Newswise — Creighton University Neurology Professor Sanjay Singh, M.D., FAAN., recently launched a study investigating the biological purpose of dreams. Over the course of a year, Singh plans to study the dreams of 50 participants at the CHI Health Creighton University Medical Center. Singh will track and analyze the content of participants’ dreams and search for patterns. During the study, participants will be woken up just after rapid eye movement (REM) sleep — the stage when dreams generally occur — and asked about what they were dreaming.
Participants are patients, who have consented to be part of the study, undergoing screening for epilepsy at the Creighton Epilepsy Center. The epilepsy screening requires continuous video and brainwave monitoring and that patients be woken up during sleep periodically. The five-day, four-night screening provides a suitable opportunity to gather extensive data about dreams.
“We know so little about dreams from a scientific perspective,” Singh said. “Our overall goal is to provide greater understanding of the biological purpose of dreams. We really don’t know what we will find.”
Singh also will study whether dreams can be altered by external stimuli, such as if a sound is made while the participant is sleeping, whether he or she remembers hearing the sound in their dream. Singh said, if so, that knowledge could potentially be utilized in the future for therapeutic purposes.
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