Worst live blogger ever
June 26, 2009 by Ryan Hurd
Filed under New Dream Studies
The annual conference for the International Association for the Study of Dreams starts today in Chicago, IL. I’ll be there, to give my lucid nightmares talk as well as chair the cultural and anthropological sessions.
Maybe I’ll do some live bloggin’ during the event. But let’s face it, I always say that at the beginning of conferences and generally fail. I’m the worst live blogger ever. If nothing else, I’ll cover some of my favorite presentations after the event is over.
REM Sleep Improves Creativity: New Research Findings
June 10, 2009 by Ryan Hurd
Filed under New Dream Studies
Image: 25/365 by ♪ maybe a mezzo ♪
Routine Sleep Schedules Good for Infants
May 1, 2009 by Ryan Hurd
Filed under Sleep Research
ScienceDaily reported a study from the journal Sleep today showing a strong connection between regular bedtimes for babies and improved sleep patterns.
Here’s a snippet from the original article:
Results indicate that the establishment of a nightly bedtime routine produced significant reductions in problematic sleep behaviors for infants and toddlers. Improvements were seen in latency and sleep onset and in the number and duration of night wakings. Toddlers were less likely to call out to their parents or get out of their crib/bed during the night. Sleep continuity increased and there was a significant decrease in the number of mothers who rated their child’s sleep as problematic.
New Survey for Finding the Meaning of Dreams
March 16, 2009 by Ryan Hurd
Filed under New Dream Studies
Here’s another opportunity to participate in dream research.
Carey Morewedge of Carnegie Mellon University and Michael Norton of Harvard are conducting a short survey on dreams and memory. I took it in less than 10 minutes. The results will be reported in the New York Times, thanks to dream-enthusiast and journalist John Tierney.
Click here to take the survey.
Lucid Dreamers Wanted for Study on Hypnopompic Hallucinations
February 26, 2009 by Ryan Hurd
Filed under New Dream Studies
Theoretical Physicist Karl Simanonok, PhD is looking for lucid dreamers to join his study on “auditory binding,” which is the hypothetical moment when consciousness “sticks to” the auditory system while waking up out of sleep.
Specifically, potential co-researchers in this study are asked to consciously experience their hypnopompic imagery when moving out of a dream state, and then report which sounds they experience at the threshold moment.
If you”re interested in participating in original lucid dream research and testing your conscious dreaming mettle, click here for Simanonok’s website.
Sleep On It — You’ve got Nothing to Lose
February 13, 2009 by Ryan Hurd
Filed under Sleep Research
I was in college when I learned that if I crammed for a test and then got a couple hours sleep, that crammed info would still be in my head the next morning. It was a great discovery — I have always been a fan of getting my sleep.
Now a group of neuroscientists have found the first clue to why sleep is helpful for cementing memory. The process here is “cortical plasticity,” or the rearrangement of neurons in the brain after a life experience.
Alchemy and Dreams
January 30, 2009 by Ryan Hurd
Filed under Dream & Sleep Research
Image _MG_2109b (cc) by D N
If you are interested in the topics of alchemy, transformation of consciousness and dreams, I recommend checking out educational philosopher Seth Miller’s website at Spirit Alchemy. Miller has tons of scholarly articles that expand the work of Rudolph Steiner and the ancient esoteric system of alchemy as it applies to human development.
Crawling Out of the Winter Cave
January 15, 2009 by Ryan Hurd
Filed under Dream & Sleep Research
Cave Bear image cc Quicktiming
I just crawled out of my winter cave and discovered that it’s 2009. While I get back into the groove, here’s a few scientific articles released over the last few weeks on the subject of sleep disorders that you may have missed. Read more
Can Science Learn from Religion about Dreams?
November 7, 2008 by Ryan Hurd
Filed under Dream & Sleep Research
Dream scholar Kelly Bulkeley was recently interviewed by the Boston Globe on the subject of dream studies and its implications for science and religion studies.
Bulkeley is an unique scholar who is trained in religion studies but often integrates modern neuroscientific findings and anthropological evidence to anchor his findings. Bulkeley’s interviewer is Jonah Lehrer, the author of Proust Was a Neuroscientist.
Dreaming in Black and White
October 20, 2008 by Ryan Hurd
Filed under New Dream Studies
Television - Our Filter to the Dreamworld?
Do we usually dream in black & white” Or is the color in our remembered dreams just hard to remember? This has been a perplexing question for dream scientists for half a century, with most studies not able to report a firm conclusion.
