Scientists Hack into Sleepers’ Dreams and Chat a Bit
Breakthrough points to greater understanding of consciousness
Scientists have figured out how to hack into people’s sleep and communicate with them while they dream. The finding is a breakthrough in dream research and suggests study techniques that could be used to better grasp human consciousness.
The discovery was made during lucid dreaming, when people are aware that they are dreaming and, in some cases, are able to manipulate their dreams.
During the most common dream phase of sleep, called REM (rapid eye movement) and while dreaming vividly, some participants were able to follow instructions, answer yes-no questions and even do some simple math. They responded to external questions and stimuli through eye movements or by contracting facial muscles — done of their own volition, the scientists note.
“We found that individuals in REM sleep can interact with an experimenter and engage in real-time communication,” said senior author Ken Paller, director of the Cognitive Neuroscience Program at Northwestern University. “We also showed that dreamers are capable of comprehending questions, engaging in working-memory operations, and producing answers. Most people might predict that this would not be possible — that people would either wake up…
