Dreams can sometimes incorporate external sensory stimuli (e.g. sounds, smells and physical sensations) into their course and content, either directly or indirectly. This shows that the brain is still able to monitor, process, and perceive what is happening in the surrounding environment during sleep. This study aimed to examine stimulus incorporation in dreams using two auditory stimuli of...
I propose a narrative fabrication thesis of dream reports, according to which dream reports are often not accurate representations of experiences that occur during sleep. I begin with an overview of anti-experience theses of Norman Malcolm and Daniel Dennett who reject the received view of dreams, that dreams are experiences we have during sleep which are reported upon waking. Although...
The International Journal of Dream Research is reaching its third year. The two issues of 2009 included 13 original papers and one invited essay. These articles covered a large variety of topics like lucid dreaming, dream recall, dream content, nightmares, dreams and psychopathology, and sleep quality. Submissions from all over the world including Canada, the United States of America, the...
Despite the fact that flying unaided is not possible in waking life, flying dreams have been reported fairly often. Over the centuries, a large number of scientists have speculated about the etiology of such dreams. Their occurrence in a student sample ( N = 444) was related to low neuroticism, openness to experience, boundary thinness, dream recall frequency and playing an instrument. The...
Dreaming has fascinated mankind since the dawn of history. This article focuses on the psychologically oriented research which has three major areas of interest: (1) a description of dreams (What do dreams look like?), (2) factors influencing dream content and (3) the effects of dreams on subsequent waking life. The following definition attempts to cover the consensus of the researchers in the...
The question whether personality dimensions explain the interindividual differences in dream recall frequency has often been investigated by dream researchers. The present findings confirm previous research which has shown that traits such as openness-to-experience and thin boundaries correlate substantially with dream recall frequency. However, correlation coefficients are small and are much...
This study investigates the neurolinguistic mechanisms responsible for language processing during dreaming. Historical and modern studies, including fMRI and PET scans, are analyzed to examine the activity of Broca's and Wernicke's areas, as well as the temporal lobe. The results indicate that language functions in dreams are closely associated with memory consolidation and emotional...
Non-lucid dreams feel everything and know nothing — full emotion with no self-awareness. This paper proposes why, and names six tests that could prove it wrong. Dreaming presents a puzzle: vivid emotions occur in the absence of self-awareness, and self-awareness can abruptly return within the dream (lucid dreaming) or upon waking. I propose a three-state computational model of sleep-wake...
End-of-life dreams and visions (ELDVs) are meaningful subjective experiences commonly reported by dying patients. While prior research has shown their emotional and existential value, evidence from non-Western settings remains scarce. This study explored the lived experiences and meanings of ELDVs among Iranian patients with advanced cancer. Using Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (IPA),...
We know that biology’s almost astronomical complexity can, in principle, be explained by the paradigm of natural selection, together with John Holland’s new paradigm of an emergent hierarchy of increasingly complex adaptive systems (CASs). This paper shows that these two paradigms might also explain conscious experience, an explanation that, though anticipated by the narratologist Bernini, has...