Thread: University of Bern finds that dreamers take 50% longer to complete their tasks compared to waking

Interesting research! From personal experience of getting a lot done in a few mins of dreaming, I expected to see the opposite of what they found in the study.

Your proposed explanation makes some sense though. Also, I am wondering if particular tasks may be more time consuming to perform in dreams than others. Perhaps counting takes longer as our higher cognitive functions are less active during sleep?

Edit: Hmm. Very intriguing indeed. I think this is the original study.

http://journal.frontiersin.org/Journ...013.01013/full

They give a number of examples for task completion. It seems logical that the dreamers were actually taking a little time (a second or two) to recall to do the tasks and also not to forget to begin to start with eye movements before or after the tasks. This may have added a few extra seconds for time completion. I could relate this to not having instant access to all of brain's facilities, like for instance prospective memory. As we know, it can be really difficult at times to recall what task you wanted to do, even if lucid.