Communicating with Dreamers
Recent research has demonstrated the ability of researchers to have two-way communication with people while they sleep.
In 2021, a groundbreaking study proved that individuals in REM sleep can perceive and answer an experimenter’s questions, allowing for real-time communication about a dream. This includes answering Yes/No questions and simple math questions with distinctive eye movements and selective facial muscle contractions.
More recently, a study proved that communication is also possible in other sleep stages–beyond REM sleep. Experimenters also discovered signals in the EEG measurements that predicted the receptivity of dreamers to perceive and respond to questions.
This novel research is laying the scientific groundwork for the development of technology to make lucid dreaming more accessible.
That’s the mission of the Tech for Dreaming community and the focus of our most recent event last week.
Links:
- Tech for Dreaming event with Karen Konkoly of Northwestern University on April 28th, 2021: https://youtu.be/uXXiTA0R7qU
- Tech for Dreaming event with Esteban Munoz Musat from the Paris Brain Institute (ICM) on March 8th, 2023: https://youtu.be/S-98UIlZrD0
- Real-time dialogue between experimenters and dreamers during REM sleep. Published APRIL 12, 2021. https://www.cell.com/current-biology/fulltext/S0960-9822(21)00059-2
- Behavioral and brain responses to verbal stimuli reveal transient periods of cognitive integration of external world in all sleep stages. Preprint. https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.05.04.490484v1
- Other past Tech for Dreaming events: https://techfordreaming.com/events/
- Join the conversation in the Tech for Dreaming Discord server: https://discord.gg/eXd9NPwz43
