An interesting article involving the brain and dreams.

[Catbus]

There's an online portion to my AP Bio class which involves reading articles and posting responses on a forum, and responding to other kids posts. Anyway, this article came up and I found it to be pretty sweet. http://brainmind.com/Dreaming.html It's a bit long, but well worth the read.

[Naiya]

Wow! You're not kidding about a long read. It'll take me a while. Thanks for posting!

[ExoByte]

I am so glad I read that.

[Odd_Nonposter]

That was a long read indeed, with a lot of stuff to interpret. A lot of it would have made more sense to me if I had a better understanding of brain anatomy, but it still explained a few things which I'd wondered about. Example: it explained how GABA agonists like alcohol make it easier for me to drop into NREM (what I like to call "drugged") sleep, but I rarely recall anything on those nights because it suppresses REM by stimulating the REM-off receptors. Likewise, cholinergic supplements are better taken as a WBTB aid because it stimulates the REM-on receptors. I find the external stimulus=>dream content section rather interesting, but contrary to what I've experienced. Moreover, in that the right hemisphere is at a higher level of activation during REM, it also tends to predominate when attempting to analyze internal and external sensory input during this stage of sleep. For example, although sensory perception is restricted, the right cerebrum may respond to a sensation experienced during sleep by creating a dream to explain it. However, when this occurs we sometimes dream backwards. A case in point, "Trish" dreams she is walking in San Francisco lugging large bags of gifts. Feeling tired she sets them down on the sidewalk. She looks for a bus and see a cable car coming. As it pulls up the conductor begins to ring its bell. The sound of the bell grows louder and then jolts her awake. Fully awake she realizes that someone is ringing her doorbell. In this regard, the hearing of the bell seemed to be a natural part of the dream, and it is. What seems paradoxical, however, is that the dream seemed to lead up to the bell so that its ringing made sense in the context of the dream. The dream did not lead up to the bell, however, for the bell initiated the dream. The dream was produced, via the unique language of the right hemisphere during sleep (as well as amygdala activation), so as to explain the sound of the bell. The bell was heard and the dream was instantly produced in explanation and association. The bell stimulated the dream (perhaps by startling the amygdala; see chapter 13) which may have only last a second. This dream that I've had, though, seems to contradict that notion of the brain making up dream content to explain an external stimulus. The beeping of my alarm clock seemed to be a last-minute addition to an already occurring dream, and there was no context within the dream itself that would explain the beeping. In fact, it was that very beep that convinced me that I was in a dream, because there was no context explaining the beep. I believe that this is the very foundation for the EILD technique. Thanks for posting that. Good read.

[Noogah]

Indeed! That answers an age old question I once had. In my dream, somebody did something on the moment which produced a loud bang! I later awoke to discover that a picture had fallen off of my wall, and broken. I was very confused by the precise timing. Thank you for this!