
Eye movements 'change scenes' during dreams - sakopov
http://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-33860994
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stephengillie
So essentially, eye motions during REM sleep are not directly related to
visualization of dreams. Instead, it's linked to another set of neurons.

    
    
      "The eye movements are not actually scanning your dream - they're reorienting 
      your visual thoughts," Prof Horne told BBC News.
    

Further, the study delves into the connections between REM sleep and
wakefulness. This could lead into lucid dreaming, as other commenters have
remarked.

    
    
      "This study endorses other findings that REM sleep has many similarities to 
      wakefulness.
    

Others are using the new findings to dig into evolutionary causes.

    
    
      Prof William Wisden, a neuroscientist at Imperial College London, was also 
      convinced by the similarity of brain activity between awake and REM states - 
      but he said there are bigger questions still to answer.
      "The most fascinating question of all is why do we have to have REM sleep? Why
      does our brain have all this circuitry to do that?

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placebo
Not sure what "change of scene" means, but:

"Based on earlier studies showing that some of the eye movements of REM sleep
corresponded to the reported direction of the dreamer's gaze (e.g., Roffwarg
et al. 1962), we asked subjects to carry out distinctive patterns of voluntary
eye movements when they realized they were dreaming. The prearranged eye
movement signals appeared on the polygraph records during REM, proving that
the subjects had indeed been lucid during uninterrupted REM sleep (LaBerge
1990; LaBerge et al. 1981)" (from
[http://www.lucidity.com/slbbs/](http://www.lucidity.com/slbbs/))

~~~
kiernan
It sounds very similar to a 'Saccade' [1]. Something your eyes do all the time
when waking whenever they move. From your mind's perspective it seems to cut
off the old signal from wherever yours eyes were previously facing/absorbing,
wipes the slate clean and starts building up mental imagery and models based
on the new input feed.

I think this might be getting at what they mean by 'change of scene', but it's
probably not possible to prove exactly what's happening since it's subjective.

As an experiment you can do yourself to highlight this effect, go to you
bathroom and look into the mirror with your face almost touching it, staring
at the point between your eyes.

Try not to move your eyes at all and relax them, even if it feels like they
might be moving off-target. Eventually your whole 'view' should subtly change,
maybe blur and come into and out of _seeming_ focus as your brain tries to
interpret the noisy input it's getting (since nothing should be changing, the
only difference in the input is noise) and may refocus your mental
imagery/minds eye at showing you what it _thinks_ you're looking at.

[1]
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saccade](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saccade)

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x0x0
News is so weird. The top of the article shows a picture of a person sleeping.
Sleep is a pretty universal experience; I'm not sure how that image enhances
the article =P

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iaw
This is really amazing, I have always wondered what the first dreams a
sentient creature are. What is the context of a dream before we have any
experiences to form it from?

~~~
atmosx
Hm, I don't think there is such a moment. From the moment we acquire some sort
of consciousness and sleep becomes a requirement for the body and mind to work
properly, you at least some sort of _experience_.

Newborns can't see properly, they see only shadows and perceive mainly by
sound and contact. But even them, have nightmares or _good_ dreams :-)

A better question might be: "What kind of dreams does a human blind from birth
dream?"

Nature Magazine featured an article on the topic[1].

[1] [http://phenomena.nationalgeographic.com/2014/02/26/how-
the-b...](http://phenomena.nationalgeographic.com/2014/02/26/how-the-blind-
dream/)

~~~
jacquesm
Or even dreaming in the womb:

[http://www.science20.com/news_releases/do_babies_womb_have_d...](http://www.science20.com/news_releases/do_babies_womb_have_dreams)

