Consciousness can persist, transform, and dissolve across wakefulness, sleep, and advanced meditation. Despite empirical and theoretical advances within each domain, these states are rarely examined within an integrated scientific framework. An interdisciplinary perspective reveals converging phenomena that challenge binary accounts of consciousness and highlight its graded, dynamic, and...
Research on the continuity and discontinuity between the waking and dreaming minds has largely focused on similarities and differences in waking and dream content. The present study expands this debate by examining another dimension: the relationship between the dream self and the waking self at the phenomenal level. Specifically, it investigates how bodily and affective dimensions of dream...
Dreaming is a universal phenomenon, yet the ability to recall dream content varies among individuals and most dreams are forgotten quickly after waking up. Such dream amnesia seems paradoxical given the proposed adaptive functions of dreaming. It has been theorized that dream amnesia might serve an evolutionary adaptive function, protecting against cognitive disruptions such as dream-reality...
Introduction: The return to normal life following the COVID-19 pandemic was evaluated in terms of anxiety upon awakening, sleep quality indicators, and dream characteristics. Methods: The sample comprised 394 women and 107 men who completed an online self-report questionnaire between August 15, 2022, and December 8, 2022 about their sleep and dream experience from the previous night....
Targeted dream incubation (TDI) is a highly effective method for eliciting hypnagogic dreams related to specific topics through the presentation of verbal prompts and serial awakenings at sleep onset. In this pilot study, we tested whether TDI at sleep onset can effectively direct dream content in subsequent rapid eye movement (REM) sleep. We allowed participants a daytime nap opportunity...
.I study what is known about the extent to which group minds shape the content of dreams and suggest we can interact consciously with some group minds during the lucid dreaming state. Typical dreams are thoroughly social, typically depicting dreamer interactions with characters that represent the group minds he/she is a member of.
Out-of-body experiences (OBEs) are phenomena in which a person perceives their consciousness as separate from their physical body. Although these experiences have been reported for centuries in spiritual traditions, they are attracting increasing interest in the fields of neuroscience, psychology and anthropology. This study aims to take stock of the issue through a literature review by...
This paper documents a multi-year self-observation project on lucid dreaming, systematically recording and analyzing the characteristics of dream flow, consciousness control, and subjective experience during the lucid dream state. The work provides a first-person phenomenological analysis of lucid dreams, exploring patterns in dream clarity, stability, and volitional control. This paper...
Abstract Dream recall varies substantially both between individuals and from night to night within the same individual. Although nocturnal awakenings are thought to facilitate the encoding and later retrieval of dream experiences, it remains unclear whether dream recall is shaped primarily by awakening frequency or by more specific awakening characteristics, including duration, sleep stage, and...
This article provides a comprehensive neurocognitive overview of dreaming as a complex brain-generated phenomenon. It examines the neural mechanisms underlying dream formation, including the roles of the brainstem, limbic system, and cortex. Special attention is given to sensory components of dreams, such as visual, auditory, and olfactory experiences. The paper analyzes the influence of body...