NOVA Explores Dreams Tonight on PBS

The TV program NOVA will explore the world of dreams tonight. “What Are Dreams?” will premiere on your local PBS station.

Leading dream researchers will explain how they study the world of sleep and dreams. And they’ll attempt to answer some of the most intriguing questions about why we dream.

Do dreams improve memory? Do they enhance our creativity? Do they help us solve problems? Are they crucial to our survival?

The program also will focus on the sleep disorders that seem to bring dreams to life. Nightmare disorder. Sleepwalking. REM sleep behavior disorder.



You can watch a two-minute preview of the program online. You also can read a transcript of the program.

NOVA also accepted questions about sleep and dreams. Harvard sleep researcher Robert Stickgold, PhD, provided answers on the NOVA Web site.

Earlier this month the Sleep Education Blog reported that a researcher had proposed a “theory of protoconsciousness” to explain dreams. Studies also have provided some support for the “threat simulation theory.”

Learn more about dreaming and dream theories.

Why Do We Dream?

A new paper suggests that the purpose of dreams may be more than just psychological.

Author Dr. J. Allan Hobson proposes a “theory of protoconsciousness.” He is a professor of psychiatry at Harvard Medical School.

Hobson writes that REM sleep provides “a virtual reality model of the world.” Most dreams occur during this sleep stage.

He thinks that dreams have a functional use. They allow the brain to get tuned up for wakefulness.

“It helps explain a lot of things, like why people forget so many dreams,” Hobson told the New York Times. “Dreams are tuning the mind for conscious awareness.”

This dream theory fits within his broader concept of the purpose of sleep. He summarized his perspective in the title of a 2005 paper: “Sleep is of the brain, by the brain and for the brain.”

Recently Hobson was the co-author of a study in the journal Sleep that investigated lucid dreaming. Results suggest that lucid dreaming is a “unique, hybrid state of sleep;” it involves features of both REM sleep and wakefulness.

In 2008 Hobson and colleagues explored similarities between the normal mental state of dreaming and the abnormal mental state of psychosis. They reported that normal dreaming and schizophrenic thinking share a common degree of “cognitive bizarreness.”

Other dream theories abound: Dreams depict your emotions. They reflect the issues and concerns of your life. They act as a defense mechanism by simulating waking threats.

Read more about interpreting dreams and why we sleep on the Sleep Education Blog. Learn more about dreams and nightmares on SleepEducation.com.

Image by Cornelia Kopp

Into the Deep: Exploring the Science of Sleep

The Oct. 24 issue of the magazine ScienceNews features four articles that focus on the science of sleep.

“The Why of Sleep” takes a look at current theories that attempt to explain the purpose of sleep. Saving energy. Promoting learning and memory. Regulating emotions. Boosting the immune system.

Sleep must provide some benefits that are preferable to waking activities. But the primary function of sleep - if there is one - remains a mystery.

One certainty is that sleep is necessary. “Dying to Sleep” examines the many health risks associated with sleep loss.

Animals need sleep too. But “All Kinds of Tired” shows that animals have a diversity of sleep styles.

And “Sleep Gone Awry” explores how sleep research is leading to a better understanding of sleep disorders. These studies may lead to the development of more effective treatments for problems such as insomnia and narcolepsy.

We Sleep to Be Awake

In April the Sleep Education Blog examined the question of why we sleep. Research has been exploring complex answers to this simple question.

But a definitive explanation continues to be elusive; the question remains an “unsolved mystery.”

Now an editorial by UCLA’s Jerome Siegel suggests that sleep may not fulfill a universal function across all species. Instead sleep appears to be adaptive; its role may be based on “ecological variables” that differ from one species to another.

This would explain why the sleep habits of animals are so diverse, reports the Origins Blog. For example a brown bat sleeps more than 20 hours per day; but a giraffe only sleeps for about four hours.

Siegel views sleep as “a variant of dormant states” seen in both the plant and animal kingdoms. He proposes that sleep “optimizes the timing and duration of behaviour.”

So how and when an animal sleeps is based on its waking needs. The brown bat wakes up at the time of day when its food source is most plentiful; it’s the optimal time to eat.

Why do we sleep? Perhaps we need to understand why we are awake, Siegel suggests. That may be how we find the clues to the mystery of our need for sleep.

Image by Dhyanji

Why Do We Sleep?

An article from the University of Wisconsin takes a closer look at one of the research teams that just published a new study on sleep and memory.

It explains how their research is taking the study of sleep and memory in new directions. It also examines the question that lies at the foundation of their research: Why?

Why do we sleep? It’s a simple question. And progress is being made to answer it. But definitive answers remain elusive.

“Why is it that the brain cells need to sleep?” researcher Chiara Cirelli said in the article. “That’s really what we are trying to understand.”

Cirelli and colleague Giulio Tononi probed this question last fall in the essay “Is sleep essential?” They conclude that there is still no consensus for “the elusive phoenix of sleep.”

Emmanuel Mignot explored this “unsolved mystery” last year in “Why we sleep: the temporal organization of recovery.” He concludes that it is still unclear why sleep is required. But “recent work suggests multiple roles.”

And Jerome Siegel addressed the topic in the 2003 article “Why we sleep.” He writes that “we have no comparably straightforward explanation for sleep.” But sleep research has led to numerous “reasonable proposals.”

A group from Spain offered a more controversial perspective in the 2007 article “The trivial function of sleep.” They argue that “sleep does not provide additional advantages over simple rest.”

So why do we sleep? Researchers are exploring complex answers to this simple question. And the debate is sure to continue.