Nicolas Decat, Paris Brain Institute - Dreaming While Awake

Do you have to sleep to dream?

Nicolas Decat, PhD student in cognitive science at the Paris Brain Institute, examines this question.

Faculty Bio:

I am a PhD student in the DreamTeam of the Paris Brain Insitute. My research takes the wake-to-sleep transition as a playground to understand how our mental life evolves across vigilance states. I like the idea of using big data and data-driven methods to uncover latent structures that are not captured by traditional methods.

Transcript:

What crosses your mind when we fall asleep? It’s a strange question to ask ourselves, but think about it: how do you go from an ordinary thought to a dream? When we set out to explore this, we found something intriguing. You can dream before falling asleep, and plan your day ahead after drifting off.We recorded the brain activity of 103 people as they napped in the lab. As they drifted off, we interrupted them and asked a simple question: what was going through your mind just before the alarm? We collected hundreds of reports and, rather than deciding for ourselves what counted as a thought or a dream, we let a machine learning algorithm sort these experiences into groups, based on dimensions the participants scored, for instance how bizarre it was. Four groups emerged: fragments of memory, thoughts about the surroundings, dreamlike imagery, and deliberate reflection.And here is the surprise: all four appeared everywhere from wakefulness to sleep. One participant, wide awake, reported ants climbing on them with crossword puzzles in the background. Another, deeply asleep, simply said: I was thinking about work.When we looked closer at their brain activity, we found a brain signature for each kind, and it was the same whether the person was awake or asleep. The brain can generate the same kind of experience no matter which state we are in.And you, how do you fall asleep? This episode comes with a link to an online study, Drifting Minds, that lets you discover your own sleep-onset profile and compare yourself with 5,000 people worldwide. Take part!And tonight, as you close your eyes, you will once again pass through that strange corridor. Pay attention to that moment and what’s going through your mind just before you drift off… You might be surprised.

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