On the Single-Mindedness and Isolation of Dream Psychophysiology *
Alan R. Moffitt, Robert Hoffmann
September 7, 2017 DOI: 10.4324/9781315311579-5 (opens in new tab)
Study at a glance
AI-extracted from the abstract| Characteristics | Review |
|---|---|
| Citations | 4 |
| Key findings | Argues that the scientific study of dreams has not lived up to the potential that motivated research following the 1953 discovery of REM sleep. Electrophysiological correlates of sleep mentation are grouped into phasic events, hemispheric activation asymmetries, and tonic EEG characteristics, and the concept of stage is central to dream psychophysiology. Most Western scientific traditions dismissed lucid dreaming as irrelevant or denied its existence. |
Abstract
This chapter reviews the current state of knowledge and opinion concerning the psychophysiological study of dreams, dreaming, and dreamers. This can be done simply and briefly. There is an emerging consensus that the scientific study of dreams has not lived up to the potential that motivated much of the research following the discovery of rapid eye movement (REM) sleep in 1953. Mental activity and subjective experience can be regarded as isomorphic with brain activity, epiphenomenal to brain activity, or as an independent domain which interacts causally with brain activity. Electrophysiological correlates of sleep mentation have generally fallen into three categories: phasic events, asymmetries of hemispheric activation, and tonic electroencephalography (EEG) characteristics. Most of the traditions of Western science simply dismissed lucid dreaming as irrelevant or, worse, denied its existence. The concept of stage is the centerpiece of the conceptual and empirical methods of dream psychophysiology.