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. 

Brain Development of Pandemic Babies with Limited Exposure to Different Faces

    The COVID-19 pandemic has negatively affected many different aspects of people’s lives. There is great fear for the social development of children due to being under lockdown for a more than a year of their lives especially since they are in such a vital stage in social development. Since children are locked up in their homes with only their parents and immediate family members there has been very little, if any, interaction with other people outside of their circle. This is especially true for ‘pandemic babies,’ which are the babies that have been born during the pandemic, as they most likely have not seen many people other than their parents or anyone that lives with them. In the talk with Dr. Maggie Guy spoke of how children that have a possibility of developing autism spectrum disorder and those who have it process faces in the brain. Since these lockdowns have stopped many social interactions, it is interesting to see how children will be processing faces because of only seeing the same faces every day. In a news article from The New York Times, Elizabeth Preston discusses this topic and the difficulties that could occur especially when distant family starts to visit.  

    Babies go through development very quickly in their first few years of life so there could be certain things that are not yet know about the development of the pandemic babies. The brain itself develops fast as the baby is introduced to many interactions with people and their environment. In the article that Dr. Guy gave her talk about, it states that two studies showed “substantial changes in the first years of life” when it came to P400 activity in an ERP (Conte et al., p. 2). These results show that the changes in the brain happen quickly as in only a year the P400 activity changed a lot. These substantial changes that happen could be due to the exposure to seeing many people and being able to understand the differences in the world. Also, in the research article it is said that “the N290 increase in amplitude with increasing age, but only at 9 and 12 months N290 amplitudes do appear peaked and larger for faces than objects” (Conte et al., p. 7). This information tells that during this time there is a focus in the infant’s brain on the understanding of faces. Since there is a limited amount of faces that the children are seeing there could be difficulty later for the children to understand different facial expressions and facial features.

 

    There is a lot that the baby learns in its first year of life and when the connection from the world is cut there is few things that the baby can learn at home only seeing its immediate family. Interactions with other people are very important for the children in general as this is how they develop socially. In The New York Times article, Dr. Schoppe-Sullivan says that “infancy is the period during which children are biologically predisposed to form close relationships with important caregivers” (Preston). This shows how vital it is for babies to be in contact with others that are trusted by the parents for proper social development. Social interactions from a young age help make children be more open and less worried about talking to others in the future. The development that occurs during the early years of a child are important for their future. In The New York Times article, Dr. Suárez-Orozco says that “the psychological distress these children felt after reuniting gradually ebbed” (Preston). This shows that even if social issues do develop after this pandemic due to the limited social interactions that children had during the pandemic, they will slowly learn what they did not before. The social development of infants will happen after the pandemic, but it will take longer than those that are already older. 

     

    COVID-19 has slowed the world and may have even slowed down the development of infants. Even though the article by Elizabeth Preston states that children are very resilient it is still a curiosity to see if there will be significant developmental changes in these children. There is much to research in how these children will develop as they have been under lockdown and have a very different experience than that of previous generations. 

 

References

 

Conte, S., Richards, J. E., Guy, M. W., Xie, W., & Roberts, J. E. (2020). Face-sensitive brain responses in the first year of life. NeuroImage, 211, 1–20. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neuroimage.2020.116602

Preston, E. (2021, March 29). Your Pandemic Baby’s Coming Out Party. The New York Times. Retrieved October 22, 2021, from https://www.nytimes.com/2021/03/29/well/pandemic-reunions-family-distance-babies.html

Smartphone, Social media, and Decision-Making

Our society has progressively become reliant on technology. Whether it's our phones, computers, or any other devices; Our phones provide readily access to shopping, communication, the internet, and information. We all know that we must sign up for an account and click on the "terms and conditions" agreement. Digital companies such as Facebook and emails services obligate users to check the "terms and conditions" to utilize the website or service. The "terms and conditions" agreement can be considerably long, leaving the user overwhelmed, thus just checking the box. This simple click leads users vulnerable to data collection. This data collection is called behavioral economics. In the data collected, digital companies can discern whether users are feeling lonely, and how to increase engagement, and what one dislikes or likes.  It is easy to disregard this claim, but these digital companies use the neural circuitry susceptible to addiction. This neural circuitry is used in casinos and activated by cocaine.

   Our brain has neurotransmitters; neurotransmitters are chemicals that transmit one message from one neuron to another. Dopamine neurotransmitter strengthens behaviors, such as sex, eating, social interactions, and sleep. In "Dopamine, Smartphones & You...." Haynes explains four dopamine pathways, and each pathway is connected to cognitive and motor processes. The Mesocortical pathway is responsible for cognition, memory, attention, emotional behavior, and learning. While mesolimbic is responsible for the pleasure aspect, also responsible for addiction, seeking behaviors, and perception. And the Nigrostriatal pathway engages with movement and sensory stimuli. In addiction, these three pathways have been proven to be dysfunctional.

 

  In “Excessive Social Media..." explains making an unfavorable decision is linked to drug addictions. A study conducted by Michigan state demonstrated that social media and impaired decision-making have a connection.  Individuals with substance abuse disorders are unsuccessful in learning from their mistakes, which can lead to adverse consequences.  Meshi et al. tested the correlation between social media use and poor decision-making. Meshi et al. had 71 participants answer a series of questions concerning Facebook and the need for use; after, the participants had to do an "Iowa Gambling test," which measures decision-making. The participants needed to distinguish outcome patterns that led to selecting the best possible deck. At the end of the gambling test, participants that use social media choose the bad decks, and those who use social media less demonstrated to do better.  This test was also conducted on people with substance abuse and showed the same results. Both participants in the social media use and participants with substance abuse demonstrated a deficit in decision-making. 

 

References: 

Haynes, Trevor Haynes. “Dopamine, Smartphones & You: A Battle for Your Time.” Edited by Rebecca Clements, Science in the News, 27 Feb. 2019, sitn.hms.harvard.edu/flash/2018/dopamine-smartphones-battle-time/. 

Excessive social media use linked to poor decision-making. Excessive Social Media Use Linked to Poor Decision Making. (2019, January 10). Retrieved October 23, 2021, from https://www.aau.edu/research-scholarship/featured-research-topics/excessive-social-media-use-linked-poor-decision.

Meshi, Dar, Diana I. Tamir, and Hauke R. Heekeren. "The emerging neuroscience of social media." Trends in cognitive sciences 19.12 (2015): 771-782

Dream Better, Feel Better

    The dream has been an intriguing concept amongst curious minds. Research studies inquiring about dreaming minds still have a lot of questions to answer.  

    Konkoly et al. had discussed the possibilities in studying dreams in a clearer spectrum to explore further implications of such research onto the field of psychotherapy. In their study on “Conversing with Dreamers in REM Sleep: New Strategies for Dream Science”, Konkoly et al. had communicated with participants during their REM sleep, experimenting whether they could achieve real-time communication with the dreamer.  This study emphasized the potential of similar research interests in developing an effective method in psychotherapy. In simpler words, using a dreaming period as a treatment method for individuals who suffer from trauma or phobia. It was also stated that memorization, learning, and cognition could be enhanced using a similar approach in dream studies. 

    In different research from Karen Konkoly and Christopher T. Burke, “Can Learning to Lucid Dream Promote Personal Growth?”, the researchers explore whether lucid dreaming helps an individual overcome reported stress and develop a sense of personal growth.  The latter research had explored how students could use lucid dreaming to feel better about themselves. The student participants were asked to report their lucid dreams and fill out questionnaires. However, the results of this research did not show a clear relationship between lucid dreaming and personal growth, the participants were reported to have felt satisfactory feelings during the study (Konkoly & Burke).  

    Research in dreaming minds could be more efficient in the future, with developing insight in the field of mindfulness. Mindfulness, when practiced effectively and for the long term, could help the participants in such studies to maintain a good, reliable lucid dreaming where they could easily shift the narratives and gain more control over their dreams during experiments.  

Konkoly, K. R., Appel, K., Chabani, E., Mangiaruga, A., Gott, J., Mallett, R., Caughran, B., Witkowski, S., Whitmore, N. W., Mazurek, C. Y., Berent, J. B., Weber, F. D., Türker, B., Leu-Semenescu, S., Maranci, J.-B., Pipa, G., Arnulf, I., Oudiette, D., Dresler, M., & Paller, K. A. (2021). Real-time dialogue between experimenters and dreamers during rem sleep. Current Biology, 31(7). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cub.2021.01.026

Konkoly, K., & Burke, C. T. (2019). Can learning to lucid dream promote personal growth? Dreaming, 29(2), 113–126. https://doi.org/10.1037/drm0000101 

Prosopagnosia and the Fusiform Gyrus

     Prosopagnosia, otherwise known as facial blindness, is a disorder that can be characterized as the inability to recognize faces, resulting from a severe failure to develop the necessary neurological systems needed for facial recognition. The two types of prosopagnosia are designated as developmental/congenital prosopagnosia and acquired prosopagnosia. While developmental prosopagnosia develops without any prior head injuries and can be linked to genetics, acquired prosopagnosia can develop from brain damage, which can be caused by a stroke or head injury. This condition tends to mostly be studied in adults, and with such insufficient research on the topic, many children with undiagnosed or misdiagnosed prosopagnosia have a predisposition for developing other disorders in the future, such as autism spectrum disorder (Dalrymple et. al). It's imperative that we begin to understand it in a more adequate manner, so looking into face- sensitive areas in the brain and seeing how they respond during development might lead to a way in which we can further out research.

    Research has shown that the pinpointed cortical areas for facial processing are the fusiform gyrus, as well as the temporal and occipital lobes, as they show activation in terms of face selectivity. Interestingly enough, the disorder can range from not being able to recognize their family members or facial expressions, to not being able to recognize themselves, and to not being able to confidently discern between mundane objects. The paper "Fusiform gyrus face-selectivity reflects facial recognition ability" researchers Furl et al., found that there was a significant correlation between fusiform selectivity and behavioral face identification ability, meaning that the fusiform gyrus play a role in facial recognition ability as prosopagnosic subjects had difficulty discerning between faces and cars.

    Conte et. al. explains that cortical areas in the ventral visual pathway become more tuned towards  facial recognition at the early age of 3 months and continues over the year. Although many other areas of the brain tend to react to facial structures, it is also reiterated that significant facially targeted activation can be seen in the lingual and middle/posterior fusiform gyri. We as people have a certain disadvantage when it comes to diagnosing at such a young age, and that is because we don't tend to overanalyze a child's behaviors, especially not at the ripe age of 1. Brains are extremely malleable during our first years of life, and so studying a child's brain would certainly be more difficult. Nonetheless, it's crucial to any future generations that we begin to study such things from a young age, as this research could bridge a gap between any causal relations of prosopagnosia and help aid such a dire affliction.  As you can imagine, it would be extremely advantageous for our world to be able to diagnose such conditions in its early stages, in order to prevent fomenting such issues, and any other dysfunctions that may come with it.

References:

Dalrymple, K. A., Corrow, S., Yonas, A., & Duchaine, B. (2012). Developmental prosopagnosia in childhood. Cognitive Neuropsychology, 29(5-6), 393–418. https://doi.org/10.1080/02643294.2012.722547

Furl, N., Garrido, L., Dolan, R. J., Driver, J., & Duchaine, B. (2011). Fusiform gyrus face selectivity relates to individual differences in facial recognition ability. Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience, 23(7), 1723–1740. https://doi.org/10.1162/jocn.2010.21545

Face blindness: What is it, causes, diagnosis, and more ... (n.d.). Retrieved October 23, 2021, from https://www.osmosis.org/answers/face-blindness.

Conte, S., Richards, J. E., Guy, M. W., Xie, W., & Roberts, J. E. (2020). Face-sensitive brain responses in the first year of life. NeuroImage, 211, 116602. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neuroimage.2020.116602

    

“If You Can Dream It, You Can Do It”: Practicing Musical Skills In Your Dreams Could Improve “Real-Life” Performance

    On nights before piano competitions, I would toss and turn in anxious anticipation of the performance. I recall having dreams about flawlessly executing the pieces in front of stern judges, perfectly as planned. If I could stay up all night practicing, without my tired eyes and fingers giving way to fatigue, I so would. However, dreaming about practicing, in hopes that it is truly contributing to the goal of improvement, would have to be sufficient. 

    Although many of us wish we had more time in the day to accomplish our goals, sleep takes up a good chunk of that time. And adequate sleep is imperative for productivity. But what if one could, indeed, effectively practice musical skills in their dreams, and transfer that practice to waking life? According to recent studies, one very well could. 

 

    Lucid dreaming occurs when one is dreaming, and as opposed to being unable to distinguish the dream from reality, is actually aware that they are dreaming. That being said, the dreamer may be able to “carry out actions deliberately,” according to researchers Melanie Schädlich of Heidelberg University and Daniel Erlacher of University of Bern. This opens the opportunity for researchers to find out if musicians can improve their skills through lucid dreaming. In their article, “Lucid Music – A Pilot Study Exploring the Experiences and Potential of Music-Making in Lucid Dreams,” Schädlich and Erlacher interviewed five musicians about their experiences. Although they were unable to gather from the interviews whether skills themselves were improved (i.e., theory, form), the participants confirmed the ability to “play and sing familiar and unfamiliar pieces of music, to improvise, and to compose music,” and the acts of doing such bettered their confidence and enhanced their creativity in performances (Schädlich and Erlacher). Because good theory and form are objective aspects of music, feasibly interference with a music teacher could aid in the improvement of skill. 

    By lucid dreaming, musicians could fall asleep, intending to practice their instrument in their dreams, and then awaken being able to accomplish their musical goals in their waking life. Karen R. Konkoly of Northwestern University has figured out a way to facilitate this process. In the article, “Real-time dialogue between experimenters and dreamers during REM sleep,” Konkoly et al. present findings that it is possible to communicate “from the outside” with those who are lucid dreaming. In the study, experimenters and participants formulated a way of communication during participants’ dreaming “. . . in the form of physiological signals based on facial or eye movements” (Konkoly et al., 2021). Participants were able to answer basic math problems and yes or no questions and convey those answers through facial or eye movements. Using polysomnographic recordings, experimenters were able to obtain these answers. This is a dialogue that is happening in real-time, implicating the possibility of, perhaps, a music teacher communicating to their student. 

    Both studies imply the chance of increasing productivity, even during our hours of rest. Though nevertheless, the research suggests that maybe if I had lucid dreamed my practice of Beethoven’s Moonlight Sonata, I could have performed it for those judges a lot more confidently.

References

Konkoly, Karen R., et al. “Real-Time Dialogue between Experimenters and Dreamers during REM Sleep.” Current Biology, vol. 31, no. 7, 12 Apr. 2021, pp. 1417–1427., https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cub.2021.01.026.

Schädlich, Melanie, and Erlacher, Daniel. “Lucid Music – A Pilot Study Exploring the Experiences and Potential of Music-Making in Lucid Dreams.” Dreaming, vol. 28, no. 3, Sep. 2018, pp. 278-286. Ebsco, https://doi.org/10.1037/drm0000073. Accessed 20 October 2021.

The Role of Dreaming: A Practical Perspective

 

Imagine it is a Friday night. Leaves are rustling in the wind, you are all snuggled up in your blanket with hot cocoa in one hand, a book in the other, and slowly, you doze off into an alternate reality: a dream. Ever wonder what would happen if the two worlds of reality and dreaming collide? Fortunately, they already have. In “Real-time dialogue between experimenters and dreamers during REM sleep”, scientists were able to have real-time communication with lucid dreamers. A lucid dream is when someone is dreaming, and they are aware that they are dreaming which enables them to make decisions and control some portion of the dream. In the study, researchers asked participants questions, including math questions that the participants had to solve, and were able to record their response using EEG, EMG, and EOG signaling through their facial muscles as well as eye movements. 

So, we have already communicated with dreamers. Another check-mark next to the list of things science has accomplished, now what? Why does this even matter? Whether one can recall it or not, everyone dreams every single night creating their own personalized film. In the article “Why Do We Dream?” by James Roland, dreams have a lot more purpose than one may think. Some believe that it is just a little movie unconsciously enjoyed, but past research indicates that it is so much more than that. Although there is not yet a known unanimous consensus that concretely defines the role and purpose of dreams, there are many vastly accepted theories. According to Roland, dreaming is a confrontational therapy session, a muse, fight-or-flight response training, and even an aid to the storage of memories. 

The first role of dreaming is likened to a therapy session: “confronting emotional dramas” (Roland). For example, say one has a very difficult standardized exam that dictates the trajectory of their life, and the night before the exam they are very anxious but know they need a lot of rest. They go to bed that night hoping for the best in the morning. In the time between, they have a dream where they failed the exam, and because of this, the entire 10-year plan for their future falls apart making them start all over. Back to square one. Sounds more like a nightmare, right? This is the brain connecting with deep emotions that one will not allow their conscious self to feel because if they do, they spiral. The second role of dreaming is a means of fight-or-flight training. Studies have shown that the amygdala is one of the most active parts of the brain when dreaming. This allows one to unconsciously, and safely, create threatening scenarios enabling the practice of survival instincts. The third role of dreaming is turning dreams into a muse which enables creativity and inspiration. For example, say Sam wakes up one morning with a bright idea she saw or heard in a dream before. Whether it is the chorus to the new song she’s creating, the plot to a film she’s making, or the vivid image of a canvas she’s painting, this inspiration originated in a dream, and overall making dreams her muse. Finally, the last role of a dream is acting as a memory aid. Many college students pride themselves in pulling an “all-nighter” the night before an exam thinking that it is the best and most efficient way to remember and store information. They could not be more wrong. Ever heard of the phrase “Just sleep on it.”? It is not a coincidence. Past research shows that sleep helps store important memories (Roland). This is especially true when it comes to learning and understanding critical information. 

Overall, dreaming is a realm still not completely understood by scientists. However, what is known is that the 4 main roles of dreaming discussed are essential in the progress of one’s personal and daily life – or should I say nightlife.

References:

 Konkoly, K. R., Appel, K., Chabani, E., Mangiaruga, A., Gott, J., Mallett, R., Caughran, B.,Witkowski, S., Whitmore, N. W., Mazurek, C. Y., Berent, J. B., Weber, F. D., Türker, B., Leu-Semenescu, S., Maranci, J. B., Pipa, G., Arnulf, I., Oudiette, D., Dresler, M., & Paller, K. A. (2021). Real-time dialogue between experimenters and dreamers during REM sleep. Current Biology, 31(7), 1417–1427.e6 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cub.2021.01.026 

 Roland, James. “Why Do We Dream?”. Healthline, Healthline Media, 22 August,            2017. https://www.healthline.com/health/why-do-we-dream#the-role-of-dreams