

First brain image of a dream created - swombat
http://www.sciencenews.org/view/generic/id/335866/title/First_brain_image_of_a_dream_created

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udp
So by "brain image" it means they observed some activity in the brain related
to actions performed in the dream. Pretty cool, but that title is seriously
linkbait.

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glaugh
Not to mention that this general technique has been around for decades
(developed at Stanford), and using an fMRI is the only novel part of this new
study: <http://www.lucidity.com/SleepAndCognition.html>

Though using an fMRI like this _is_ pretty cool.

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padobson
What kind of lifehack would it be if we could fully understand lucid dreaming
to the point we could teach everyone to do it on command. What would the
benefits be for entertainment, education, and psychological health?

If you were getting your entertainment during sleep, what kind of productivity
boost would that have? Spend more time sleeping and more of your waking hours
working.

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JonnieCache
We'd never wake up I imagine. What'd be the point? I have heard true lucid
dreaming described as being like the holodeck. Suddenly Nozick's Experience
Machine becomes an alarming possibility which must be considered seriously.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Experience_machine>

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ComputerGuru
This is more true than you realize. Many days I will awake from a lucid dream
and go back to sleep for several more hours to discover/continue. "Waking up"
from that is like being pulled out of an RPG game right in the middle of an
exciting action sequence. Also, sometimes when I'm feeling bored or a little
depressed, I'll go to sleep for the excitement/entertainment factor (it's a
letdown if I don't end up in a lucid dream, but you can't always have
everything in life :)

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meow
Happens for me too :) .. Some days I seed what I want to dream about before
sleeping (usually by watching a related genre movie).. I can go back to the
same dream if interrupted for a few minutes (5-10).. not hours though... Once
in the dream and after realizing that it is a dream - I can control most of
the things (environment, flying, running on four legs etc) - though I keep
moving in/out of that realization...sort of like inception... :)

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salemh
Be wary of trying to further "lucidate" the lucid dream into another lucid
state. I've woken up going a few tiers into such very dissasociative from
reality for several (4+ hours) over weekends :) EG: building in my dream a
"jump pad" standing upon such, to "jump" to an even deeper reality, etc.

It sounds wonky, but, throwing it out there.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dissociative_disorder> Subset:
_Depersonalization disorder: periods of detachment from self or surrounding
which may be experienced as "unreal" (lacking in control of or "outside of"
self) while retaining awareness that this is only a feeling and not a
reality._

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davej
> Lucid dreaming is the rare ability to...

Is lucid dreaming really all that rare? I've been able to have lucid dreams
about once a week ever since the age of 14.

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martin_k
If you compare it to the number of dreams people have around the world each
night, it probably is rare. But then, it's not that difficult to learn and you
also find quite a lot of people whose dreams are usually lucid without really
being aware of the difference.

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mladenkovacevic
There was an interesting talk at the wesolveforx conference dealing with
imaging the mind's eye (<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SjbSEjOJL3U>). These
researchers are having their subjects watch hundreds of hours of youtube
videos and recording their brain activity. They would then show them another
brand new video while again observing their brain activity and pull up and
juxtapose videos that the subject has seen previously and that activated the
same parts of the brain as the new video. The similarity between the two video
feeds is astounding. I wonder if a similar technique could be used for imaging
dreams.

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martin_k
Similar studies have been conducted by LaBerge and others for decades now. I
did a brief search and found two examples: One that measured EEG for clenching
hands (in 1986!) and one that measured cardio-vascular activity for performing
squats. So the novelty here is probably the use of fMRI. This is probably
difficult because sleeping in these things is not exactly comfortable.

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klausjensen
[ ] Picture of actual dream in post

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EmagineEngine
Title is misleading. How much of the rest of the story is exaggerated?

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meow
Such a lofty title.. felt let down at the end of it..

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mutant
So much letdown in title.

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tigerweeds
pics or didn't happen

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georgieporgie
Misleading title. Or I'm too optimistic and read/watched too much scifi.

