Sante De Sanctis (1862-1935), a forerunner of the 20th century research on sleep and dreaming.
Renato Foschi, Giovanni Pietro Lombardo, Giorgia Morgese
Sleep Medicine January 2015 DOI: 10.1016/j.sleep.2014.08.015 (opens in new tab)
Study at a glance
AI-extracted from the abstract| Characteristics | Historical analysis Peer reviewed |
|---|---|
| Topics | Dreaming |
| Keywords | Activation-synthesis hypothesis |
| Key points | Argues that Sante De Sanctis experimentally established a correspondence between deep and desynchronized sleep phases and dreaming, and that his multi-method work on sleep periodicity and consciousness anticipated themes later taken up by modern sleep research. Contends his contributions have been underestimated and should be reconsidered as a source of the psychophysiological explanation of dreams and sleep. |
Abstract
This article aims to reconstruct the elements of continuity and/or discontinuity in Sante De Sanctis' (1862-1935) contributions in the scientific understanding of sleep and dreaming as compared to the scientific research of his time. An Italian psychologist and psychiatrist, De Sanctis, in his work conducted between the 19th and 20th centuries, has framed the study of dreams using multi-methodology. In addition, De Sanctis experimentally established the correspondence between the deep and desynchronization phases of sleep with respect to dreaming. In this context, De Sanctis' subjects described the periodicity of sleep and consciousness, influencing the explanations of the themes that modern sleep research has, after decades, systematically studied. We demonstrate that De Sanctis' work has been underestimated, and in our opinion, deserves to be reconsidered as a source of the psychophysiological explanation of dreams and sleep. Finally, we present a graphical representation of De Sanctis' psycho- and neurophysiological model of dreaming.
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 |