May

A new way of viewing dreams? Scientists say that the brain processes our experiences to consolidate memory. What dreams do is tell us that this is taking place. That means that they not only help us learn various tasks, but also help us apply information

The April 22, 2010, online issue of Current Biiology carries the study done at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center. The senior author was Robert Stickgold, PhD, Director of the Center for Sleep and Cognition at BIDMC and Associate Professor of Psychiatry at Harvard Medical School.

He was quoted on Science Daily http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/04/100422153753.htm as saying that "What's got us really excited, is that after nearly 100 years of debate about the function of dreams, this study tells us that dreams are the brain's way of processing, integrating and really understanding new information." He also said that this consolidation of memory may be one of the reasons that evolution produced sleep.

Of the 99 study participants who received training in learning a virtual maze, some were told to nap for 90 minutes afterward and others not to nap. The nappers who dreamed showed ten times more improvement on the maze tasks afterward than the nappers who didn’t dream about the maze. Not only that, people who stay awake following the first test perform worse on the next one, even if they think about the maze between tests.

The first author, Erin Wamsley, PhD, a postdoctoral fellow at BIDMC and Harvard Medical School, was quotes as saying,” "These dreamers described various scenarios -- seeing people at checkpoints in a maze, being lost in a bat cave, or even just hearing the background music from the computer game."

She also said that "Our [nonconscious] brain works on the things that it deems are most important…Every day, we are gathering and encountering tremendous amounts of information and new experiences…It would seem that our dreams are asking the question, 'How do I use this information to inform my life?'"

The study was funded by grants from the National Institutes of Health. It can be accessed at Wamsley et al. Dreaming of a Learning Task Is Associated with Enhanced Sleep-Dependent Memory Consolidation. Current Biology, 2010; DOI: 10.1016/j.cub.2010.03.027

An invitation

This spring, Linda will again be facilitating a five-week dream circle. Dream circles are small groups who are interested in keeping track of their dreams and gaining insights through discussing them. The five sessions will take place over five weeks. At the end of five weeks, those who want to sign up for another five weeks can do so, and new participants can join. There is a fee. For more information and to register, email Linda at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it . Linda is the author of Dreaming Your Dharma: Beyond Intuition (Catchfire Press, March, 2000).

Linda Chalmer Zemel, Buffalo Alternative Medicine Examiner and Buffalo Books Examiner. Originally published on Examiner.com