I'm not really sure if this is the right place for a post like this, but if it's not, please feel free to move it where it belongs.

Anyway...

For a long time, I've been thinking about the neurology of consciousness. I know that it basically (as far as we understand) works like this: sensory information and information about the current state of the mind (that is, the current state of the cerebral cortex) is sent to a structure in the brainstem called the thalamus, which then "translates" the input and relays it back to the cortex. This kind of loop is what allows us to "see what's in our minds", and to be self-aware.

I've been thinking that, since the thalamus has a lot to do with regulating sleep and mental arousal as well, whether or not lucid dreaming might simply be an attempt to keep the thalamus from being so "inhibited" when we are asleep, that is, keeping enough of it "switched on" that we are still capable of forming the kind of feedback loop necessary for self-awareness. I wonder also if that might be why dream consciousness is often so much weaker and fuzzier than waking consciousness.

Any thoughts?