1 00:00:01,230 --> 00:00:06,035 Tonight nearly all 61 million people of this country 2 00:00:06,070 --> 00:00:09,235 will fall asleep, and each and every one of us will dream. 3 00:00:09,270 --> 00:00:14,610 There were two lanes on the motorway so it was a normal motorway 4 00:00:14,645 --> 00:00:19,915 apart from the fact that all the cars had no people in them. 5 00:00:19,950 --> 00:00:24,070 I'm holding a big glass of milk and there's a head of lettuce in it. 6 00:00:25,670 --> 00:00:32,070 She was very overweight and actually was growing a real beard. 7 00:00:36,950 --> 00:00:41,750 It's an extraordinary world full of pleasure and pain. 8 00:00:41,785 --> 00:00:47,087 I descended from the sky onto this sort of beautiful... 9 00:00:47,122 --> 00:00:51,096 .. I've been choked and... stabbed and I've been shot... 10 00:00:51,131 --> 00:00:54,620 But why we dream is one of science's great mysteries. 11 00:00:54,655 --> 00:00:58,110 I don't know anybody who isn't fascinated by dreams. 12 00:00:58,145 --> 00:01:00,875 I mean they are... 13 00:01:00,910 --> 00:01:04,790 outrageous events in our lives. 14 00:01:04,825 --> 00:01:07,075 It's only now 15 00:01:07,110 --> 00:01:09,875 that science is beginning to reveal 16 00:01:09,910 --> 00:01:13,630 the bizarre complexities of this secret world. 17 00:01:13,665 --> 00:01:16,155 Why would Mother Nature 18 00:01:16,190 --> 00:01:19,310 highly activate your brain, paralyse your body, 19 00:01:19,345 --> 00:01:20,755 sexually activate you 20 00:01:20,790 --> 00:01:24,310 and force you to watch these things we call dreams, why? 21 00:01:24,345 --> 00:01:26,715 Why would Mother Nature do that? 22 00:01:26,750 --> 00:01:30,630 Much of what we thought we knew about dreams appears to be wrong. 23 00:01:30,665 --> 00:01:35,190 Without nightmares there is a good chance that humanity 24 00:01:35,225 --> 00:01:37,630 wouldn't be here at all. 25 00:01:49,470 --> 00:01:51,590 Where do our dreams come from? 26 00:01:51,625 --> 00:01:54,155 If you want to understand 27 00:01:54,190 --> 00:01:57,870 human nature, the human mind, what makes us tick, 28 00:01:57,905 --> 00:02:01,187 you need to look at dreams. 29 00:02:01,222 --> 00:02:04,435 Do our dreams have meaning? 30 00:02:04,470 --> 00:02:07,230 People intuitively know that there is something 31 00:02:07,265 --> 00:02:10,087 about their dreams that is meaningful. 32 00:02:10,122 --> 00:02:12,910 People are endlessly fascinated by dreams. 33 00:02:12,945 --> 00:02:15,275 Can we use our dreams? 34 00:02:15,310 --> 00:02:18,430 Those people who dream about it actually end up 35 00:02:18,465 --> 00:02:20,515 performing better the next time. 36 00:02:20,550 --> 00:02:23,070 Throughout human history there have always been 37 00:02:23,105 --> 00:02:25,635 big ideas about the origins of dreams. 38 00:02:25,670 --> 00:02:29,830 For decades people thought dreams were all these so spiritual things 39 00:02:29,865 --> 00:02:31,395 and you know they are. 40 00:02:31,430 --> 00:02:35,635 It's all about hidden sexual desires, it's all nonsense. 41 00:02:35,670 --> 00:02:41,870 Scientists have long held the belief that dreams have a purpose. 42 00:02:41,905 --> 00:02:46,195 Dreams have been responsible for two Nobel prizes, 43 00:02:46,230 --> 00:02:51,990 the invention of a couple of major drugs, other scientific discoveries. 44 00:02:52,025 --> 00:02:54,955 When you share a dream with somebody, 45 00:02:54,990 --> 00:02:58,270 you're saying here is some information about me 46 00:02:58,305 --> 00:02:59,875 that I haven't faked. 47 00:02:59,910 --> 00:03:03,630 and therefore it's reliable, and therefore it might reveal 48 00:03:03,665 --> 00:03:05,767 something interesting about me. 49 00:03:05,802 --> 00:03:07,835 But it was not until 55 years ago 50 00:03:07,870 --> 00:03:12,310 that neuroscience really began to study the dreaming brain. 51 00:03:12,345 --> 00:03:15,447 Then American sleep scientist Nathaniel Kleitman 52 00:03:15,482 --> 00:03:18,515 undertook a series of remarkable experiments. 53 00:03:18,550 --> 00:03:22,630 He measured the brainwave activity of his subjects whilst they slept. 54 00:03:22,665 --> 00:03:26,390 Rather than seeing the passive picture most scientists expected, 55 00:03:26,425 --> 00:03:28,515 Kleitman found quite the opposite. 56 00:03:28,550 --> 00:03:32,075 What they found is that yes, they seem to fall asleep 57 00:03:32,110 --> 00:03:37,550 and you got these big waves but then after not a very long time 58 00:03:37,585 --> 00:03:40,327 it became fast and low amplitude again 59 00:03:40,362 --> 00:03:43,035 as if they were awake but they weren't. 60 00:03:43,070 --> 00:03:47,915 So it looks like while you're asleep, the brain can shift 61 00:03:47,950 --> 00:03:52,750 between different states, different stages of sleep we say now, 62 00:03:52,785 --> 00:03:55,670 some of which looks very much like wake. 63 00:03:57,950 --> 00:04:01,350 And when Kleitman examined these active sleep cycles, he noticed 64 00:04:01,385 --> 00:04:04,750 something else - the sleepers' eyes appeared to be blinking. 65 00:04:04,785 --> 00:04:08,235 Kleitman called it Rapid Eye Movement, or REM sleep 66 00:04:08,270 --> 00:04:12,230 and it would lead to his greatest discovery. During REM sleep, 67 00:04:12,265 --> 00:04:14,790 what the researchers invariably found 68 00:04:14,825 --> 00:04:17,235 when they woke up a subject 69 00:04:17,270 --> 00:04:21,790 was the subject would say, "I'm dreaming. I just had a vivid dream. " 70 00:04:21,825 --> 00:04:25,235 Kleitman had pinpointed when we dream 71 00:04:25,270 --> 00:04:28,555 but he found while our brain and eyes were active, 72 00:04:28,590 --> 00:04:32,190 the effect of REM sleep on our bodies was exactly the opposite. 73 00:04:32,225 --> 00:04:36,390 Another feature of REM sleep is that your muscle tone 74 00:04:36,425 --> 00:04:39,167 just goes absolutely down to zero. 75 00:04:39,202 --> 00:04:41,875 You become functionally paralysed. 76 00:04:41,910 --> 00:04:46,510 If you're sitting up in a chair watching TV, and the head nods 77 00:04:46,545 --> 00:04:49,995 and falls and you fall asleep, that's not REM sleep. 78 00:04:50,030 --> 00:04:53,830 If you fall into REM sleep, you would literally roll off the chair 79 00:04:53,865 --> 00:04:57,727 onto the floor because your body becomes absolutely relaxed, 80 00:04:57,762 --> 00:05:02,056 almost paralysed in the sense that you can't make your muscles 81 00:05:02,091 --> 00:05:06,350 actually work and it becomes absolutely calm and non-responsive. 82 00:05:08,270 --> 00:05:11,390 Kleitman and his team had made the first step 83 00:05:11,425 --> 00:05:13,555 in explaining our dream lives 84 00:05:13,590 --> 00:05:17,270 but it would take some far more audacious experiments 85 00:05:17,305 --> 00:05:20,950 to enter further into the secret world of dreams. 86 00:05:23,670 --> 00:05:26,950 This cat looks as if it's awake. 87 00:05:26,985 --> 00:05:30,107 In fact, it's fast asleep. 88 00:05:30,142 --> 00:05:33,230 A dog appears to try running. 89 00:05:33,265 --> 00:05:34,990 It too is asleep. 90 00:05:41,710 --> 00:05:45,310 In order for these dreams to be seen, the animals were subjected 91 00:05:45,345 --> 00:05:47,355 to radical surgery. 92 00:05:47,390 --> 00:05:50,830 Scientists removed the part of the brain responsible for paralysing 93 00:05:50,865 --> 00:05:53,155 the muscles during REM sleep. 94 00:05:53,190 --> 00:05:57,755 And what we see is that when you do this, with cats in particular, 95 00:05:57,790 --> 00:06:01,790 is that they, they can walk around during REM sleep and their behaviour 96 00:06:01,825 --> 00:06:04,195 is not random, it's not chaotic. 97 00:06:04,230 --> 00:06:07,515 They're not just doing any old crazy thing. 98 00:06:07,550 --> 00:06:11,910 They appear to be doing the kinds of behaviours that cats like to do 99 00:06:11,945 --> 00:06:15,435 like stalking a prey, you know play with a mouse or something. 100 00:06:15,470 --> 00:06:20,870 So presumably that's what they dream about when they go into REM sleep. 101 00:06:20,905 --> 00:06:23,875 So that's what we think is happening. 102 00:06:23,910 --> 00:06:27,990 These experiments gave scientists an insight into the dream world 103 00:06:28,025 --> 00:06:30,150 of animals. 104 00:06:32,070 --> 00:06:37,390 Repeating such radical surgery in humans was unthinkable. 105 00:06:37,425 --> 00:06:40,430 Researchers still sought a way to observe people 106 00:06:40,465 --> 00:06:42,550 living out their dreams. 107 00:06:48,190 --> 00:06:52,470 One rare brain disease offers a possible answer. 108 00:06:52,505 --> 00:06:54,835 Well, I'm not an aggressive person. 109 00:06:54,870 --> 00:06:59,830 No, not aggressive at all but he is when he's got... 110 00:06:59,865 --> 00:07:02,235 It's a Jekyll and Hyde thing. 111 00:07:02,270 --> 00:07:05,110 Yeah I'm saying Tommy, stop it, stop it! 112 00:07:05,145 --> 00:07:06,595 Stop it! 113 00:07:06,630 --> 00:07:12,790 And I said what are you doing and he said "I'm picking the parrot up. " 114 00:07:12,825 --> 00:07:15,590 And I said, "You what?" And he said, "I'm picking the parrot up. " 115 00:07:15,625 --> 00:07:19,670 And he don't even know that he's told me that, do you? No. 116 00:07:19,705 --> 00:07:23,687 Tom and Tina Cursley have been married for 42 years. 117 00:07:23,722 --> 00:07:27,776 Three years ago Tom retired from running a garden centre 118 00:07:27,811 --> 00:07:31,880 and that's when he started to cause a rumpus in the bedroom. 119 00:07:31,915 --> 00:07:36,352 Well, it was me telling him he's got to go to the doctor's 120 00:07:36,387 --> 00:07:40,428 and sort this out because I'd have to jump out of bed quick. 121 00:07:40,463 --> 00:07:44,106 I'd think I was running and kicking, and my arms were going... 122 00:07:44,141 --> 00:07:47,750 I didn't know what he was going to do cos he was aggressive. 123 00:07:49,590 --> 00:07:53,550 Tom had begun to act out his dreams and there was one that caused him 124 00:07:53,585 --> 00:07:55,990 to be particularly energetic at night. 125 00:07:58,830 --> 00:08:04,590 I can picture now being in this field, a river in the background 126 00:08:04,625 --> 00:08:08,070 and I don't know, about a dozen cows grazing the grass 127 00:08:08,105 --> 00:08:11,327 and they suddenly started coming towards me 128 00:08:11,362 --> 00:08:14,550 and there's this high fence all round it 129 00:08:14,585 --> 00:08:16,955 and I'm backing up to the fence, 130 00:08:16,990 --> 00:08:19,230 getting out of the way but they keep coming. 131 00:08:19,265 --> 00:08:21,755 And I try and jump over the fence 132 00:08:21,790 --> 00:08:24,715 but there's no way I could jump over it. 133 00:08:24,750 --> 00:08:29,470 The cows keep coming and nudging me and push me out of the way. 134 00:08:29,505 --> 00:08:32,550 As he dreams, Tom thrashes about the bed. 135 00:08:32,585 --> 00:08:35,035 He's just horrible really. 136 00:08:35,070 --> 00:08:41,475 He's shouting and... raging about everywhere. 137 00:08:41,510 --> 00:08:46,290 The bedside cabinet went over the other night and he didn't even know 138 00:08:46,325 --> 00:08:51,070 he'd knocked that over but everything went flying, didn't it? Yeah. 139 00:08:51,105 --> 00:08:52,595 Everything. 140 00:08:52,630 --> 00:08:57,555 Light, clock, tablets, and he never even woke up. 141 00:08:57,590 --> 00:09:02,475 It is, it is awful because I mean, why is he doing it? 142 00:09:02,510 --> 00:09:08,990 Tom is suffering from a rare brain condition called REM Sleep Disorder. 143 00:09:09,025 --> 00:09:11,035 Dr John Shneerson 144 00:09:11,070 --> 00:09:14,470 is one of Europe's leading experts on this condition. 145 00:09:16,590 --> 00:09:20,390 It's absolutely classical for the REM Sleep behaviour disorder. 146 00:09:20,425 --> 00:09:24,075 It starts off with movements that the partner thinks 147 00:09:24,110 --> 00:09:28,070 is a bit unusual but nothing special, just kicking and just a bad dream, 148 00:09:28,105 --> 00:09:30,875 but it becomes more frequent, more intense 149 00:09:30,910 --> 00:09:34,670 and it can be dangerous for the partner and dangerous for the dreamer 150 00:09:34,705 --> 00:09:38,155 who may dive out of bed and have quite severe injuries. 151 00:09:38,190 --> 00:09:41,310 A lot of people with this condition end up with nothing in their bedroom. 152 00:09:41,345 --> 00:09:43,155 They take out all the bedside tables, 153 00:09:43,190 --> 00:09:46,710 all the lamps, all the sharp corners, which might injure themselves. 154 00:09:46,745 --> 00:09:48,715 They end up almost in a padded cell. 155 00:09:48,750 --> 00:09:51,930 The condition is caused by a gradual destruction 156 00:09:51,965 --> 00:09:54,877 of a part of the brain stem called the Pons. 157 00:09:54,912 --> 00:09:57,755 The Pons controls the muscles in REM sleep 158 00:09:57,790 --> 00:10:02,350 and the disorder is in some cases a pre-cursor to Parkinson's Disease. 159 00:10:04,350 --> 00:10:07,990 Some sufferers who have a more severe form of the disease 160 00:10:08,025 --> 00:10:10,150 demonstrate very vivid dreams. 161 00:10:11,750 --> 00:10:15,310 As in this video, a sleeper puffs on his finger monitor, 162 00:10:15,345 --> 00:10:17,670 dreaming that it's a cigarette. 163 00:10:22,670 --> 00:10:27,150 Here a French veteran dreams of marching on the parade ground. 164 00:10:42,070 --> 00:10:45,950 Another patient was dreaming that there were animals coming in the room 165 00:10:45,985 --> 00:10:49,467 and he woke up on the mantelpiece and found it difficult to get off. 166 00:10:49,502 --> 00:10:52,950 He didn't know how he got up there. He must have been very agile, 167 00:10:52,985 --> 00:10:54,887 very motivated to get that far. 168 00:10:54,922 --> 00:10:56,755 It's only a tiny part of the brain 169 00:10:56,790 --> 00:10:58,795 which prevents us from acting out our dreams. 170 00:10:58,830 --> 00:11:02,310 Part of the activity of REM sleep is to turn off the connections between 171 00:11:02,345 --> 00:11:05,527 these centres in your brain and the muscles themselves, 172 00:11:05,562 --> 00:11:08,675 so if you have, you could have all sorts of thoughts 173 00:11:08,710 --> 00:11:12,150 and activity within the brain, and nobody could see it from outside. 174 00:11:12,185 --> 00:11:16,515 Whilst for the sufferer REM Sleep Disorder can be unbearable, 175 00:11:16,550 --> 00:11:22,470 for scientists it fulfils the ambition of seeing somebody else's dream in action. 176 00:11:30,550 --> 00:11:34,670 After 55 years of delving ever deeper into the sleeping brain, 177 00:11:34,705 --> 00:11:38,790 the new cutting edge of dream science is dramatically changing 178 00:11:38,825 --> 00:11:41,550 our understanding of dreams. 179 00:11:55,150 --> 00:11:59,010 Erica Harris is one of the new breed of dream scientists. 180 00:11:59,045 --> 00:12:02,870 As most other people battle the rush hour to get home, 181 00:12:02,905 --> 00:12:06,230 she's arriving for work at Boston University, 182 00:12:06,265 --> 00:12:08,950 a world centre in this ethereal field. 183 00:12:10,510 --> 00:12:12,155 The experiment tonight 184 00:12:12,190 --> 00:12:16,550 won't probably end till about 6.30 or 7am when we're finally done. 185 00:12:16,585 --> 00:12:20,910 It's very tiring but we enjoy our work so we're looking forward to it. 186 00:12:23,590 --> 00:12:26,115 Also arriving is her guinea pig Ross, 187 00:12:26,150 --> 00:12:30,310 a 19-year-old student who has come here for a bad night's sleep. 188 00:12:31,350 --> 00:12:34,315 Hello! Oh, hello, I'm Ross. Hi, Ross. 189 00:12:34,350 --> 00:12:38,210 The aim of the next eight hours is to measure the emotional journey 190 00:12:38,245 --> 00:12:42,070 that Ross is going to undertake as he dreams through the night. 191 00:12:44,110 --> 00:12:48,830 This is to measure any different type of muscle movement that he might have 192 00:12:48,865 --> 00:12:50,870 at his eyes or at his chin. 193 00:12:52,750 --> 00:12:57,590 We need to measure the brainwaves because the brainwaves look different 194 00:12:57,625 --> 00:13:01,950 depending on the different type of sleep that the person goes in. 195 00:13:01,985 --> 00:13:04,350 The researchers will monitor his every brainwave 196 00:13:04,385 --> 00:13:07,355 and movement throughout the night. 197 00:13:07,390 --> 00:13:11,030 There are 26 different electrodes that Ross will have on tonight. 198 00:13:11,065 --> 00:13:14,150 We're going to have a pretty good idea about everything 199 00:13:14,185 --> 00:13:16,710 that is going on with him while he's sleeping. 200 00:13:18,430 --> 00:13:21,230 Even with all this technology, there is still only one way 201 00:13:21,265 --> 00:13:25,550 to find out whether Ross is dreaming. Sweet dreams. 202 00:13:29,830 --> 00:13:34,510 The project leader is Professor Patrick McNamara. 203 00:13:34,545 --> 00:13:37,555 There is no technology that allows us 204 00:13:37,590 --> 00:13:41,035 to know 100% certainty that a person is dreaming. 205 00:13:41,070 --> 00:13:45,275 You can see the full panoply of characteristics that occur 206 00:13:45,310 --> 00:13:49,490 during REM sleep - the paralysis, the eyes darting back and forth. 207 00:13:49,525 --> 00:13:53,670 You can put him under a neuro-imaging scanner. You can see the areas 208 00:13:53,705 --> 00:13:56,755 of the brain that light up during REM sleep light up 209 00:13:56,790 --> 00:14:00,190 and you can expect them to report a dream when you wake them up 210 00:14:00,225 --> 00:14:01,515 but they may not. 211 00:14:01,550 --> 00:14:05,870 Unfortunately the best way to find out if a person is dreaming 212 00:14:05,905 --> 00:14:08,035 is to wake them up and ask them. 213 00:14:08,070 --> 00:14:11,155 Despite this limitation, the experiment will examine 214 00:14:11,190 --> 00:14:15,435 how our dreams play a central role in our mental well-being. 215 00:14:15,470 --> 00:14:20,510 So this should tell us something crucial about the nature of the mind 216 00:14:20,545 --> 00:14:24,990 because if you want to understand human nature, the human mind, 217 00:14:25,025 --> 00:14:27,075 what makes us tick, 218 00:14:27,110 --> 00:14:29,630 you need to look at dreams. 219 00:14:51,550 --> 00:14:54,430 It's now eleven o'clock in the dream labs in Boston, 220 00:14:54,465 --> 00:14:56,515 and Ross has gone to sleep. 221 00:14:56,550 --> 00:14:58,950 But it's going to be a long hard night. 222 00:15:00,590 --> 00:15:03,390 Our sleep is divided into 90-minute cycles. 223 00:15:03,425 --> 00:15:06,190 The first two are dominated by deep sleep 224 00:15:06,225 --> 00:15:08,595 when our brain is mainly passive. 225 00:15:08,630 --> 00:15:13,510 After that we alternate between REM and non-REM sleep. 226 00:15:13,545 --> 00:15:15,835 On this monitor we are looking for 227 00:15:15,870 --> 00:15:19,630 him to descend into the various stages of sleep so we want him 228 00:15:19,665 --> 00:15:23,390 to make his complete sleep cycle prior to us awakening him. 229 00:15:25,230 --> 00:15:27,990 Ross has entered the first cycle of REM sleep 230 00:15:28,025 --> 00:15:30,070 where we know dreaming takes place. 231 00:15:35,470 --> 00:15:38,470 But thirty minutes later he starts another stage of sleep, 232 00:15:38,505 --> 00:15:41,755 called non-REM sleep. 233 00:15:41,790 --> 00:15:45,595 Right now what we can see is that he's in non-REM sleep, 234 00:15:45,630 --> 00:15:49,870 because the shape of the brainwaves are very close together like this, 235 00:15:49,905 --> 00:15:52,275 and then we see some that are very spiky. 236 00:15:52,310 --> 00:15:55,750 This is the beginning of the transition to the stage in which 237 00:15:55,785 --> 00:15:58,715 we want to wake Ross up. 238 00:15:58,750 --> 00:16:01,550 Dream scientists used to think that this was just an insignificant 239 00:16:01,585 --> 00:16:05,030 stage of sleep and that we only dreamt in REM sleep. 240 00:16:07,030 --> 00:16:10,675 But the great surprise of the past few years is the discovery 241 00:16:10,710 --> 00:16:16,150 that we dream in non-REM sleep as well, as the experiment confirms. 242 00:16:16,185 --> 00:16:18,235 It's four o'clock in the morning. 243 00:16:18,270 --> 00:16:20,790 Ross, wake up, it's time to do your packet. 244 00:16:23,230 --> 00:16:28,830 Ross is woken from non-REM sleep and does indeed report having a dream. 245 00:16:28,865 --> 00:16:30,795 I was with people I knew, 246 00:16:30,830 --> 00:16:36,950 no real friends as specific but I was with people I knew 247 00:16:36,985 --> 00:16:39,235 and we were 248 00:16:39,270 --> 00:16:41,155 trying to find somewhere. 249 00:16:41,190 --> 00:16:44,570 It is not just that we dream in non-REM sleep. 250 00:16:44,605 --> 00:16:47,915 This groundbreaking experiment is starting to find 251 00:16:47,950 --> 00:16:51,675 that these two dream worlds are fundamentally different. 252 00:16:51,710 --> 00:16:56,350 So the first thing that he's working on right now is a mood questionnaire 253 00:16:56,385 --> 00:17:00,235 and basically he might see three letters like O P T 254 00:17:00,270 --> 00:17:05,030 and he's supposed to complete some kind of word for that. 255 00:17:06,190 --> 00:17:08,155 The words Ross chooses will indicate 256 00:17:08,190 --> 00:17:11,310 how positive he's feeling about himself in non-REM sleep. 257 00:17:15,710 --> 00:17:19,835 He appears to be feeling very good about himself. 258 00:17:19,870 --> 00:17:24,670 We found in our experiment there was a very reliable difference 259 00:17:24,705 --> 00:17:28,315 in self-concept, self-regard and there was an increase 260 00:17:28,350 --> 00:17:35,510 in positive regard of the self after awakenings from non-REM. 261 00:17:35,545 --> 00:17:37,475 Ross goes back to sleep. 262 00:17:37,510 --> 00:17:40,990 The next time he's woken he will be well into REM sleep. 263 00:17:45,470 --> 00:17:47,435 5 am. 264 00:17:47,470 --> 00:17:49,470 Ross, time to wake up. 265 00:17:57,030 --> 00:18:01,090 This time Ross reports a number of negative words. 266 00:18:01,125 --> 00:18:05,115 McNamara speculates that the difference in the nature 267 00:18:05,150 --> 00:18:08,990 of these dreams can be traced back to an ancient structure of the brain 268 00:18:09,025 --> 00:18:12,195 called the amygdala that is linked to our emotions. 269 00:18:12,230 --> 00:18:18,470 I think that we have more negative emotions during REM-related dreams 270 00:18:18,505 --> 00:18:24,307 because during REM sleep, the amygdala is very highly activated 271 00:18:24,342 --> 00:18:30,110 and the amygdala specialises in handling unpleasant emotions 272 00:18:30,145 --> 00:18:34,030 like intense fear or intense anger or aggression. 273 00:18:36,030 --> 00:18:39,590 Finally the long night is over and Erica goes home, 274 00:18:39,625 --> 00:18:42,275 but the experiment has more to reveal. 275 00:18:42,310 --> 00:18:46,630 McNamara is beginning to connect the balance of REM and non-REM dreams 276 00:18:46,665 --> 00:18:49,567 with the mental well-being of us all. 277 00:18:49,602 --> 00:18:52,435 It could be a factor in depression. 278 00:18:52,470 --> 00:18:57,590 Normally we fall asleep through non-REM sleep but depressives, 279 00:18:57,625 --> 00:19:01,110 people with endogenous depression or severe depression, 280 00:19:01,145 --> 00:19:04,190 they go right to REM and then they stay in REM 281 00:19:04,225 --> 00:19:06,875 and they spend too much time in REM. 282 00:19:06,910 --> 00:19:10,190 So if REM sleep is associated with all this unpleasant emotion 283 00:19:10,225 --> 00:19:13,407 and you get too much REM, then you are going to have 284 00:19:13,442 --> 00:19:16,590 a lot of unpleasant emotion. We call that depression. 285 00:19:22,630 --> 00:19:27,110 So decades after the discovery of REM sleep, scientists are beginning 286 00:19:27,145 --> 00:19:31,750 to understand the extent to which dreams shape our waking lives. 287 00:19:35,310 --> 00:19:43,150 I descended from the sky onto this kind of beautiful fairytale planet. 288 00:19:44,950 --> 00:19:47,115 I had a flat cardboard box, 289 00:19:47,150 --> 00:19:51,155 you know those ones that you assemble together, 290 00:19:51,190 --> 00:19:55,710 and I took it up to this pyramid and it had a severe drop at one end 291 00:19:55,745 --> 00:19:57,235 and I put it together. 292 00:19:57,270 --> 00:20:02,155 And then I jumped down off the pyramid in the box 293 00:20:02,190 --> 00:20:06,990 and hit the pavement but the strange thing was it didn't actually hurt. 294 00:20:07,025 --> 00:20:11,790 There's like this kind of spaceship in the sky, very scary and all the 295 00:20:11,825 --> 00:20:16,350 water puddles if you touched them you had, you catch on fire. 296 00:20:18,630 --> 00:20:21,510 To find out why dreams are so central to our lives, 297 00:20:23,110 --> 00:20:25,790 one man has studied those who don't dream. 298 00:20:27,710 --> 00:20:30,435 I frequently found when I ask patients 299 00:20:30,470 --> 00:20:33,310 after they have sustained strokes whether they are dreaming or not, 300 00:20:33,345 --> 00:20:36,150 initially they're not entirely sure and then it's in the following days 301 00:20:36,185 --> 00:20:39,447 because they are now paying attention to their dreams 302 00:20:39,482 --> 00:20:42,710 that they report to me that they are no longer dreaming. 303 00:20:42,745 --> 00:20:45,195 Many of us believe we don't dream. 304 00:20:45,230 --> 00:20:49,090 In fact most of us do, it's just we can't remember them. 305 00:20:49,125 --> 00:20:52,915 But Professor Mark Solms has spent much of his career 306 00:20:52,950 --> 00:20:56,870 waking the rare individuals who really do not report dreams. 307 00:21:00,310 --> 00:21:02,755 Following a stroke three years ago 308 00:21:02,790 --> 00:21:05,875 Heather Jones had just such an experience. 309 00:21:05,910 --> 00:21:10,750 Before my stroke I definitely was someone that had lots of dreams. 310 00:21:12,590 --> 00:21:15,395 After my stroke it was just, 311 00:21:15,430 --> 00:21:18,470 literally going to sleep was like going into a blankness. 312 00:21:18,505 --> 00:21:20,595 It's almost as if you're just absent for a while. 313 00:21:20,630 --> 00:21:25,990 There was just not that same sense in the sleep or when I was waking up 314 00:21:26,025 --> 00:21:28,075 that I'd been dreaming. 315 00:21:28,110 --> 00:21:33,090 There was no memory of dreams and no sense of having been dreaming. 316 00:21:33,125 --> 00:21:38,070 Heather's stroke affected a part of the brain called the parietal lobe. 317 00:21:38,105 --> 00:21:42,275 Solms believes this is where dreams are made. 318 00:21:42,310 --> 00:21:45,830 People with parietal damage, like Heather sustained, frequently stop 319 00:21:45,865 --> 00:21:49,350 dreaming completely in the early stages after the onset of the damage. 320 00:21:49,385 --> 00:21:51,395 That's because the parietal lobe 321 00:21:51,430 --> 00:21:56,390 serves the purpose of combining our different senses, hearing and vision and touch. 322 00:21:56,425 --> 00:21:59,915 All come together there and the imaginary space 323 00:21:59,950 --> 00:22:05,110 that we are living in during our dreams is generated in that part of the brain, 324 00:22:05,145 --> 00:22:07,875 so if it's damaged you can't dream. 325 00:22:07,910 --> 00:22:12,710 This loss of dreaming has debilitating consequences 326 00:22:12,745 --> 00:22:14,715 as Heather knows only too well. 327 00:22:14,750 --> 00:22:19,150 Although I could go to sleep very easily, I wasn't having 328 00:22:19,185 --> 00:22:21,710 what I would call good quality sleep. 329 00:22:23,630 --> 00:22:28,010 At night probably waking several times through the night 330 00:22:28,045 --> 00:22:32,390 so I wasn't getting a continued sort of period of sleep. 331 00:22:32,425 --> 00:22:34,715 When I woke up, I just felt tired still. 332 00:22:34,750 --> 00:22:38,035 The relationship between sleep and loss of dreaming 333 00:22:38,070 --> 00:22:41,835 is in fact something that I'm busy researching at the moment. 334 00:22:41,870 --> 00:22:46,555 Our preliminary findings suggest that at least non-dreaming patients 335 00:22:46,590 --> 00:22:49,710 fall asleep perfectly easily but then they keep on waking up throughout the 336 00:22:49,745 --> 00:22:54,355 night, in fact particularly during REM sleep. It's almost as if 337 00:22:54,390 --> 00:22:58,510 when you might have expected that they would be dreaming, they wake up. 338 00:23:00,070 --> 00:23:02,115 As bizarre as it may seem, 339 00:23:02,150 --> 00:23:05,630 Solms suggests dreams could be a way of keeping us asleep. 340 00:23:07,510 --> 00:23:11,670 Solms has found that another part of the brain, the motivation system, 341 00:23:11,705 --> 00:23:13,750 is also active during dreaming. 342 00:23:20,470 --> 00:23:24,830 And this has given him a further idea about the reason why we dream. 343 00:23:26,710 --> 00:23:29,595 The fact that this part of the brain, 344 00:23:29,630 --> 00:23:34,670 the seeking system, is so active in dreams, suggests that dreams, 345 00:23:34,705 --> 00:23:36,275 at minimum we have to say 346 00:23:36,310 --> 00:23:40,150 that dreams have some kind of motivated search in them. 347 00:23:40,185 --> 00:23:42,235 We're seeking something in our dreams. 348 00:23:42,270 --> 00:23:46,070 It may be the actual storyline of the dream when we find ourselves 349 00:23:46,105 --> 00:23:48,950 wandering about some strange landscape looking for something. 350 00:23:48,985 --> 00:23:51,947 Maybe that's how this expresses itself. 351 00:23:51,982 --> 00:23:54,910 Solms believes that this seeking activity 352 00:23:54,945 --> 00:23:57,475 symbolises the search for answers. 353 00:23:57,510 --> 00:24:01,635 More likely, cos it's a more general an explanation, 354 00:24:01,670 --> 00:24:05,690 is that we are grappling with some sort of problem in our dreams 355 00:24:05,725 --> 00:24:09,710 and trying to find a solution to some matter of current concern. 356 00:24:09,745 --> 00:24:12,910 There's a kind of a searching involved in that. 357 00:24:17,750 --> 00:24:20,275 In time, Heather made a recovery 358 00:24:20,310 --> 00:24:24,270 and once more she was able to benefit from dreaming. 359 00:24:26,470 --> 00:24:30,035 It was an excitement really when I began to dream again. 360 00:24:30,070 --> 00:24:33,230 I did tell people about it. I told my partner, I told my physio 361 00:24:33,265 --> 00:24:36,270 cos it was something that I hadn't thought would return. 362 00:24:38,190 --> 00:24:40,395 If you're aware of having dreamt, 363 00:24:40,430 --> 00:24:44,430 that contributes to a feeling you've had a good night's sleep. 364 00:24:44,465 --> 00:24:46,350 And that's certainly how I feel. 365 00:24:49,110 --> 00:24:54,190 So science has revealed that dreams may have many purposes, 366 00:24:54,225 --> 00:24:57,355 a good night's sleep a way of seeking solutions. 367 00:24:57,390 --> 00:25:00,470 They may even be a way of maintaining our mental health. 368 00:25:17,830 --> 00:25:21,195 I was playing in my room with my sister 369 00:25:21,230 --> 00:25:25,470 and then I was about to go outside and my mum said, 370 00:25:25,505 --> 00:25:29,675 keep your head up because there is a witch about. 371 00:25:29,710 --> 00:25:32,710 I was in the kitchen. I remember it had really bright colours 372 00:25:32,745 --> 00:25:33,755 and a lot of sunshine 373 00:25:33,790 --> 00:25:38,670 and I saw a bug on the table and I heard it say, "hamburger, hamburger. " 374 00:25:38,705 --> 00:25:41,275 I take off and fly and I'm starting to accelerate faster, 375 00:25:41,310 --> 00:25:45,550 faster, faster and I realise I was an electron inside an RCA circuit 376 00:25:45,585 --> 00:25:47,870 moving around at the speed of light. 377 00:25:51,510 --> 00:25:55,150 Whilst science has begun to unravel many of the mysteries of dreams, 378 00:25:55,185 --> 00:25:58,910 there is one question that has endured more than any other. 379 00:25:58,945 --> 00:26:02,235 Do our dreams mean anything? 380 00:26:02,270 --> 00:26:05,310 My interest in dreaming as a scientist is boy, 381 00:26:05,345 --> 00:26:07,967 I just want to understand these things. 382 00:26:08,002 --> 00:26:10,696 It's just so interesting and so exciting. 383 00:26:10,731 --> 00:26:13,390 What is more interesting and fascinating 384 00:26:13,425 --> 00:26:15,710 and psychological than dreaming? 385 00:26:19,470 --> 00:26:24,510 People intuitively know that there is something about their dreams that is meaningful. 386 00:26:24,545 --> 00:26:27,430 People are endlessly fascinated by dreams. 387 00:26:32,190 --> 00:26:34,995 This belief that dreams mean something 388 00:26:35,030 --> 00:26:40,190 has been shared across the globe and remains central to many cultures. 389 00:26:40,225 --> 00:26:42,675 Deep in the forests of Northern Canada 390 00:26:42,710 --> 00:26:46,350 on the banks of Sesikinikak Lake, live the Itikemek people. 391 00:26:50,390 --> 00:26:53,030 Interpreting the meaning of their dreams 392 00:26:53,065 --> 00:26:55,670 is at the very core of the tribe's belief. 393 00:27:23,310 --> 00:27:26,670 The Itikemek gather for their morning dream circle 394 00:27:26,705 --> 00:27:28,475 in which they share their dreams, 395 00:27:28,510 --> 00:27:32,950 the elders drawing on their folklore to tell them what they might mean. 396 00:27:47,870 --> 00:27:52,150 Marianne is the elder and most versed in understanding dreaming. 397 00:27:58,390 --> 00:28:02,190 In the dream circle Pauline tells of a second dream about her son 398 00:28:02,225 --> 00:28:03,750 Ivan, a drug addict. 399 00:28:32,310 --> 00:28:34,395 For the Itikemek, 400 00:28:34,430 --> 00:28:39,390 the question of whether dreams have any significance is beyond doubt. 401 00:28:39,425 --> 00:28:43,190 But is it possible for science to find out what they might mean? 402 00:28:50,990 --> 00:28:54,275 Throughout the 20th century many psychologists, 403 00:28:54,310 --> 00:28:58,550 led by Sigmund Freud, thought dreams were symbols from our unconscious mind 404 00:28:58,585 --> 00:29:00,550 which need to be interpreted. 405 00:29:04,270 --> 00:29:08,630 Now in the Canadian city of Montreal the power of modern mathematics 406 00:29:08,665 --> 00:29:11,670 is being used to tell us what dreams mean. 407 00:29:12,830 --> 00:29:16,870 There is convincing evidence that leads us to believe 408 00:29:16,905 --> 00:29:18,955 that the content of dreams 409 00:29:18,990 --> 00:29:22,430 tell us a lot about how the brain can process information, 410 00:29:22,465 --> 00:29:25,790 and is important for our psychological well-being. 411 00:29:28,830 --> 00:29:33,830 Antonio Zadra is a scientist in the University of Montreal's dream lab. 412 00:29:35,790 --> 00:29:39,035 Here he's collected thousands of dreams. 413 00:29:39,070 --> 00:29:42,830 Each has been analysed to see exactly what it's made of. 414 00:29:42,865 --> 00:29:47,595 This rich content is then turned into numbers. 415 00:29:47,630 --> 00:29:51,430 Well, what we did is we coded the entire dream series 416 00:29:51,465 --> 00:29:53,990 in terms of various elements. 417 00:29:56,470 --> 00:30:01,110 Who are the characters, the emotions, the settings? 418 00:30:01,145 --> 00:30:05,047 And then we entered these quantifications, 419 00:30:05,082 --> 00:30:08,950 these resulting numbers in our spreadsheet. 420 00:30:08,985 --> 00:30:11,675 The result of this painstaking process 421 00:30:11,710 --> 00:30:15,170 is a comprehensive database of our dream lives. 422 00:30:15,205 --> 00:30:18,595 Zadra can tell us how often we dream about sex, 423 00:30:18,630 --> 00:30:22,330 and whether it involves our partner or even a celebrity. 424 00:30:22,365 --> 00:30:26,030 He can even tell us how often we have negative dreams. 425 00:30:26,065 --> 00:30:28,955 But his database doesn't explain the many. 426 00:30:28,990 --> 00:30:32,950 It is most revealing when telling us about the dreams of an individual. 427 00:30:32,985 --> 00:30:35,595 We want to see a whole series of dreams 428 00:30:35,630 --> 00:30:40,710 so that we can then detect patterns that recur over that entire dream series 429 00:30:40,745 --> 00:30:45,790 and thus get a better idea of what this person's dream life is generally like. 430 00:30:45,825 --> 00:30:50,190 By comparing these elements against the norm, Zadra can interpret 431 00:30:50,225 --> 00:30:52,875 what someone's dreams mean. 432 00:30:52,910 --> 00:30:56,990 This is a series of dreams from a 48-year-old professional man. 433 00:30:57,025 --> 00:30:59,630 He calls his wife B. 434 00:31:01,630 --> 00:31:03,275 B and I are making breakfast. 435 00:31:03,310 --> 00:31:06,710 I was also brewing some coffee but when I looked over at the coffee 436 00:31:06,745 --> 00:31:08,315 maker it was... overflowing. 437 00:31:08,350 --> 00:31:11,750 There was coffee all over the counter and coffee just kept pouring out... 438 00:31:11,785 --> 00:31:14,427 B kept on yelling what did you do, what did you do? 439 00:31:14,462 --> 00:31:17,070 I tried unplugging it... I removed the glass container 440 00:31:17,105 --> 00:31:19,110 but it wouldn't stop. 441 00:31:20,670 --> 00:31:24,190 His mother arrives, he's inconsolable and parents too. 442 00:31:24,225 --> 00:31:25,835 But the mother keeps telling people 443 00:31:25,870 --> 00:31:30,590 it's all my fault, it's loud and I try to defend myself like wake up. 444 00:31:30,625 --> 00:31:33,235 And from this series of dreams 445 00:31:33,270 --> 00:31:36,715 Zadra spots misfortune as a recurring feature. 446 00:31:36,750 --> 00:31:39,790 When I tried to move the car the wheels just kept spinning... 447 00:31:39,825 --> 00:31:42,315 B was getting very upset and was telling me there 448 00:31:42,350 --> 00:31:46,350 was still too much snow. I got out again and everything seems OK... 449 00:31:46,385 --> 00:31:51,190 I got back in but nothing happened just more spinning... 450 00:31:56,230 --> 00:32:00,435 In fact 80% of these dreams contain some sort of misfortune. 451 00:32:00,470 --> 00:32:04,270 Yet on his database, Zadra finds the average occurrence of misfortune 452 00:32:04,305 --> 00:32:08,630 in the dreams of middle aged men is just 30%. 453 00:32:10,870 --> 00:32:14,235 The other thing that really stands out with his dream series 454 00:32:14,270 --> 00:32:18,131 is that almost all of the other characters in his dreams are women. 455 00:32:18,166 --> 00:32:22,646 There's an, almost an absence of male figures and the interactions 456 00:32:22,681 --> 00:32:25,835 he has with these women is almost invariably negative. 457 00:32:25,870 --> 00:32:29,710 Once more the frequency of these negative dreams about women 458 00:32:29,745 --> 00:32:33,550 is far higher than the norm. If I were to make an educated guess 459 00:32:33,585 --> 00:32:36,795 about what is going on in this particular man's life, 460 00:32:36,830 --> 00:32:40,590 is that there seems to be concerns about relationship issues 461 00:32:40,625 --> 00:32:44,790 and also he is definitely overwhelmed by factors 462 00:32:44,825 --> 00:32:47,635 which are impacting him negatively 463 00:32:47,670 --> 00:32:50,950 but which he feels he has no control over. 464 00:32:50,985 --> 00:32:53,395 So it came as no surprise to Zadra 465 00:32:53,430 --> 00:32:56,350 to learn what happened to this couple. 466 00:32:56,385 --> 00:32:58,790 Five years later they divorced. 467 00:33:01,270 --> 00:33:04,715 Zadra has worked out the norm for many dream events. 468 00:33:04,750 --> 00:33:08,670 Only a fifth of woman's dreams about sex involved their partners 469 00:33:08,705 --> 00:33:12,635 but for men it's even less, just a sixth of the time, 470 00:33:12,670 --> 00:33:16,790 and women should be dreaming about having sex with celebrities 471 00:33:16,825 --> 00:33:18,835 twice as often as men. 472 00:33:18,870 --> 00:33:23,870 But sadly more than three-quarters of our dreams are negative. 473 00:33:23,905 --> 00:33:27,195 Most of all, the database reveals that our dreams 474 00:33:27,230 --> 00:33:31,070 are a much more straightforward reflection of our waking concerns 475 00:33:31,105 --> 00:33:33,315 than previously thought. 476 00:33:33,350 --> 00:33:38,510 Dreams do not hide their meanings but are relatively transparent 477 00:33:38,545 --> 00:33:41,710 and I think there is good evidence to suggest that dreams 478 00:33:41,745 --> 00:33:44,675 tend to reflect people's emotional concerns 479 00:33:44,710 --> 00:33:48,550 and also things that preoccupy them in their social lives. 480 00:33:56,270 --> 00:33:58,875 Dreams don't just have meaning. 481 00:33:58,910 --> 00:34:02,230 They have been the source of some of the great moments of genius 482 00:34:02,265 --> 00:34:06,590 in human history and ultimately have changed the world. 483 00:34:06,625 --> 00:34:11,110 Dreams have been responsible for two Nobel prizes, 484 00:34:11,145 --> 00:34:14,150 the invention of a couple of major drugs, 485 00:34:14,185 --> 00:34:16,715 other scientific discoveries, 486 00:34:16,750 --> 00:34:21,310 several important political events and innumerable novels, 487 00:34:21,345 --> 00:34:23,475 films and works of visual art, 488 00:34:23,510 --> 00:34:26,915 so they've been very important in our society. 489 00:34:26,950 --> 00:34:30,630 Professor Deirdre Barrett from Harvard Medical School has been 490 00:34:30,665 --> 00:34:34,310 studying just how it is that dreams can help us solve problems 491 00:34:34,345 --> 00:34:37,195 which we cannot crack in our waking lives. 492 00:34:37,230 --> 00:34:41,470 We can see things much more clearly when we think about them in dreams 493 00:34:41,505 --> 00:34:43,915 and it also helps us think outside the box. 494 00:34:43,950 --> 00:34:47,270 Our associations are looser and more intuitive and less linear. 495 00:34:47,305 --> 00:34:50,315 The classic symbol of science, 496 00:34:50,350 --> 00:34:53,870 the periodic table of the elements, is said to have come 497 00:34:53,905 --> 00:34:57,390 to the Russian chemist Dimitri Mendelay during a dream. 498 00:35:01,710 --> 00:35:05,950 In 1844 American inventor Elias Howe was trying to design 499 00:35:05,985 --> 00:35:07,395 his first sewing machine 500 00:35:07,430 --> 00:35:10,595 but he couldn't work out how to make it hold the needle. 501 00:35:10,630 --> 00:35:16,390 One night he dreamt of being attacked by savages with spears. 502 00:35:16,425 --> 00:35:20,715 As he woke up in terror, the last thing he saw 503 00:35:20,750 --> 00:35:25,010 was that all of their spears had the hole at the pointed tip of the spear 504 00:35:25,045 --> 00:35:29,270 and he realised that's where you put the hole in a sewing machine needle. 505 00:35:32,190 --> 00:35:35,990 This extraordinary creativity can even be found in literature. 506 00:35:36,025 --> 00:35:39,630 The story of Frankenstein was dreamt up by Mary Shelley. 507 00:35:42,110 --> 00:35:45,510 This ability to harness dreams and solve problems 508 00:35:45,545 --> 00:35:47,715 is not just the preserve of genius. 509 00:35:47,750 --> 00:35:51,075 It seems that many of us can also do it. 510 00:35:51,110 --> 00:35:54,970 Just say to oneself, I want to dream about X tonight 511 00:35:55,005 --> 00:35:58,830 as you're drifting off to sleep and in my research 512 00:35:58,865 --> 00:36:01,915 I find that about 50% of people can do that 513 00:36:01,950 --> 00:36:05,915 if they just practice that for a brief period of time, 514 00:36:05,950 --> 00:36:09,950 and about half will get an answer that is really gratifying 515 00:36:09,985 --> 00:36:12,070 to whatever the issue is. 516 00:36:15,710 --> 00:36:19,330 But the usefulness of dreams does not just stop there. 517 00:36:19,365 --> 00:36:22,950 It has recently been discovered that we can use our dreams 518 00:36:22,985 --> 00:36:24,430 to help us learn in our sleep. 519 00:36:26,550 --> 00:36:28,830 The scientist behind this latest breakthrough 520 00:36:28,865 --> 00:36:30,950 is Professor Robert Stickgold. 521 00:36:33,110 --> 00:36:37,870 A dream tells us more in some ways about what's happening in the brain 522 00:36:37,905 --> 00:36:39,475 while we're sleeping 523 00:36:39,510 --> 00:36:43,830 than any other scientific method we have of investigating it. 524 00:36:43,865 --> 00:36:46,190 Stickgold has devised an experiment that reveals 525 00:36:46,225 --> 00:36:48,350 just how dreams affect our learning. 526 00:36:48,470 --> 00:36:49,115 just how dreams affect our learning. 527 00:36:49,150 --> 00:36:53,275 So John here is mostly just having a lot of fun. 528 00:36:53,310 --> 00:36:56,630 He's learning how to play this game, Alpine Racer II, 529 00:36:56,665 --> 00:36:59,035 which is a downhill skiing simulator. 530 00:36:59,070 --> 00:37:03,310 He actually controls that character on the screen by moving his feet 531 00:37:03,345 --> 00:37:07,430 and he's learning a lot about how to do it, and what we think 532 00:37:07,465 --> 00:37:09,915 is that as the brain goes to sleep, 533 00:37:09,950 --> 00:37:12,955 it's going to come back to these images. 534 00:37:12,990 --> 00:37:17,130 It's intense. I'm trying to beat a time and I'm trying to stay 535 00:37:17,165 --> 00:37:21,270 in between these gates and it's difficult, but it's a lot of fun. 536 00:37:34,510 --> 00:37:37,595 Once John has gone to sleep, Stickgold wakes him 537 00:37:37,630 --> 00:37:40,230 through the night to see how his dreams have changed. 538 00:37:41,910 --> 00:37:46,070 Stickgold found that whilst subjects initially dream about the game, 539 00:37:46,105 --> 00:37:48,350 their later dreams draw on other memories. 540 00:37:53,310 --> 00:37:59,710 Please report now. I was walking through... bootprints in the snow. 541 00:37:59,745 --> 00:38:03,430 Some had made bootprints like copying them, 542 00:38:03,465 --> 00:38:04,715 going into the ones, 543 00:38:04,750 --> 00:38:09,290 stepping into the ones that were already stepped in, 544 00:38:09,325 --> 00:38:13,795 like following somebody else's steps along in the snow. 545 00:38:13,830 --> 00:38:18,470 The image that he gets is walking through snow and stepping into the 546 00:38:18,505 --> 00:38:23,110 steps that he or someone else had laid down before him, and of course 547 00:38:23,145 --> 00:38:27,110 how much easier it is to walk through the snow if you go exactly 548 00:38:27,145 --> 00:38:31,435 where you stepped last time. In these associations, 549 00:38:31,470 --> 00:38:35,990 Stickgold perceives a clear link between dreams and memory. 550 00:38:36,025 --> 00:38:38,595 I have this image that what's happening 551 00:38:38,630 --> 00:38:41,795 is the brain is not just paying attention to the game 552 00:38:41,830 --> 00:38:45,550 but is trying to say, what is that like, what other memories do I have 553 00:38:45,585 --> 00:38:50,750 that's like that? And he thinks about moving through snow 554 00:38:50,785 --> 00:38:53,790 and I can just imagine the brain trying to say, 555 00:38:53,825 --> 00:38:56,115 so when I try to ski this next time, 556 00:38:56,150 --> 00:38:59,790 shall I try to do it exactly the way I did it last time? 557 00:39:04,470 --> 00:39:09,070 As John takes to the ski game once again, his performance has improved. 558 00:39:10,670 --> 00:39:14,110 I was kind of hitting the wall coming up on this part 559 00:39:14,145 --> 00:39:17,907 but I think I can avoid it... 560 00:39:17,942 --> 00:39:21,670 Yeah. I think that's pretty good. 561 00:39:23,470 --> 00:39:25,875 And it is this improvement 562 00:39:25,910 --> 00:39:29,590 that demonstrates dreams are central to the way we learn. 563 00:39:29,625 --> 00:39:33,235 They know that they are getting better when they play again 564 00:39:33,270 --> 00:39:36,470 and in other studies we've evidence that when they dream about it, 565 00:39:36,505 --> 00:39:38,635 those people who dream about it 566 00:39:38,670 --> 00:39:42,155 actually end up performing better the next time. 567 00:39:42,190 --> 00:39:46,670 So in dreaming, Stickgold believes that we are bringing new experience 568 00:39:46,705 --> 00:39:49,955 to bear on old memories, and this is how we learn. 569 00:39:49,990 --> 00:39:54,790 Maybe the most important thing we do with memories is not keep them 570 00:39:54,825 --> 00:39:57,155 crystallised the way they happened, 571 00:39:57,190 --> 00:40:01,395 but taking them apart and figuring out what's important 572 00:40:01,430 --> 00:40:06,190 about what happened to us, and how that relates to everything else 573 00:40:06,225 --> 00:40:10,515 that's happened in the past, and figuring out what that means 574 00:40:10,550 --> 00:40:15,510 about our future, about what we are going to do tomorrow, a month in the 575 00:40:15,545 --> 00:40:19,355 future, a year in the future, how can I use that information. 576 00:40:19,390 --> 00:40:23,990 In some ways, the most brilliant thing that the human brain can do 577 00:40:24,025 --> 00:40:27,830 is that kind of extraction and meaning-making. 578 00:40:36,030 --> 00:40:40,070 As we slumber through the dark hours of the night, these visions 579 00:40:40,105 --> 00:40:44,110 which haunt our mind are not just random signals in our brain. 580 00:40:44,145 --> 00:40:46,115 They have a purpose. 581 00:40:46,150 --> 00:40:49,470 Science has shown that there is an important connection 582 00:40:49,505 --> 00:40:51,990 between our dreams and our memories. 583 00:40:54,390 --> 00:40:57,835 As well as these beneficial traits, 584 00:40:57,870 --> 00:41:03,590 we all know that dreams have another side. 585 00:41:03,625 --> 00:41:07,915 It's dark outside, kind of raining, 586 00:41:07,950 --> 00:41:11,910 very, very, scary ominous, and it's like this kind of spaceship... 587 00:41:11,945 --> 00:41:13,995 And an arm with these huge chains 588 00:41:14,030 --> 00:41:18,195 with this big stone tablet all inscribed with hieroglyphics... 589 00:41:18,230 --> 00:41:22,990 A man comes through the back of the wall behind the bed and he comes 590 00:41:23,025 --> 00:41:27,750 through the wall like this kind of thing and then he gets a hold of us 591 00:41:27,785 --> 00:41:30,355 by my feet and he starts pulling us out of my bed 592 00:41:30,390 --> 00:41:33,990 and then I feel as though I'm trying to cling on to the bed 593 00:41:34,025 --> 00:41:37,590 and he's saying really horrible things, really scary things. 594 00:41:43,350 --> 00:41:46,795 There is one man who believes these terrifying incidents 595 00:41:46,830 --> 00:41:51,430 are good for us, that without them humanity could not survive. 596 00:41:54,230 --> 00:41:59,070 Antti Revonsuo is a Finnish scientist who collects nightmares. 597 00:41:59,105 --> 00:42:02,115 He thinks that many of the bad dreams we have today 598 00:42:02,150 --> 00:42:05,990 are the same as those experienced by our ancient ancestors. 599 00:42:06,025 --> 00:42:11,007 Oh, it's pretty certain that our ancestors did dream 600 00:42:11,042 --> 00:42:15,336 because dreaming seems to be biologically programmed 601 00:42:15,371 --> 00:42:19,630 into our brain, and the brain that our ancestors had 602 00:42:19,665 --> 00:42:22,750 was pretty much identical with our brain. 603 00:42:26,630 --> 00:42:30,195 And we know that our ancestors lived 604 00:42:30,230 --> 00:42:36,830 in an environment which was full of all sorts of fatal dangers. 605 00:42:38,430 --> 00:42:40,850 What has led Revonsuo to these conclusions 606 00:42:40,885 --> 00:42:43,270 is his study of children's nightmares. 607 00:42:47,710 --> 00:42:53,330 There was one wolf and he started chasing me, and I ran and ran 608 00:42:53,365 --> 00:42:58,737 and ran, and afterwards, he stopped for a minute and barked, 609 00:42:58,772 --> 00:43:04,075 and then another wolf came and another and another and another 610 00:43:04,110 --> 00:43:10,270 and then in the end there was a whole pack of wolves with big long teeth 611 00:43:10,305 --> 00:43:15,590 and they were very, very hairy and big and scary 612 00:43:15,625 --> 00:43:18,870 and they started chasing me. 613 00:43:20,870 --> 00:43:24,430 According to Revonsuo, we have inherited these dreams 614 00:43:24,465 --> 00:43:28,167 populated by wild animals and monsters for a reason. 615 00:43:28,202 --> 00:43:31,870 They are rehearsals for the daily struggle to survive. 616 00:43:31,905 --> 00:43:35,287 The nature of bad dreams and nightmares 617 00:43:35,322 --> 00:43:38,635 is that they contain threatening events 618 00:43:38,670 --> 00:43:44,550 and they force us to go through those simulated threatening events 619 00:43:44,585 --> 00:43:47,595 in order that in the waking world 620 00:43:47,630 --> 00:43:52,750 we encounter similar or different kinds of threatening events 621 00:43:52,785 --> 00:43:57,267 and then we are more prepared to survive those 622 00:43:57,302 --> 00:44:01,750 when we have been training for them in our dreams. 623 00:44:04,470 --> 00:44:08,270 This mechanism for rehearsing stressful events will stay with us 624 00:44:08,305 --> 00:44:10,595 for all our lives, but as we grow up, 625 00:44:10,630 --> 00:44:15,150 dreams about wild animals are replaced by modern horrors. 626 00:44:15,185 --> 00:44:17,687 I was dreaming that I couldn't find the class 627 00:44:17,722 --> 00:44:20,155 and then my friend had to come to this class 628 00:44:20,190 --> 00:44:24,550 and I couldn't find her either and she couldn't find me 629 00:44:24,585 --> 00:44:26,595 and on my way to the class, 630 00:44:26,630 --> 00:44:29,675 the elevator, you know, I opened the elevator... 631 00:44:29,710 --> 00:44:34,690 the door of the elevator and I hit a little girl and she died. 632 00:44:34,725 --> 00:44:39,635 Adults have very modern types of nightmares and bad dreams 633 00:44:39,670 --> 00:44:44,710 like losing your wallet, crashing you car or something like that 634 00:44:44,745 --> 00:44:46,475 so it seems our brain 635 00:44:46,510 --> 00:44:54,030 is capable of adjusting itself and including more modern threats. 636 00:44:54,065 --> 00:44:57,275 Although we may dread our nightmares, 637 00:44:57,310 --> 00:45:01,150 they actually help us deal with the day ahead, and as a species, 638 00:45:01,185 --> 00:45:03,550 we should be thankful for these fearsome visions. 639 00:45:03,585 --> 00:45:06,155 Bad dreams and nightmares are a good thing. 640 00:45:06,190 --> 00:45:13,670 They force us to be prepared for similar events in the waking world. 641 00:45:13,705 --> 00:45:16,155 Without nightmares and bad dreams 642 00:45:16,190 --> 00:45:20,710 there is a good chance that humanity wouldn't be here. 643 00:45:20,745 --> 00:45:24,635 But for some, the reoccurrence of nightmares, 644 00:45:24,670 --> 00:45:28,190 far from helping us to survive in the waking world, 645 00:45:28,225 --> 00:45:30,355 has exactly the opposite effect. 646 00:45:30,390 --> 00:45:34,270 There are people who suffer an experience so dreadful 647 00:45:34,305 --> 00:45:38,115 that it reappears in their dreams again and again. 648 00:45:38,150 --> 00:45:42,230 The one nightmare I had regularly when I came back from hospital 649 00:45:42,265 --> 00:45:44,955 was I'd be trapped, like I was in hospital. 650 00:45:44,990 --> 00:45:48,510 I'd feel like my arms would be like this, my legs would be like that. 651 00:45:48,545 --> 00:45:52,110 I couldn't move, I couldn't move any thing and I couldn't speak 652 00:45:52,145 --> 00:45:55,955 and he'd always come, be at the side. 653 00:45:55,990 --> 00:46:00,670 Sarah Michael's nightmares were caused by events in her waking life. 654 00:46:00,705 --> 00:46:03,115 They started after the relationship 655 00:46:03,150 --> 00:46:06,155 with her then-partner broke down spectacularly. 656 00:46:06,190 --> 00:46:11,310 And I was just sitting there, and he could be really normal 657 00:46:11,345 --> 00:46:13,635 and then just flip like that 658 00:46:13,670 --> 00:46:18,190 and just suddenly, he just got up and stood over me and he just went whack! 659 00:46:18,225 --> 00:46:23,195 Right into, right into here and... and just like, 660 00:46:23,230 --> 00:46:27,830 it's very difficult to remember the exact way that he did it. 661 00:46:27,865 --> 00:46:31,627 I just remember this great big looming person over me 662 00:46:31,662 --> 00:46:35,390 and remember the baby was there, the baby started crying 663 00:46:35,425 --> 00:46:38,355 and then the first impact I felt something crack, 664 00:46:38,390 --> 00:46:42,630 and I knew immediately something was wrong but I didn't know what 665 00:46:42,665 --> 00:46:45,470 and I screamed in pain and fell onto the floor. 666 00:46:51,750 --> 00:46:56,150 The next day she collapsed in agony and was rushed to hospital. 667 00:46:56,185 --> 00:47:00,550 There, doctors diagnosed broken ribs and a ruptured spleen. 668 00:47:04,150 --> 00:47:07,510 Her then-partner came to see her in Intensive Care. 669 00:47:09,470 --> 00:47:11,275 That was really scary as well 670 00:47:11,310 --> 00:47:15,390 because he was trying to make out that it wasn't as bad as it was, 671 00:47:15,425 --> 00:47:18,670 so he was telling me that he loved me and he didn't mean it 672 00:47:18,705 --> 00:47:20,675 but then he would swap and change 673 00:47:20,710 --> 00:47:24,590 and say it was my fault because that's what he did, he confused me. 674 00:47:24,625 --> 00:47:28,475 When we are traumatised by an event, the memory is stored 675 00:47:28,510 --> 00:47:33,150 in the part of the brain which deals with raw emotion, the amygdala. 676 00:47:33,185 --> 00:47:37,795 The memory is frozen there and replayed again and again. 677 00:47:37,830 --> 00:47:41,990 This is what happened to Sarah so her dreams, rather than processing 678 00:47:42,025 --> 00:47:46,230 and resolving her memories, only served to reinforce them. 679 00:47:48,270 --> 00:47:52,750 With every nightmare the traumatic memories became worse and worse 680 00:47:52,785 --> 00:47:56,235 until they reappeared in her waking life as well. 681 00:47:56,270 --> 00:48:00,830 Driving, I'd look in my rear view mirror and I'd think he's behind me, 682 00:48:00,865 --> 00:48:04,835 in the car behind me but I knew it couldn't be him 683 00:48:04,870 --> 00:48:08,350 but my mind was telling me that it was him, even though I knew 684 00:48:08,385 --> 00:48:10,907 that he couldn't and literally I had to stop my car 685 00:48:10,942 --> 00:48:13,906 and I'd have to park up because I couldn't breathe. 686 00:48:13,941 --> 00:48:17,245 I thought if I can't breathe, I'm going to crash. 687 00:48:17,280 --> 00:48:20,550 Eventually Sarah became imprisoned by her dreams, 688 00:48:20,585 --> 00:48:23,767 too afraid to leave the house. 689 00:48:23,802 --> 00:48:26,915 I convinced myself that I was mad. 690 00:48:26,950 --> 00:48:30,710 I felt mad. Everything that I took, cos I wasn't sleeping, 691 00:48:30,745 --> 00:48:32,790 and I went to my doctor and I said, "I'm mad. " 692 00:48:35,670 --> 00:48:39,030 After three years of terror, Sarah was finally diagnosed 693 00:48:39,065 --> 00:48:41,767 with Post Traumatic Stress Syndrome. 694 00:48:41,802 --> 00:48:44,276 Following many months of counselling, 695 00:48:44,311 --> 00:48:46,715 she was released from her nightmares. 696 00:48:46,750 --> 00:48:51,010 The more I talked about it, the less power it had to frighten me 697 00:48:51,045 --> 00:48:55,270 so we'd talk about it quite a lot but it didn't seem so scary. 698 00:48:55,305 --> 00:48:58,070 Once we did all the talking it wasn't so powerful 699 00:48:58,105 --> 00:49:00,235 and each time if felt safer and safer 700 00:49:00,270 --> 00:49:03,610 like I could tell you now and only I don't feel upset 701 00:49:03,645 --> 00:49:06,915 and my hands aren't sweaty, I don't feel traumatised. 702 00:49:06,950 --> 00:49:10,910 It just seems something that happened and it's not happening any more. 703 00:49:10,945 --> 00:49:13,070 It's been, it's gone, it's finished. 704 00:49:20,830 --> 00:49:24,235 Sarah's story shows that the power of the mind 705 00:49:24,270 --> 00:49:29,230 can be harnessed to overcome even the most debilitating of dreams. 706 00:49:30,830 --> 00:49:34,670 It appears that there is a fine line between dreaming and being awake. 707 00:49:34,705 --> 00:49:36,395 What keeps them apart 708 00:49:36,430 --> 00:49:40,470 is the degree to which the outside world impinges on our consciousness. 709 00:49:45,910 --> 00:49:50,555 The relationship between dreams and consciousness 710 00:49:50,590 --> 00:49:56,550 is I think we could actually say that we are dreaming all of the time. 711 00:49:56,585 --> 00:50:01,267 It's just that during wakefulness our dreams are shaped 712 00:50:01,302 --> 00:50:05,915 by stimulus information that's coming through our senses, 713 00:50:05,950 --> 00:50:11,830 whereas during dreaming, the same consciousness within our brains 714 00:50:11,865 --> 00:50:14,790 is not shaped by any external information 715 00:50:14,825 --> 00:50:16,795 but it's generated internally. 716 00:50:16,830 --> 00:50:22,730 So I think that life is a dream which is guided by the senses. 717 00:50:22,765 --> 00:50:28,630 When awake, we appear to have control over our conscious state 718 00:50:28,665 --> 00:50:30,555 but there are a rare few 719 00:50:30,590 --> 00:50:34,030 who can extend control of their consciousness into their sleep 720 00:50:34,065 --> 00:50:37,710 and bring the worlds of dreams and wakefulness together. 721 00:50:37,745 --> 00:50:41,555 These people are called lucid dreamers. 722 00:50:41,590 --> 00:50:45,710 For one controversial scientist, an episode of lucid dreaming 723 00:50:45,745 --> 00:50:49,030 was so powerful it changed the course of his life. 724 00:50:49,065 --> 00:50:52,275 His name is Stephen LaBerge. 725 00:50:52,310 --> 00:50:56,390 I had a couple of lucid dreams where you know just spontaneously 726 00:50:56,425 --> 00:50:59,630 I had, "ah this is a dream and this is interesting, 727 00:50:59,665 --> 00:51:01,715 "I want to learn more about it. " 728 00:51:01,750 --> 00:51:06,115 I started reading books about it and found out 729 00:51:06,150 --> 00:51:10,230 in the late '70s that most experts in sleep research and dreaming 730 00:51:10,265 --> 00:51:13,030 thought that lucid dreams were impossible. 731 00:51:14,630 --> 00:51:18,530 LaBerge set about proving the experts wrong 732 00:51:18,565 --> 00:51:22,430 and devised an ingenious experiment to do so. 733 00:51:22,465 --> 00:51:24,315 Before his subjects went to sleep, 734 00:51:24,350 --> 00:51:26,515 LaBerge gave them a simple instruction - 735 00:51:26,550 --> 00:51:30,230 if they became aware of a flashing light during their dream 736 00:51:30,265 --> 00:51:33,910 they were to move their eyes, first left and then right. 737 00:51:36,830 --> 00:51:41,230 Then as they dreamt, LaBerge shone a light in their eyes. 738 00:51:42,990 --> 00:51:46,230 Remarkably the dreamer responded. 739 00:51:47,830 --> 00:51:51,290 A person could simply look to the left and look to the right, 740 00:51:51,325 --> 00:51:54,750 and left to right, and that would be a pre-agreed upon signal 741 00:51:54,785 --> 00:51:57,230 and so indeed that turned out to be possible. 742 00:51:59,270 --> 00:52:03,510 Having demonstrated that lucid dreaming was possible, 743 00:52:03,545 --> 00:52:05,590 LaBerge left the world of science behind. 744 00:52:11,470 --> 00:52:13,795 Nowadays on the big island of Hawaii, 745 00:52:13,830 --> 00:52:17,970 LaBerge gathers groups of people for lucid dreaming workshops 746 00:52:18,005 --> 00:52:22,110 and he uses a technique which draws on his early experiments. 747 00:52:24,230 --> 00:52:27,050 The students are given a mask with a flashing light. 748 00:52:27,085 --> 00:52:29,870 If they can learn to respond to this whilst asleep, 749 00:52:29,905 --> 00:52:33,270 then they are lucid dreamers. 750 00:52:41,950 --> 00:52:45,355 LaBerge wants his students to go one step further 751 00:52:45,390 --> 00:52:48,990 by learning how to become self-aware during their dreams. 752 00:52:49,025 --> 00:52:52,435 So one of the best dream signs 753 00:52:52,470 --> 00:52:57,550 is not even what you are seeing or feeling 754 00:52:57,585 --> 00:53:01,247 out in the inner dream world. 755 00:53:01,282 --> 00:53:04,875 It's reflecting on your thoughts 756 00:53:04,910 --> 00:53:08,355 of what's going through my mind right now. 757 00:53:08,390 --> 00:53:12,010 And asking the question would this happen in real life? 758 00:53:12,045 --> 00:53:15,777 If my count of limbs multiplies, I know I'm dreaming 759 00:53:15,812 --> 00:53:19,475 cos they don't usually just reproduce like that OK? 760 00:53:19,510 --> 00:53:23,850 Most people are here to explore the amazing world of dreams 761 00:53:23,885 --> 00:53:28,190 and for some, LaBerge believes it has a more serious use. 762 00:53:28,225 --> 00:53:30,915 Facing and overcoming nightmares 763 00:53:30,950 --> 00:53:34,075 is I think one of the most important applications. 764 00:53:34,110 --> 00:53:38,090 For people with nightmares, it's learning to understand what they are, 765 00:53:38,125 --> 00:53:42,070 they stop frightening you and it's a very compelling powerful tool 766 00:53:42,105 --> 00:53:44,395 for personal integration, I believe. 767 00:53:44,430 --> 00:53:47,830 For Justin it's the hope of overcoming nightmares 768 00:53:47,865 --> 00:53:50,435 that has brought him to the island. 769 00:53:50,470 --> 00:53:56,110 Well, I'm basically hoping to develop my ability to have lucid dreaming. 770 00:53:56,145 --> 00:54:01,367 I am a recovering alcoholic and I'm bothered a lot of times by dreams 771 00:54:01,402 --> 00:54:06,590 about drinking and anxiety, and those are very disturbing kinds of dreams 772 00:54:06,625 --> 00:54:10,630 and I would really like to be able to gain control over those 773 00:54:10,665 --> 00:54:14,667 and work through it in my sleep so that when I am awake 774 00:54:14,702 --> 00:54:18,670 I can help myself to reduce my thoughts about alcohol. 775 00:54:19,830 --> 00:54:23,870 That night Justin, helped by the flashing lights of the facemask, 776 00:54:23,905 --> 00:54:28,550 goes to bed determined to take control of his dream. 777 00:54:28,585 --> 00:54:31,870 In the morning, he reports to the group. 778 00:54:31,905 --> 00:54:34,395 I was having sex 779 00:54:34,430 --> 00:54:37,350 and I saw a flash of light off to the side 780 00:54:37,385 --> 00:54:40,435 and I saw someone taking photographs. 781 00:54:40,470 --> 00:54:45,550 My first thought was I've got to get the camera and I chased him. 782 00:54:45,585 --> 00:54:49,830 In this scenario, LaBerge sees the first signs of lucidity. 783 00:54:49,865 --> 00:54:52,715 The camera represents the flashing light. 784 00:54:52,750 --> 00:54:57,790 Next time I'm having sex and lights are flashing I'll just say hey... 785 00:54:57,825 --> 00:55:00,955 does this usually happen? LAUGHTER 786 00:55:00,990 --> 00:55:03,990 Over the next few nights Justin hones his skills 787 00:55:04,025 --> 00:55:07,350 until he finally has his first lucid dream. 788 00:55:07,385 --> 00:55:10,230 It was one of the most exciting things 789 00:55:10,265 --> 00:55:12,595 that has ever happened to me. 790 00:55:12,630 --> 00:55:16,870 I was asleep and suddenly I realised I was awake, 791 00:55:16,905 --> 00:55:21,110 and I just had a flood of excitement and ecstasy 792 00:55:21,145 --> 00:55:24,115 and was aware that I was dreaming 793 00:55:24,150 --> 00:55:29,950 even though I was in the bed and I was able to do incredible things. 794 00:55:29,985 --> 00:55:32,475 I stretched my arms really far 795 00:55:32,510 --> 00:55:35,870 and I drew a door in the air with a pencil 796 00:55:35,905 --> 00:55:39,195 and then became so excited, I woke up. 797 00:55:39,230 --> 00:55:44,150 Taking control of our dream lives is an ability from which 798 00:55:44,185 --> 00:55:47,115 LaBerge believes we can all benefit. 799 00:55:47,150 --> 00:55:51,930 It seems to me that lucid dreaming is a skill that ought to be taught 800 00:55:51,965 --> 00:55:56,710 in grammar school where it's just hey here's something you can do. 801 00:55:56,745 --> 00:55:59,990 It's a place you can experiment with your life 802 00:56:00,025 --> 00:56:02,190 without worrying about consequences. 803 00:56:06,190 --> 00:56:09,510 So science is finding our dreams are many things. 804 00:56:12,190 --> 00:56:15,990 A crucial evolutionary device developed by our minds 805 00:56:16,025 --> 00:56:18,830 to help us consolidate our memories. 806 00:56:18,865 --> 00:56:22,427 A way to solve our problems. 807 00:56:22,462 --> 00:56:25,990 Dreams even help us to survive. 808 00:56:26,025 --> 00:56:28,035 Throughout the long night, 809 00:56:28,070 --> 00:56:31,915 our mind is training us to face the coming day. 810 00:56:31,950 --> 00:56:36,990 The important thing is just to go through the training and then we get 811 00:56:37,025 --> 00:56:40,190 all the training benefits, even if during wakefulness 812 00:56:40,225 --> 00:56:42,630 we have no idea we've been training all night. 813 00:56:46,630 --> 00:56:49,235 I think that their value lies 814 00:56:49,270 --> 00:56:52,235 in what a different mode of thought they are. 815 00:56:52,270 --> 00:56:56,750 They're so much more intuitive and visual a mode of thinking 816 00:56:56,785 --> 00:57:00,007 and in our culture, we spend so much time 817 00:57:00,042 --> 00:57:03,230 in this very logical linear mode of thinking 818 00:57:03,265 --> 00:57:05,155 that their main benefit lies 819 00:57:05,190 --> 00:57:08,070 in presenting such a different point of view 820 00:57:08,105 --> 00:57:10,390 to how we usually approach things. 821 00:57:13,030 --> 00:57:16,710 Our brain is working on figuring out the importance 822 00:57:16,745 --> 00:57:19,435 and significance of events from our days, 823 00:57:19,470 --> 00:57:22,790 how they fit together with old events in our past, 824 00:57:22,825 --> 00:57:26,110 what they mean about likely events in the future 825 00:57:26,145 --> 00:57:29,155 and if that processing is functional, 826 00:57:29,190 --> 00:57:33,435 as I believe it must be, then our dreams are telling us something 827 00:57:33,470 --> 00:57:38,990 about what's important to us and the meaning of the events in our lives. 828 00:57:39,025 --> 00:57:42,995 So tonight, as you enter the wonderful world of dreams, 829 00:57:43,030 --> 00:57:48,950 lie back and let your mind take you on the adventure of a lifetime.