By A study by scientists in the United States has shown that a sleeping person is not completely isolated from his or her surroundings. This work represents a step forward in understanding what happens in the brain while we rest.
Research conducted by Northwestern University in the United States has shown that it is possible to converse with a sleeping person, covering basic points. This discovery broadens the understanding of a world that science has not yet fully understood: sleep.
The study is titled Real-time dialogue between experimenters and dreamers during REM sleep . In it, some participants responded to questions posed by experimenters during REM sleep , using eye movements as a mode of communication. However, the interaction was limited and there was no full, fluid, two-way conversation.
This work represents a step forward in understanding the mechanisms of REM sleep and the possibility of communicating with someone while they are asleep. However, it is important to note that this is a pioneering project and that further research is required before real-time communication with people in REM sleep becomes a practical and widespread reality.
Sleep is the only place where I can escape from everything and find myself.
~ Lauren Oliver ~
Talking to a sleeping person: key data from the study
The research on communicating with a sleeping person was led by Professor Karen Konkoly, who has studied the topic of lucid dreaming extensively, as noted in Consciousness and Cognition .
The sample in the study Real-time dialogue between experimenters and dreamers during REM sleep consisted of a group of 36 participants. They were recruited through advertisements and met certain selection criteria, such as being in good general health and not having any diagnosed sleep disorders .
They all underwent experimental sessions during REM sleep, in which they used motor stimulation and signaling techniques, to try to establish real-time communication with them while they were dreaming.
It is critical to note that while the study provided preliminary information about the possibility of REM dream communication, the sample was relatively small and does not represent the general population .
How was it possible to talk to a sleeping person?
This experiment was carried out using a combination of neuroimaging techniques and stimulation during REM (rapid eye movement) sleep, the stage in which the most vivid dreams occur. Electroencephalography (EEG) was used to monitor the brain activity of the participants and determine when they were in this phase of sleep.
The researchers used auditory signals, specifically audio tones. The aim was to stimulate each sleeping person while they were dreaming. These signals were designed so that the brain would detect them, but without waking the participants.
A technique called motor cueing was also used, which involves asking volunteers to perform specific eye movements, such as moving their eyes from left to right or up and down . This corresponded to an affirmative or negative response to questions posed by the experimenters.
By monitoring the brain activity and eye movements of the participants, the scientists attempted to establish two-way communication between themselves and the volunteers. This was done in real time, while the participants were dreaming.
The results of the study
The results of the study showed that some participants were able to respond to questions asked during REM sleep using specific eye movements. This suggests the possibility of limited communication during dreams. Apart from this, fluent and complete conversation with the sleeping person was not possible.
This analysis represented an initial step towards exploring communication during dreams. However, further research is required to fully understand the mechanisms involved and to improve techniques for real-time interaction with sleepers.
The study was evaluated and reviewed by independent experts in the field before being published in the scientific journal Current Biology . This is standard practice in scientific publications.
Final considerations
Although Konkoly’s research is pioneering in many ways, as early as 1965 Charles Tart, one of the founders of transpersonal psychology, was imagining and speculating about communicating with sleeping people, comments an article in Psychological Bulletin .
(…) To what extent could a ‘two-way communication system’ be developed, whereby the experimenter could instruct the subject to do such-and-such while dreaming, and the subject could report on the events of the dream as they occurred? If such a development were possible, dreams would lose their status as a purely subjective event that could only be reported in retrospect(…)
~ Charles Tart ~
Over the years, in 1981, Stephen La Berges, in an article published in Perceptual and motor skills , not only demonstrated the existence of lucid dreams, but also highlighted the possibility of voluntary communication during REM sleep.
Finally, it is important to note that communication during REM sleep is a difficult topic to research , due to the fleeting and subjective nature of dreams. While this study is promising, further exploration is still required in order to pinpoint the underlying mechanisms and develop more sophisticated techniques.