The parts of the brain that produce dreaming

**Flying Spaghetti Monster** · 08-04-2011 12:17 AM

For anyone else interested in the neuroscience of dreaming i found this article really interesting.

What Parts Of The Brain Produce Dreams? | LIVESTRONG.COM

the important information in it is condensed for you here:

>the part of the brain responsible for emotional (especially fear and aggression, fight-or-flight) responses is more active in dreams than in waking life (makes a lot of sense in my experience)

>this fight or flight structure (known as the amygdala) is close to the part of your brain responsible for learning and long term memory, and this structure is also highly active in dreams (while the processes involved in short-term memory are inhibited)

>we don't (usually

) realise we're dreaming because the brain structures associated with language, logic and critical thinking is for the most part offline during sleep. Brain scans of lucid dreamers have found that they have higher activity in these areas during their lucids.

just wanted to share because i found that all very interesting

i think this information also has some implications for how it might be best to go about learning to lucid dream. perhaps would be useful to practice recognising that fight-or-flight kind of feeling in waking life (and perhaps doing an RC or and ADA session) so you may recognise it when you're dreaming and become lucid!

**lucydity** · 08-04-2011 12:21 AM

That's pretty intresting although it's a shame they didn't talk much about the science of lucid dreaming and that they don't have much research into it.

**Flying Spaghetti Monster** · 08-04-2011 10:34 AM

i think its just because the focus of the article was on regular dreaming.
this one is quite a read but is written by Stephen LaBerge himself about the psychophysiology of dreams:

link is right about here