Category: Research Project 3

“Big Dreams” and the Science of Sleep

by lcamberato

The book “Big Dreams” by Kelly Bulkeley is surprisingly enjoyable and easy to understand. He has a knack for breaking down some heavy content into quick summaries to explain his points. Thus far, I have only read chapter 3 about the brain but I look forward to reading the whole book for my research on our next project.

The following is an abstract from the SBU library website with my own summary/response to follow:

“Abstract

‘Big dreams’ are rare but extremely vivid forms of dreaming that make a strong, lasting impact on waking consciousness. Experiences of big dreaming have played prominent roles in religious and cultural traditions throughout history. This book provides an original, evidence-based analysis of big dreams drawing on research from cognitive science and the comparative history of religions. The goal is to shed new light on the classic theory of Nietzsche, Tylor, and others that the origins of religion can be found in dreaming. This theory has always appealed to anthropologists and philosophers, but it has never been tested using current scientific research. Big Dreams is the first book to make that attempt. It builds on findings from neuroscience, evolutionary biology, anthropology, and psychology to illuminate the dreaming‒religion connection. The book provides a mapping of four “prototypes” of big dreaming: aggressive, sexual, gravitational, and mystical. Each prototype is associated with a distinct kind of emotional and physiological arousal—a fight/flight response in a chasing nightmare, an actual orgasm in a “wet” dream, a startled sensation of vertigo in a falling dream, a joyous feeling of freedom and power in a flying dream. Scientific research on these big dream prototypes has revealed a naturalistic basis for religious beliefs arising from intensified modes of sleep and dreaming. Big Dreams looks at cross-cultural and historical cases of dreams involved in demonic seduction, prophetic vision, ritual healing, and contemplative practice to argue that Nietzsche and Tylor were essentially right—dreaming is a primal wellspring of religious experience.”

***

Summary & My Response to Chapter 3: “Brain:”

This chapter provides an efficient summary of the evolution of humans and the brain. The author highlights two specific growth spurts for the brain that occurred in the evolutionary process and how this new, larger, brain has some disadvantages. Knowing these facts helps us gain a foundational understanding of the relationship between sleep and the brain. 

When I read, especially anything science-related, and the author openly admits that their field does not fully understand the topic, they gain my full respect for the admission, spark excitement in me that there is still so much more to know, and a sense of reassurance that it is okay to not know. Bulkeley states, “There are three basic ways to measure the sleeping brain: electrically, chemically, and anatomically. All three dimensions of neural activity are vital to sleep, all of them are incredibly complex, and no one has a clear understanding of how they interact with each other. To put it mildly, many uncertainties remain in the neuroscience of sleep.” The most interesting takeaway for me on this topic was that humans over all other species have the most intense sleep called “paradoxical sleep (PS)”. When you think about this it is not shocking at all since we seem to use our brains at a level other species. I thought, “of course, we do!” And it opened my eyes to how important our sleep is for us to function at the heightened state in which our evolution sees fit. 

Permalink to book in SBU Library Database: https://search.library.stonybrook.edu/permalink/01SUNY_STB/1m9tbf5/alma9917468942604856

 

Brain Fog & Insomnia

by lcamberato
Insomnia, Loren Camberato, Digital Art, 2020.

When I think about the sleep project it is hard to not think about my nights with insomnia. However, I am lucky it is not every night, and very rarely do I not go to sleep at all. I know some people who go days without sleep. I can only imagine the full extent of how this negatively affects our brains. We know sleep is incredibly important for our survival and well-being.

My first post, Something Neuro, talks about the research by Sejnowski & Oakley on the brain and their course called Learning How to Learn they mention how imperative sleep is for brain function. “Importance of Sleep in Learning” section of the course:

“You might be surprised to learn that just plain being awake creates toxic products in your brain. How
does the brain get rid of these poisons? Turns out that when you sleep, your brain cells shrink. This
causes an increase in the space between your brain cells. It’s like unblocking a stream. Fluid can flow
past these cells and wash the toxins out. So sleep, which can sometimes seem like such a waste of
time, is actually your brain’s way of keeping itself clean and healthy.

 

So, let’s get right to a critical idea. Taking a test without getting enough sleep means you’re
operating with a brain that’s got little metabolic toxins floating around in it. Poisons that make it so
you can’t think very clearly. It’s kind of like trying to drive a car that’s got sugar in its gas tank.
Doesn’t work too well. In fact, getting too little sleep doesn’t just make you do worse on tests, too
little sleep, over too long of a time, can also be associated with all sorts of nasty
Conditions, including headaches, depression, heart disease, diabetes, and just plain dying earlier.

 

But sleep does more than just allow your brain to wash away toxins. It’s actually important part of
the memory and learning process. It’s seems that during sleep your brain tidies up ideas and
concepts your thinking about and learning. It erases the less important parts of memories and
simultaneously strengthens areas that you need or want to remember. During sleep your brain also
rehearses some of the tougher parts of whatever you’re trying to learn, going over and over neural
patterns to deepen and strengthen them. Sleep has also been shown to make a remarkable
difference in your ability to figure out difficult problems and to understand what you’re trying to
learn. It’s as if the complete deactivation of the conscious you in the pre-frontal cortex at the
forefront of your brain helps other areas of your brain start talking more easily to one another,
allowing them to put together the neural solution to your learning task while you’re sleeping.

 

Of course, you must also plant the seed for your diffuse mode by first doing focused mode work. If
you’re going over what you’re learning right before you take a nap or going to sleep for the evening
you have an increased chance of dreaming about it. If you go even further and set it in mind that you
want to dream about the material, it seems to improve your chances of dreaming about it still
further. Dreaming about what you’re studying can substantially enhance your ability to understand.
It somehow consolidates your memories into easier to grasp chunks.
And now time for a little sleep”