This thesis deals with the electrophysiological correlates of sleep prior to dream recall and the age-related effects on dream processing. The dual NREM/REM sleep cycle and the circadian modulation of REM sleep sum to generate dream processing. However, little is known about the age-related effects on dream recall during both NREM and REM sleep, which comprises the first aim of this thesis. To...
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...
Models of dream analysis either assume a continuum of waking and dreaming or the existence of two dissociated realities. Both approaches rely on different methodology. Whereas continuity models are based on content analysis, discontinuity models use a structural approach. In our study, we applied both methods to test specific hypotheses about continuity or discontinuity. We contrasted dream...
Nightmares are a common disorder with serious consequences. Recently, the cognitive behavioral interventions Imagery Rehearsal Therapy (IRT) and exposure proved effective in a self-help format. The aim of the current study was to compare the following self-help formats to a waiting-list: IRT; IRT with sleep hygiene; and IRT with sleep hygiene and a lucid dreaming section....
Dreaming, daydreaming, and thinking are done by people, and people differ in all sorts of ways. Different people think differently and they dream differently as well. This is so obvious as to hardly be worth mentioning. But are there systematic differences? Can aspects of personality be related to dreaming? Early studies suggested little relation between dreaming and measures of personality....
Periodicity, hallucinatory phenomena and lack of awareness of one’s detachment from reality seem to connect the subjective experience of dreaming to that of psychosis. Both can be considered fully conscious states of the brain/mind, with an immediate influence of non-conscious elements caused by an impaired interaction with the external world. Psychological and pharmacological induction of...