Controlled dreams could ease PTSD suffering
LONDON — Sweet dreams are made of this — electric currents pumped directly into your brain, according to scientists
Researchers in Germany have developed a way of en abling sleepers to control their dreams by applying electric current to the brain which prompts lucid dreams, involving a state of heightened awareness.
This allows the sleeper to recognize they are dreaming and influence what happens next. A similar concept was explored in the hit movie Inception, starring Leonardo Di Caprio.
However, unlike the film where Di Caprio’s character in filtrates the dreams of others, the study only in volved sleepers controlling their own dreams.
In ordinary dreams, which occur during the rapid- eye movement (REM) phase of sleep, the dreamer’s conscious state usually has no access to past memories or anticipated events in the future, the researchers said.
In lucid dreaming, extra cognitive functions are involved such as self- awareness and free will. This combination of brain activity may enable the dreamer to voluntarily control the dream plot.
While previous research has associated lucid dreaming with in creased gamma activity in the frontal and temporal regions of the brain, it has not been clear if the lucid dream triggers extra gamma activity or if the gamma activity is the source of the enhanced dreaming.
People who have lucid dreams talk of “waking up” with in a dream and being able, for instance, to fly at will or manipulate the imaginary world around them.
In the new study, researchers tested 27 participants with no previous experience of lucid dreaming over sever al nights. After three minutes of uninterrupted REM sleep a weak alternating electric current was applied to their scalps.
Writing in the journal Nature Neuroscience, the team led by Dr. Ursula Voss, from the Goethe University in Frankfurt, speculated on the use of lucid dreams to help victims of post- traumatic stress disorder ( PTSD) who are plagued by nightmares.