Peering Into the ‘Black Box’ of Dreaming
How Technology is Making Our Dream Worlds More Accessible and Malleable One aspect of dreams that makes them so mysterious is that they are notoriously difficult to study. While those who dream vividly or lucidly can accurately report their detailed dream content, most of us imperfectly capture fragments of our dreams and are left with
Why We Forget Our Dreams: A New Perspective
One of the most enduring paradoxes in the field of dream research is the mystery of dream amnesia. Why do we forget most of our dreams, even though they’re often vivid, emotionally charged, and potentially important for our survival? A recent paper by Zhao and colleagues offers an elegant solution to this puzzle. Here’s the
Influencing Dream Content and Creativity
Fascinating new research that confirms what creative minds like Salvador Dalí and Thomas Edison intuited long ago – the drowsy period as we drift off to sleep can supercharge our creative abilities. Researchers from MIT and Harvard (Horowitz et al., 2020, 2023) demonstrated that deliberately influencing dreams during sleep onset (known as N1 sleep or
I was recently asked this question by Women’s Health magazine, and it led to some interesting further reading and provocative thoughts. An amazing half of people asked will say they had a precognitive dream at some point in their lives. Does this mean dreams can predict the future? So far, there is no scientific evidence
Psychedelic Medicine and Dreams: A conversation with Katherine Lawson
The use of psychedelic substances as therapeutic agents is a trend with great promise, and a work in progress. There is an exciting but nascent body of research on efficacy and best practices, and there remains many legal and ethical obstacles. In the meantime, the use of plant medicines is growing like a weed –
Become An Exquisite Listening Partner with Focusing
Are you interested in deepening your ability to listen in a way that enables another person to touch into their body’s wisdom? Whether you are a mental health professional, partner, coach, parent, friend (or all of these!), focusing is a gift you can bring to every relationship – including your connection with your own self.
Are Nightmares Bad for Your Heart?
John’s nightmares visit often, and when they wake him up, he can feel his heart racing and his palms sweating. He has been putting off therapy to address the trauma he knows is fueling his nightmares because it’s just so hard face it. What he doesn’t realize is that this avoidance not only disrupts his
The Alarming Nightmare-Suicide Link: Review just published
In my continuing bid to get the word out about the alarming link between frequent nightmares and increased suicide risk, I wrote a review paper that was just published. In it, I cover the growing body of research documenting evidence of this strong connection. I also explore the potential mechanisms at work that make nightmare
Dreams and Psychedelics: Similarities and potential therapeutic benefits
Research into the therapeutic potential of psychedelic (serotonergic) substances is experiencing a resurgence after lying dormant in North America for more than 50 years. Early research suggests these once-vilified substances show great promise in treating depression, anxiety, alcohol addiction, and potentially many other challenging conditions. This emerging area is ripe for the use of dreamwork