Guest Series | Dr. Matt Walker: The Science of Dreams, Nightmares & Lucid Dreaming

This is episode 6 of a 6-part special series on sleep with Dr. Matthew Walker, Ph.D., a professor of neuroscience and psychology at the University of California, Berkeley and a leading public educator on sleep for mental and physical health, learning and human performance. In this episode, we discuss dreaming, including the biological mechanism of dreams, what dreams mean and their role in daytime life.

We explore how dreams can enhance our creativity and emotional well-being and help us resolve various challenges and dilemmas. We discuss how to remember and interpret your dreams and the abstractions/symbols frequently present in dreams.

We also discuss nightmares and therapies to treat reoccurring nightmares. We explain what lucid dreaming is and if there are benefits or drawbacks to this type of dreaming.

Dr. Walker also answers frequently asked audience questions and discusses snoring, body position, sleep supplements, sleep challenges due to aging, menopause, stopping racing thoughts, and how to fall back asleep if you wake in the middle of the night.

Articles

• Sleep Deprivation in the Rat: X. Integration and Discussion of the Findings (Sleep)
• Neural Decoding of Visual Imagery During Sleep (Science)
• Temporally Structured Replay of Awake Hippocampal Ensemble Activity during Rapid Eye Movement Sleep (Neuron)
• A brief nap is beneficial for human route-learning: The role of navigation experience and EEG spectral power (Learning & Memory)
• Broken Dreams: A Study of the Effects of Divorce and Depression on Dream Content (Psychiatry)
• Dreaming and Episodic Memory: A Functional Dissociation? (Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience)
• The Interpretation of Dreams Sigmund Freud (1900)
• Memory consolidation and reconsolidation: what is the role of sleep? (Trends in Neuroscience)
• Enhancing imagery rehearsal therapy for nightmares with targeted memory reactivation (Current Biology)
• Odor Cues During Slow-Wave Sleep Prompt Declarative Memory Consolidation (Science)
• Neural Correlates of Dream Lucidity Obtained from Contrasting Lucid versus Non-Lucid REM Sleep: A Combined EEG/fMRI Case Study (Sleep)

Other Resources

• Waking Life (movie)
• SnoreLab (app)
• Sleep & Menopause (The Matt Walker Podcast)
• Toolkit for Sleep (Neural Network Newsletter)

Huberman Lab Episodes Mentioned

• Guest Series | Dr. Matthew Walker: The Biology of Sleep & Your Unique Sleep Needs (Episode 1)
• Guest Series | Dr. Matthew Walker: Protocols to Improve Your Sleep (Episode 2)
• Guest Series | Dr. Matthew Walker: How to Structure Your Sleep, Use Naps & Time Caffeine (Episode 3)
• Guest Series | Dr. Matthew Walker: Using Sleep to Improve Learning, Creativity & Memory (Episode 4)
• Guest Series | Dr. Matthew Walker: Improve Sleep to Boost Mood & Emotional Regulation (Episode 5)
• Dr. Paul Conti: Therapy, Treating Trauma & Other Life Challenges

People Mentioned

• Charles Nunn: professor of evolutionary anthropology, Duke University
• MatthewWilson: professor of neuroscience, MIT
• Sigmund Freud: neurologist, father of psychoanalysis
• Richard Axel: professor of molecular biology, Columbia University
• Ivan Pavlov: physiologist