REM Sleep in Other Species: The Key to Understanding Dreams

REM Sleep in Other Species: The Key to Understanding Dreams

        On October 5th, 2021, Dr. Karen Konkoly presented her recently-published study on “Real-time dialogue between experimenters and dreamers during REM sleep” (Konkoly et al., 2021). Konkoly explained that the goal of the study was to learn whether the possibility of real-time communication by dreamers could be achieved without “fragmentary and distorted” reports (Konkoly et al., 2021). Konkoly mentioned that dreamers often cannot accurately remember or describe dreams well once awake. In the study, dreamers were given easy mathematical or yes-no questions for “...proof of concept demonstration...” and then given more challenging questions in which answers were recorded through eye or facial movements (Konkoly et al., 2021). This experiment introduced “electrophysiological signals” to communicate dreams in real-time, a phenomenon that once wasn’t believed to be possible until studies like this one (Konkoly et al., 2021).
        Four subjects from varying countries were gathered in Konkoly’s lab to participate in this successful experiment. She explained the unique sleeping shifts of the participants and the researchers, stressing the importance of researchers being able to stay awake for the entirety of the participant’s long sleeping session. Sleep sessions would generally begin early in the morning when a REM cycle was more likely to occur. The dreaming subjects represented a diverse group of sleepers. One of the subjects had been previously diagnosed with narcolepsy and another reported having only had two lucid dreams in their whole life (Konkoly et al., 2021). It’s interesting to consider the possibility of completely different results that the study may have produced had the participants reported never experiencing lucid dreams or reported experiencing lucid dreams frequently. Is it possible that the hearing abilities of the participants also factored into their lucid dreaming experiences? Could an experiment with children compared to one with senior citizens produce entirely different results considering that senior citizens tend to have more difficulty hearing?
        Konkoly reported that there were a total of four research groups that each utilized slightly different protocols (Konkoly et al., 2021). Since the study was rather complicated, is it possible that having multiple research groups could have caused potential discrepancies in the results? Regardless, the purpose of the study was to better understand if dreamers could experience lucid dreaming and communicate their dreams in real-time - and this was achieved. Any discrepancy in the data would likely not affect the current study, but possibly more in-depth studies later down the line. Konkoly also reported that dreamers later explained that signals were received “...as if coming from outside the dream or superimposed over the dream” (Konkoly et al., 2021). Since the interpretation of signals will differ for all subjects and hinge on their hearing ability and past psychological conditioning, the volume of a researcher’s voice might affect the way a signal is interpreted. A participant with good hearing may be better equipped to interpret the researcher’s voice and thus respond with more accurate non-verbal responses. Konkoly’s research reveals that REM sleep is not only a common occurrence that opens many doors for learning more about the purpose of dreams and brain functions but can be explored further to allow lucid dreaming and real-time communication with dreamers. But can this be studied in all species? Is REM sleep a necessity for other animals? Can lucid dreaming and real-time communication be achieved with other species if they have a general understanding of animal-to-human communication?
        In the Nature Editorial “Fur seals can go weeks without REM sleep”, writer Alex Fox describes that northern fur seals “can forgo rapid eye movement sleep for up to two weeks while at sea with no visible hardship” (Fox, 2018). It is well known that REM sleep is the “brain’s most active sleep phase” and is “associated with learning and processing memories” (Fox, 2018). However, new research suggests that REM sleep also plays a major role in “regulating brain temperature” according to “Current Biology” (Fox, 2018). It was reported that northern fur seals generally experience “little to no REM sleep” when in water but didn’t seem to be “deprived” of it at all (Fox, 2018).
        Research has shown that “the brain is warmer” during REM sleep or “when an animal is awake”, pointing to the theory that the “REM phase kicks in to keep the seals' brain from getting too cold” when sleeping in the water since half of a seal’s brain is awake and warm when in water (Fox, 2018). Since fur seals do not experience this on land, they have intermittent cycles of non-REM and REM sleep consistently. This theory is still being debated, as it’s possible that “the loss of REM sleep could have negative effects that aren’t easily noticed” in this species” and/or “tasks performed during REM sleep could be taken care of during non-REM phases” (Fox, 2018). This study is unique in that it focuses on fur seals specifically and gives an in-depth hypothesis for why fur seals may not need REM sleep the same way humans do.

         Konkoly’s mission was to establish real-time communication with humans during dreams to better understand what dreams humans have and possibly why they have them. Could the REM cycle habits of fur seals help unlock the secrets behind REM sleep and the functions involved in REM cycles? Could REM sleep truly be tied to brain temperature? Is it connected to brain temperature regulation in humans, too? How do REM sleep needs and capability differ across species and could Konkoly’s lab repeat similar studies to understand dreams during REM sleep for animals other than humans? REM sleep experiments testing the habits of numerous species could be the key to understanding why animals dream - a question that has plagued many researchers since Sigmund Freud’s initial theory about dreams as repressed desires.

References 

Fox, A. (2018, June 7). Fur seals can go weeks without REM sleep. Nature Editorial. Retrieved October 22, 2021, from https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-018-05353-0?error=cookies_not_supported&code=500850cf-de3c-4d0f-8b94-bad2ab41458f

Konkoly, K., Appel, K., Chabani, E., Mironov, A. Y., Mangiaruga, A., Gott, J., Mallett, R., Caughran, B., Witkowski, S., Whitmore, N., Berent, J., Weber, F., Pipa, G., Türker, B., Maranci, J. B., Sinin, A., Dorokhov, V., Arnulf, I., Oudiette, D., Paller, K. (2021, April 12). Real-time dialogue between experimenters and dreamers during REM sleep. ScienceDirect. Retrieved October 22, 2021, from https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0960982221000592?via%3Dihub

The Connection Between Dreaming and Wellness

 The Connection Between Dreaming and Wellness

Katie Jabaay

Dreaming is a truly elusive phenomenon. The reason why humans dream, how dreaming occurs, how humans can control dreams, and dreams’ connection to health are all being currently researched because the answers to these questions are unclear. Two articles, “People with migraines get less REM sleep, study finds” and “Antidepressant side effects: can antidepressants cause vivid, unusual dreams?” discuss the connections of REM sleep and the physical and mental sides of one’s wellness. These reviews are comparable to the research done by Kokony et. al, which discusses the beginnings of communication in dreams through the research paper “Real-time dialogue between experimenters and dreamers during REM sleep.”

Rogers’ article, “People with migraines get less REM sleep, study finds,” discusses a metaanalysis by Emily Charlotte Stanyer. The paper, “Subjective Sleep Quality and Sleep Architecture in Patients With Migraine,” studies sleep and migraines, and the article provides insight to the research’s takeaways and meaning for people who suffer from migraines. The study found that migraine sufferers have lower quality of sleep according to the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index, and polysomnography found that they had a higher amount of waking time during the night as well as less REM sleep per night. Children who had migraines had the unique trait that they fell asleep faster than average children, however, it is speculated that they are falling asleep faster due to chronic sleep deprivation. The most profound connections of migraines and REM sleep are that less REM sleep predicts a rise in migraines and migraine symptoms the following day. The causal relationship is not known, meaning that research is unclear if the lack of REM contributes to migraines or if the opposite is true, but this is still a meaningful connection for further treatment and exploration. 

The other aspect of wellness, mental health, can also be tied to REM sleep. In Geall’s article, “Antidepressant side effects: can antidepressants cause vivid, unusual dreams?” she discusses a seemingly neglected side effect of antidepressants: vivid dreams. The article focuses mainly on women’s experiences with this side effect and the effect it can have on one’s emotional health. The vivid dreams can range from enjoyable, to confusing, to anxiety-inducing, or to terrifying. A theory for these dreams is the combination of the effects of mental illness combined with the drugs’ effect on the REM cycle. Mental illnesses have symptoms of disrupted sleep and heightened nightmares, while antidepressants decrease the time spent in REM and increase neurotransmitters, potentially creating less dreaming time for a more active brain. Overall, these realistic dreams can confuse individuals, make them feel out of touch with reality, and heighten day-to-day anxiety in the mentally ill patients taking these medications, potentially worsening their mental state. 

Both of these articles lend to the fact that sleep, and dreaming sleep in particular, relate to one’s overall wellness. Lack of REM sleep can contribute to one’s migraines, whereas those on antidepressants have more vivid dreams during a shortened REM period. Both of these illnesses can be tied to REM, being the period that most dreaming happens in, in rather similar ways, as abnormal and shortened REM sleep can worsen the quality of one's life. Perhaps a solution to these illnesses is using a person’s lucid dreams. The article “Real-time dialogue between experimenters and dreamers during REM sleep,” written by Konkoly, Chabani, Dresler, Appel, Oudiette, and Paller, discusses a breakthrough in sleep-research where there was two-way communication between sleeping participants and researchers. The experimenters asked the lucid dreaming participants simple questions by saying them out loud, flashing green lights in morse code, or finger tapping, and tracked the participants via polysomnographic methods. All methods of asking questions produced examples of positive results since the participants were able to answer correctly a high percentage of time through either coordinated eye movements or facial twitching. 

One of the many implications of this research is that communication during dreaming could produce “novel approaches to promote health and well-being could be explored…  perhaps opening up new ways to address fundamental questions about consciousness” (Konkoly). If the practice develops past asking yes or no and numerical questions towards complex conversations, the possibilities for treatments of migraines and depression could expand tenfold. The patients would have to be naturally inclined to lucid dreaming and/or trained to do so, but therapy sessions and interviews on pain level and dream content could provide vital information to both ailments. Therapy sessions during REM sleep could teach patients with mental illnesses coping mechanisms to use during nightmares and confusing dreams rather than after. Interviews can be used for migraine patients in order to assess pain levels during sleep, the content, and perceived duration of dreams. This data is currently difficult or even impossible to access, so the idea of in-dream communication is extremely meaningful.

                                                   Bibliography

Geall, Lauren. “What's with All the Wild Dreams on Antidepressants?” Stylist, The Stylist Group, 3 May 2021, https://www.stylist.co.uk/health/mental-health/antidepressants-side-effects-dreams/514151.

 

Konkoly, Karen R., et al. “Real-Time Dialogue between Experimenters and Dreamers during Rem Sleep.” Current Biology, vol. 31, no. 7, 2021, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cub.2021.01.026. 

Rogers, Kristen. “People with Migraines Get Less REM Sleep, Study Finds.” CNN, Cable News Network, 23 Sept. 2021, https://www.cnn.com/2021/09/22/health/migraine-headache-effects-sleep-study-wellness/index.html. 

Stanyer, Emily Charlotte, et al. “Subjective Sleep Quality and Sleep Architecture in Patients with Migraine: A Meta-Analysis.” Neurology, 2021, https://doi.org/10.1212/wnl.0000000000012701. 

The Importance of REM sleep in Processing Traumatic Emotions and Using Music Therapy to Enhance REM Sleep

The concept of dreaming has been explored by humans over the test of time- in methods both abstract and scientific. For the large majority of human history, dreaming was seen as mystical and often associated with some form of divine intervention. However, newer research gives us more direction in the physiological purpose of dreaming, along with newfound methods of studying this phenomenon. In “Real-time dialogue between experimenters and dreamers during REM sleep,” Konkoly et al. explore different studies which suggest the dreamers in REM (rapid eye-movement) sleep retain many more cognitive abilities than previously assumed. Among these abilities, includes lucid dreamers being able to communicate with researchers in real time during REM sleep. While on a very general level, REM sleep is associated with mood regulation and memory consolidation, although the actual mechanisms of this require much more investigation. Konkoly’s research opens up many possibilities to future studies regarding REM sleep, through this method of communication with lucid dreamers during REM sleep. 

The effects of REM sleep are studied in “Restless REM Sleep Impedes Overnight Amygdala Adaptation,” where Wassing et al. found that poor REM sleep is associated with a decreased ability of the amygdala to process emotional memories during sleep. This somewhat unconventional study recorded participants singing karaoke while wearing muffled headphones, preventing them from hearing their own voices. Inevitably, their singing voices tended not to match the tune of the songs (“Silent Night” and the Dutch national anthem). When researchers played these recordings back to participants, greater activation in the amygdalae of these participants suggested feelings of shame after hearing these poor singing performances. For participants that experienced restful sleep after this first day of research, the amygdala response was lessened after hearing their singing the next day. However, for participants who experienced restless sleep (poor quality REM sleep monitored by electroencephalogram (EEG)), their amygdalae were just as sensitive, sometimes more, when hearing their singing during the next day of research. This study suggests that REM sleep plays an important role in processing memories overnight, especially these negative emotions of shame and embarrassment associated with the amygdala. Furthermore, those suffering from REM sleep disorders may be more susceptible to psychological disorders such as depression, anxiety, and post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). 

There are many potential therapeutic applications within the intersection of these studies. From Wassing’s research, the importance of REM sleep is emphasized in regard to mood regulation, particularly after traumatic events and in those suffering from depression, anxiety, and PTSD. By employing the communication methods investigated by Konkoly, further strategies can be developed to enhance the quality of REM sleep, potentially reducing the severity of psychological disorders, such as depression. Current research implicates that music therapy during sleep can be beneficial to adults suffering from depression (Lund 2020). This can be combined with the work of Konkoly by providing music therapy to lucid dreamers over the course of several weeks and months, which should provide measurable differences in amygdala activity in response to traumatic events. The goal of this practice would be to increase the duration and quality of REM sleep. This could be an essential therapeutic measure for treating depression, anxiety, and PTSD. Other therapeutic practices should be researched using Konkoly’s methods of communicating with lucid dreamers to enhance REM sleep, ultimately decreasing the severity of amygdala responses to traumatic events (Wasser 2017). 

Konkoly, K., Appel, K., Chabani, E., Mironov, A. Y., Mangiaruga, A., Gott, J., Mallett, R., Caughran, B., Witkowski, S., Whitmore, N., Berent, J., Weber, F., Pipa, G., Türker, B., Maranci, J.-B., Sinin, A., Dorokhov, V., Arnulf, I., Oudiette, D., … Paller, K. (2021). Real-time dialogue between experimenters and dreamers during rem sleep. Current Biology, 31(7), R352–R353. https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3606772 

Lund, H.N., Pedersen, I.N., Johnsen, S.P. et al. Music to improve sleep quality in adults with depression-related insomnia (MUSTAFI): study protocol for a randomized controlled trial. Trials21, 305 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1186/s13063-020-04247-9

Wassing, R., Lakbila-Kamal, O., Ramautar, J. R., Stoffers, D., Schalkwijk, F., & Van Someren, E. J. W. (2019). Restless REM sleep impedes overnight amygdala adaptation. Current Biology, 29(14), 2351–2358. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cub.2019.06.034 

Zimmer, K. (2019, June 11). Karaoke-sleep study links disrupted REM with poor memory processing. The Scientist Magazine®. Retrieved October 17, 2021, from https://www.the-scientist.com/news-opinion/karaoke-sleep-study-links-disrupted-rem-with-poor-memory-processing-66139.