory of protoconsciousness.
Nature Reviews Neuroscience November 2009 DOI: 10.1038/nrn2716 (opens in new tab)
Study at a glance
AI-extracted from the abstract| Characteristics | Theoretical or philosophical paper Peer reviewed |
|---|---|
| Topics | Dreaming |
| Key points | Argues that REM sleep constitutes a protoconscious state, serving as a virtual reality model that supports the development and maintenance of waking consciousness. |
Abstract
Dreaming has fascinated and mystified humankind for ages: the bizarre and evanescent qualities of dreams have invited boundless speculation about their origin, meaning and purpose. For most of the twentieth century, scientific dream theories were mainly psychological. Since the discovery of rapid eye movement (REM) sleep, the neural underpinnings of dreaming have become increasingly well understood, and it is now possible to complement the details of these brain mechanisms with a theory of consciousness that is derived from the study of dreaming. The theory advanced here emphasizes data that suggest that REM sleep may constitute a protoconscious state, providing a virtual reality model of the world that is of functional use to the development and maintenance of waking consciousness.
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 172
- Unresponsiveness ≠ Unconsciousness Anesthesiology February 7, 2012
- Evolution of consciousness: Phylogeny, ontogeny, and emergence from general anesthesia Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences June 10, 2013
- A systematic review of variables associated with sleep paralysis Sleep Medicine Reviews June 8, 2017
- The Experience Elicited by Hallucinogens Presents the Highest Similarity to Dreaming within a Large Database of Psychoactive Substance Reports Frontiers in Neuroscience January 22, 2018
- Dreams and Psychedelics: Neurophenomenological Comparison and Therapeutic Implications Current Neuropharmacology June 19, 2017
and 167 more in the library
Cites 6
- Lucid Dreaming: a State of Consciousness with Features of Both Waking and Non-Lucid Dreaming Sleep September 1, 2009
- Précis of the illusion of conscious will. Behavioral and Brain Sciences October 1, 2004
- Dreaming and episodic memory: a functional dissociation? Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience 2003
- The cognitive neuroscience of sleep: neuronal systems, consciousness and learning. Nature Reviews Neuroscience September 2002
- Of dreaming and wakefulness. Neuroscience 1991
and 1 more in the library