Although we have a good understanding of the neurobiology that regulates REM sleep (Rem-on versus Rem-off cells), we poorly understand how such a system is able to trick the brain into thinking that its endogenous stimulation (dream) arouses from external stimulation. More precisely, how REM sleep suppresses one's self-awareness and self-consciousness while keeping perceptive and emotive consciousness.
[...] STATE regulation: Lucid dreams are unpredictable and quite rare, but one can be trained to reach self-awareness during dream. The training consists of a series of sessions that teaches the subject to assimilate bizarreness and unrealistic events with the fact that they are dreaming. Another technique known as mnemonique induction of lucid dream consists of asking oneself many times a day, whether one is currently in a dream. Parameters of brain functioning unique for this state: From our current understanding, lucid dreams display very similar processing and characteristics (including muscle paralysis) as normal dreams with the added lucidity and control power over the dream. [...]
[...] This is the first data that supports the view of lucid dream as a hybrid state between REM sleep and wake. BRAIN areas / neurotransmitters: Hobson was also able to attribute the increase in high frequencies during lucid dream to specific regions of the brain. For all three subjects, the increase in 40 Hz frequencies was highest in the frontolateral and frontal regions of the brain. They then looked at cortical synchronization, by comparing the EEG activity between two distant electrodes. [...]
APA Style reference
For your bibliographyOnline reading
with our online readerContent validated
by our reading committee
