Dreaming is still a mystery of human cognition, although it has been studied experimentally for more than a century. Experimental psychology first investigated dream content and frequency. The neuroscientific approach to dreaming arose at the end of the 1950s and soon proposed a physiological substrate of dreaming: rapid eye movement sleep. Fifty years later, this hypothesis was challenged...
The notions of continuity and discontinuity are discussed in relation to the phenomenon of lucid dreaming (awareness of dreaming while dreaming). Lucid dreams seem to be more dreamlike than non-lucid dreams both in terms of their content and REM sleep physiology and therefore are more discontinuous with our waking experience. They also seem to represent some “crack” – discontinuity – in the...
The discussion between J. Allan Hobson and Michael Schredl covers a broad variety of topics that are still“hot” in dream research. The starting point is the continuity hypothesis of dreaming which is complemented by AllanHobson’s theory of protoconsciousness. Whereas there is no disagreement that waking life is reflected in dreams, thediscussion evolves around discontinuity, i.e., how dream...
The present study tested two hypotheses: 1) that lucid dreaming could be effectively taught through an online intervention, and 2) that lucid dreaming can alleviate depression as mediated by LOC. Surveys consisting of (lucid) dream frequency and recall scales (Schredl & Erlacher, 2004; Doll, Gitter, & Holzinger, 2009), Rotter’s LOC scale (1966), and the most recent Beck Depression Index...
The most common alternative state of consciousness among human beings is dreaming. All normal humans sleep, and during sleep they dream. Still, dreaming is a phenomenon of mystery and confusion for many Westerners, and of fascination to scientists wishing to understand how the mind works, both in terms of neuropsychology and within the context of culture. The neuropsychology of dreaming is...
By what empirical means can a person determine whether he or she is presently awake or dreaming? Any conceivable test addressing this question, which is a special case of the classical metaphysical doubting of reality, must be statistical (for the same reason that empirical science is, as noted by Hume). Subjecting the experienced reality to any kind of statistical test (for instance, a test...