What is in a dream and in reality. What are hypnagogic hallucinations or daydreams. What to do with Lhermitte's syndrome

Every night, falling asleep, we find ourselves in one of the most mysterious worlds - the world of dreams. In an age of incredible scientific discoveries, we still know very little about our own dreams.

What does an unborn child dream about? How to decipher the secret meaning of dreams? Can dreams be controlled? For hundreds of years, people have dreamed of solving this riddle and understanding what happens to us every night? TV channel "Moscow Trust" prepared a special report.

What is sleep

Attempts to understand what sleep is and what happens to the body while we sleep have been made by scientists since the 19th century. For a long time it was believed that sleep is necessary for the rest of the brain.

“This point of view was abandoned very quickly after they learned to register the activity of the neurons of the cerebral cortex of animals in sleep and wakefulness. And it was shown that brain neurons during sleep not only do not rest, but, as a rule, on the contrary, begin to work much more actively than they did in wakefulness," says the chief researcher at the Institute for Information Transmission Problems named after A.A. Kharkevich RAS Ivan Pigarev.

Neurons are brain cells that form complex electrical impulses and control the activities of the entire body. During the day, they analyze the signals that we receive with the help of the senses: hearing, sight, smell, taste and touch.

But what do they do at night? This question baffled sleep researchers. We close our eyes and the image stops coming. We choose a quiet and comfortable place, and we are not disturbed by loud noises. But that's not all.

“There are special devices in the brain that additionally block the transmission of signals from the outside world to the cerebral cortex. The cerebral cortex is completely devoid of signals from the outside world. And at the same time, brain neurons continue to work, continue to work actively, and, in general, not at all no less than they did in the waking state," says Ivan Pigarev.

To date, there are several theories that explain what our brain does during sleep. According to one of them, he analyzes the information received over the past day. This is what explains the emergence of certain images that are formed in dreams.

"Dreams are some kind of free analysis of what happened to us during the day. Moreover, this is not an actual presentation of information, but, as a rule, a kind of subconscious analysis of images. Moreover, such free associations arise. That is, we can fly in a dream - and this is us doesn't bother at all.

“Yes, we can move in space, we don’t have an internal feeling that this is impossible. That is, everything is possible there, right?” Roman Buzunov, head of the sleep medicine department at the Barvikha sanatorium, says, “And the brain, perhaps, looks at the information in different ways and thinks what to do with it: analyze, forget, save. This is, you know, translated into modern language, a kind of hard drive cleaning. That is, "deposition" in long-term memory, erasing random access memory. In the morning, the brain again ready to receive information"

In addition to this theory, there is another, developed by Russian scientists quite recently and confirmed, unlike all the others, by a number of successful experiments. According to her, brain neurons that analyze information from the outside world during the day switch to checking the state of our internal organs at night.

Honore Daumier. "Second Class Car"

“They chose neurons that, when alert, were classic visual neurons that respond to visual stimulation. And when the cat fell asleep, we stimulated the intestines, and found that these same neurons that just 10 minutes ago responded to vision, visual inputs, they began to respond to stimulation of the intestines, stomach, or they began to work in the rhythm of breathing or in the rhythm of the heart, "says Pigarev.

But if sleep is an analysis of the performance of the internal organs of the body, then what are dreams and how do they arise?

So we start falling asleep. Consciousness is inactive. Interference from the outside world is blocked. The brain analyzes the signals that the internal organs send to it. Let's imagine that one of these signals was especially powerful, and he managed to slip through the barriers that our brain has set up and get into the area that is responsible for perception, emotions, sensations and conscious actions during the day.

After all, it is this part of our on-board computer that is practically inactive at night. And only a signal that accidentally breaks through the blocks of the brain can wake her up.

"The block that is the switch that stands in the way of consciousness is a chemical switch. This is not a toggle switch that turned off and on. These are chemical synapses that do not make a complete shutdown. They change the threshold. But if the signal is very strong, it can slip through above this threshold. And now very strong signals jump over these thresholds and fly into the area of our consciousness. They flew in somewhere and excited a certain neuron there. And this neuron, if excited, it can only be associated with those objects, those symbols , those concepts with which we operate in cheerfulness. Therefore, dreams are always an unprecedented combination of experienced things, "says Ivan Pigarev.

Pattern or coincidence?

Scientists believe that the signals that manage to overcome all obstacles and get into the area of our consciousness activate the most excited neurons, that is, those that were among the last to work. That is why most often we dream of the events of the past day, the problems that bothered us before going to bed, or the people we thought about the day before.

And yet: why do we have specific dreams with certain plots. How, among all the information that we receive during the day, the brain absorbs exactly the one that it sends to us in dreams? These questions are still open.

“As for the physiology of dreams, it is still quite a dark, if I may say so, side of the planet. Unfortunately, we cannot record a dream. Here, take a VCR, a disk, a USB flash drive, record a dream and play it back as a video. That is, we cannot we can touch it, we cannot scientifically evaluate it.

And in fact, everything that a person simply tells us, we must take his word for it. Do you know how many storytellers we have who say that they have prophetic dreams there and so on?”, says Roman Buzunov.

And at the same time, it was prophetic dreams, according to history, that more than once changed the course of events. Thus, Marshal of Napoleon, Viceroy of Italy, Prince Eugene of Beauharnais, in 1812, with French troops, came close to Moscow, camped near a monastery.

That night he dreamed of an old man with a gray beard, in long black clothes, and said that if the prince saved the monastery and the church from being plundered by soldiers, no misfortune could overcome him and he would return home safe and sound.

Vincent Van Gogh. "Noon, or Siesta, an imitation of Millet"

The next morning, the marshal summoned an army and forbade them to enter the monastery. He himself went to inspect the local church. What was his surprise when, entering the temple, he saw the tomb and the image of that very old man. It turned out to be Saint Sava, the founder of the monastery.

The prince participated in all the battles of the Napoleonic Wars, but was not even wounded in any of them. And as the elder predicted, he returned to his homeland alive. Even after the fall of Napoleon, all hardships bypassed him, although other marshals of Bonaparte's army died.

It is difficult for scientists to give a scientific explanation for such dreams, but it was the inexplicable facts that at one time forced them to study this mysterious phenomenon in detail.

When do we start dreaming? Studies have shown: even before birth. It turns out that most of the time in the womb, the fetus sleeps. But what information can an unborn person analyze?

“As soon as the brain has formed in the mother’s womb, the fetus begins to see. At least there are brain changes that are characteristic of the fact that the child sees a dream. Is that what he sees there? reproduce information, he watches the same cartoons and learns.Why is it sometimes said that people remember something such that they almost certainly could not face it in their lives.Here may be the information that he saw in the form of cartoons pops up there, in the mother's womb. But this, of course, such a reasoning is not very proven. We cannot ask a born child: "Well, what did you dream about?", Roman Buzunov argues.

Most scientists believe that absolutely everyone sees dreams. Just not everyone remembers them. It depends, first of all, on what phase of sleep a person wakes up. Sleep is divided into two phases: fast and slow.

"And this phase of sleep with rapid eye movement, or REM sleep, as we call it in Russian, which occurs at the end of each sleep cycle (and we sleep in cycles, each cycle takes 1.5 hours), every 1.5 hours ends with a period of REM sleep, and these periods increase from evening to morning. That is, the most powerful periods of REM sleep, when the most intense dreams are dreamed, they occur in the morning, "says the chief researcher at the Institute of Ecology and Ecolution named after A.N. Severtsov RAS Vladimir Kovalzon.

Why are dreams necessary?

REM sleep alternates with slow sleep. On average, this alternation is repeated four to six times per night. This means that every night we have an average of five dreams. If we are awakened during REM sleep, then the dream will be remembered. If you wake up during non-REM sleep, you will most likely be sure that you did not dream anything.

For a long time, scientists adhered to this theory. Indeed, in the phase of REM sleep, the eyeballs make different movements, as if the sleeper is following some kind of scene. This led the researchers to the idea that it is at this moment that we dream, and we follow what is happening in the same way as we would do it in reality. But this theory was shattered by new facts that scientists discovered after a series of experiments.

"We conducted special experiments and recorded eye movements, carefully, with high resolution, in cats, in monkeys during REM sleep, these movements. And it immediately became clear that eye movements during REM sleep have nothing to do with those eye movements that these animals use in wakefulness to view the visual scene.First of all, the movements of the right and left eyes in REM sleep are not synchronized.We have the right eye can go up, the left can go down, the right can jump, and the left can crawl.And, in general , these are absolutely two independent objects that can walk in different directions at different speeds. That is, it is quite clear that it is impossible to imagine such a visual scene that anyone viewed with the help of such eye movements, "says Ivan Pigarev.

According to another version of the dream, we are visited only twice during sleep: when we fall asleep and when we wake up.

Pierre Cecile Puvis de Chavannes. "Dream"

If we all have dreams every night, then the question arises: why are they needed? Do they carry any important information? Can they be decrypted? And if so, how?

"Even the smallest dream carries very important information for a person. Dreams are those signals that inform us about what is happening to us now: with our body, with our emotional life and in general, what is happening in our life" , - Professor of the Department of Nervous Diseases of the First Moscow State Medical University named after I.M. Sechenova Elena Korabelnikova.

It turns out that dreams are not just an inexplicable illusory world into which we plunge every night. For example, in dreams, the body warns of impending diseases, when it is still impossible to diagnose them. For the first time, large-scale studies on this topic were carried out by the Soviet psychoneurologist Vasily Nikolaevich Kasatkin. The scientist devoted 30 years to collecting dreams and deriving patterns.

He abandoned mystical symbols, replacing them with scientifically based facts. It turns out that our body can signal an impending disease long before its first symptoms appear. And he sends these signals through dreams.

"There are specific signs that can manifest themselves in dreams with a particular pathology, with a particular disease. And further research, in fact, confirmed this. The fact that, for example, in diseases of the cardiovascular system, there are markers that will make to suspect that a person is not all right with the heart. If this is a disease of the respiratory system, then these are their own markers, "says Elena Korabelnikova.

According to research, very often people with digestive problems dream that they eat spoiled foods. In diseases of the respiratory system - a scene of suffocation.

"But this does not mean that dreams are a diagnostic panacea, that a diagnosis can be made from dreams. This is absolutely not the case. Dreams are one of the methods, this is an aid that, together with other research methods, will allow us to look at the problem more fully, more broadly ", - says Elena Korabelnikova.

But sometimes the analysis of the patient's dreams becomes a really significant part of medical observation and treatment.

“As studies of cancer patients have shown, dreams show improvement and deterioration when the devices are not showing yet. And this means that it is necessary to prescribe the same chemotherapy in time or cancel it in time so that there is no overdose,” says Maria Volkova, PhD in Philosophy.

Message from above

But what about the so-called prophetic dreams? How to explain creative dreams when inspiration or a sudden solution to the most difficult problems visit at night? They have absolutely nothing to do with disease. History knows hundreds of cases when the greatest discoveries took place in a dream.

So, dreams are given to us not only to report impending ailments? Scientists do not deny the existence of prophetic dreams, although they are also in no hurry to consider them from a scientific point of view. Psychologists divide prophetic dreams into several categories.

“It sometimes happens that in dreams a person very correctly, very competently builds forecasts for future events. A person is able to analyze, compare facts. In general, sleep is an active work of our psyche,” says Elena Korabelnikova.

Playing out controversial situations of concern to a person is another supposed function of dreams. The brain tries to calculate all the scenarios for the development of events in order to be ready for any of them in reality. But we don't remember the whole dream.

Most of the time, we remember only short segments of it. And it happens that in reality the situation unfolds in exactly the same way as in the very segment of the dream that we remember - then the feeling of a prophetic dream arises.

"Another category, another example: a person is so impressed by his dream that, quite unconsciously, he begins to build the scenario of his life so that his dream comes true. For example: a person sees his friend in a dream, whom he has not seen for many years. And he Why did he dream about this friend? And he quite unconsciously begins to visit, go to those places where he and his friend communicated, where he lives, perhaps lived before or lives now, and thus increasing the likelihood that the meeting will happen in reality , and it really happens," says Korabelnikova.

Nikifor Krylov. "Sleeping Boy"

Another interesting fact: according to statistics, pleasant dreams come true much less often. Most likely, this is due to the fact that in a dream a person, in principle, experiences mainly negatively “charged” situations.

It has been established that the probability of seeing a prophetic dream is about 1 in 22 thousand. This means that in 60 years you will definitely see at least one dream that will come true. And yet, prophetic dreams, apparently, will forever remain outside of official science. At least until scientists manage to create an apparatus that can read our dreams.

Together with the prophetic dreams of each of us, "under the knife" of scientists is the famous story about the periodic table seen in a dream and the discovery of the Kekule benzene formula.

"As far as I know, there is not a single documentary evidence that Mendeleev had this dream. No one knows where it came from, but the myth lives on," says Ivan Pigarev.

And yet, researchers cannot completely deny the presence of prophetic dreams in our lives. For example, the artist Konstantin Korovin dreamed of the death of singer Fyodor Chaliapin. In it, Chaliapin appeared to him and persistently asked for help to remove the heavy stone that was pressing on her chest.

Korovin tried to help him, but in vain. The stone seemed to be firmly rooted to the maestro's chest. And two weeks later the great bass died in Paris. Korovin himself survived only a year of the great singer and his prophetic dream.

Famous historical characters used the power of sleep not only for prophetic purposes. Salvador Dali, for example, depicted the plots of his dreams on his canvases. To remember his phantasmagoric dreams, he used a special technique.

“He has such a wonderful dream with a key in his hand. You can follow his advice. That is, after a hearty dinner in the summer, when you are exhausted, sit on an uncomfortable chair, put some kind of metal container (bucket or basin), take some kind of metal object in your hand and hold it. You start to fall asleep, you become soft, you have a dream, you drop it. You wake up - there is a picture. But this, of course, is such a playful approach, but, nevertheless, it works, "says Maria Volkova.

Nightmares

Another subject of close attention of scientists are nightmares. The researchers came to an unexpected conclusion: scary dreams are beneficial.

"Very interesting, for example, there are facts that confirm that people who have nightmares are better adapted to life than those who do not have nightmares. And why? Because this is a kind of multimedia playback of situations, assessment, search for a way out, solutions And if a person, God forbid, then encounters this situation or he survived it, for example, then he finds some way out, he finds a solution for himself. decisions, obsessive dreams begin. These are, as a rule, such post-traumatic dreams, "says Roman Buzunov.

All scientists agree on one thing: the images that we see in dreams carry some information. And their analysis can greatly facilitate the solution of many life problems. One of the first to raise this topic was Sigmund Freud.

The psychoanalyst's job was to reveal to his patients the true meaning of their dreams. In his opinion, the vast majority of dreams are desires repressed from consciousness, which, of course, have a sexual connotation.

His student Carl Gustav Jung considered sexual cues to be much less important. In his opinion, dreams help to reveal the features of our personality, which in reality can be hidden. Dream researchers today are not inclined to stick to any one of the classical concepts. But almost everyone agrees that dreams signal us about something important.

Henry Fuseli. "Nightmare"

"Dreams, the analysis of dreams is rather closer to psychoanalysis. This is an absolutely wonderful thing. You can use it. You need to use it. Neurologists who use it for medical purposes use it with success. They do not analyze dreams as dreams, they use this dream in order to to get information about the problems of the psyche of a person," says Ivan Pigarev.

But not everything is so simple. The images that we see in a dream can only be deciphered by ourselves. For one person, joy will be associated with one image, for another - with a completely different one. And no specialist, not knowing the person, will ever be able to correctly interpret the dream.

“If a person associates something with danger: some kind of situation, some events, and so on, then the next time the subconscious sense of danger will manifest itself in this image. Or maybe on the beach, some kind of the bandits attacked, and he sunbathed in the sun, and took away his wallet, the next time the danger will be associated with the fact that he is lying, sunbathing on the beach," says Roman Burzunov.

People have been analyzing their dreams since time immemorial. The most ancient spiritual practices and religions refer to sleep as a way of self-knowledge and healing. Many tribes that have preserved the traditions of their ancestors still use dreams to solve their problems today.

“There is such a Senoi tribe in Malaysia. In the middle of the 20th century, anthropologists and psychologists became very interested in this tribe. Why? Because there are no mental illnesses in this tribe. Well, they still don’t exist. They began to study why this happens. that the Senoi have such a special habit: predicting their dreams.They, not that they guess what they will dream, but their very life, their very position in life...the Senoi do not distinguish reality from dreams.There is no direct clear-cut boundary between these two states. Mornings in the Senoi tribe begin with the fact that all members of the family get together and begin to discuss their dream," says writer and dream researcher Olard Dixon.

The senior representative of the tribe explains to the younger ones what the dream could symbolize, what should be paid attention to and what to do next time in a similar situation.

"And in this way a dream is formed, programmed, that you can meet your friend inside a dream, you can meet a predator inside a dream and defeat him in order to overcome your fear. And a lot of things can be solved inside dreams. And this is how programming arises " says Olard Dixon.

Sleep management

It would seem that the idea of programming dreams, and even more so of managing them, is from the realm of fantasy. Meanwhile, lucid dreams, or as they are also called lucid dreams, are actively practiced by both doctors and those who just want to experience absolutely incredible sensations when they wake up in their own sleep.

"The practice of lucid dreaming really exists. This is a separate direction. A very interesting direction. Until now, lucid or lucid dreams remain a mystery, despite the fact that some ideas, possible explanations are offered. Still, a lot is not clear to us. And therefore, this special area of work of our psyche must be approached with great caution, since, for example, there are cases when attempts to practice with lucid dreams exacerbated mental pathology, psychoses, and so on, "says Elena Korabelnikova.

The term "lucid dreaming" was introduced at the beginning of the 20th century by the Dutch psychiatrist and writer Frederick Van Eeden. In 1913, he presented a report to the Society for Psychical Research in which he reported on his 312 lucid dreams: from 1989 to 1912.

Later, in the second half of the 20th century, Carlos Castaneda and psychophysiologist Stephen LaBerge wrote about them. To date, scientists cannot distinguish between a patient's lucid dreams and ordinary dreams. At the same time, science cannot ignore the very clear and detailed reports of this state of experienced dreamers, among whom there are scientists themselves.

"Unfortunately, there are no objective methods of control, so that we connect some sensors and say that this is just a dream, and this is a lucid dream. Alas, we cannot do this. Yes, but this is what people say, and even experienced from their own experience "This is a very well-known technique. Another thing is that again there may be fairy tales, there may be Munchausen and so on and so forth, who like to tell what is not really there," says Roman Burzunov.

Pieter Brueghel the Elder. "Land of lazy people"

What is a lucid dream and how to recognize it? Practitioners say that being in a state of lucid dreaming, a person feels exactly the same as in reality, and only a few details can indicate that he is dreaming.

"Lucid dreams are not predictable dreams. This is an even higher step. This is when a person knows for sure that he is sleeping, that everything that happens to him is a dream and is already acting according to this knowledge. This is an even bigger step, it is even more interesting, when dreams actually cease to be a dream as such, but are already perceived by a person simply as a reality, so dense that you can do anything in it just like in reality, ”says Olard Dixon.

So how do you recognize a dream? What is the difference between dream reality and waking reality? How to realize that you have woken up inside your own dream? There are many practices: shamanistic, practices of Tibetan yogis, practices developed already in Western society at the end of the 20th century by the same Laberge. But in general, they all come down to the same markers.

"Inside a dream, the clock does not work correctly. Inside a dream, musical instruments cannot be tuned. Inside a dream, no mechanics work. Well, this is how we remember our childhood nightmare: a robber comes and we want to close the door, but it does not close. Why? Because there is no lock inside the dream door. There is just the appearance of a lock, but the lock itself is not there. Therefore, it cannot be closed, "explains Dixon.

Masters of lucid dreams claim that if clear rules are followed in the state of sleep, then the dreamer will always receive a clear result of his actions. For example, if you turn left all the time inside the dream and go around all the obstacles on the left side, it will start to rain or an image of a swampy area, streams, lakes will appear.

If, on the contrary, all the time turn to the right, then the person awakens. The further the dreamer goes to the right side, the closer he is to awakening. Experienced dreamers not only keep a dream diary (and this, I must say, is a prerequisite for training awareness and reading the signals of their dreams), but also make their own maps.

“If we say: “We dreamed of a grocery store that is located across the street from our house, a dream house,” then if we wrote it down (our dream), if we sketched it, where is this store located, in the next dream, when we will get to the same street, we will see this store in the same place, why?

Because we stabilized it. Because we described it, we fixed it. We mapped a certain region of space, and it became stable. Stable not only for us, but also stable for others who get on this street," says Olard Dixon.

Experts are convinced that absolutely everyone, without exception, is capable of seeing lucid dreams. You just need to follow simple rules, train your attention, and be aware of the laws by which the world of dreams exists. Practitioners of lucid dreams call this process "reality testing."

"Before turning on the light here, in reality, when we go into our apartment, we touch the switch itself and realize that we turn it on at all. Just mechanically once - and it turns on. And we realize that we turn it on.

Literally a second of awareness. And then we press the key and see if the light turns on or does not turn on. Turned on - very good, so this is reality, because in reality it most often turns on. But if it does not turn on, we ask ourselves: "Is this a dream?" and we test reality in the second subject, for example, we look at the clock and see how much the time shows," says Olard Dixon.

The technique of lucid dreaming is used not only in spiritual practices in order to know oneself. It is quite actively used by psychotherapists to treat phobias and addictions. Doctors are sure that dreams can help solve a number of psychological problems, because in a dream we are not afraid of failures and failures.

Here we can play any situation that worries us and consider it from all possible sides. Some psychotherapists go beyond the conventional ways of using lucid dreams and use a similar technique to train athletic skills.

"The German psychotherapist Paul Toley - he specifically went to work in the German sports team, where the highest level of injuries. This is ski jumping, even when they do somersaults. He taught athletes lucid dreams so that they practice tricks in their sleep. The quality has improved , injuries fell sharply," says Maria Volkova.

From dreams to reality

But no matter how attractive the idea of conscious existence in the world of dreams is, scientists-masters of spiritual practices say: for an unprepared person, lucid dream is fraught with as many dangers as miracles.

"It was never clear to me why this was, but it was completely clear that after some time of using this practice of lucid dreaming, patients with a guarantee would develop, first of all, gastrointestinal problems, stomach ulcers and all the other delights of gastrointestinal intestinal.

Then the next one is cardiovascular disorders, because this system is the most complex and most affected by sleep deprivation. Well, God forbid that some woman starts doing this nonsense, because if then she suddenly becomes pregnant, then the likelihood that she will give birth to a freak is very high, ”says Ivan Pigarev.

In addition, experts say that lucid dreams can cause psychological dependence. In some cases, they lead to a complete separation from reality. It becomes much more interesting for a person to exist in the world of dreams than in our everyday life.

"It's another matter that LaBerge advertises it as a kind of tool for healthy people. It's such a kind of drug addiction without drugs. You can get hooked on it. And it's very dangerous, because, again, I'm not a doctor, but in consultation with neurologists and psychiatrists they all say out loud that there are a lot of people with schizoid inclinations (they are healthy people, just such a personality type) - for them this can lead to irreversible mental disorders, that is, to put it simply, "the roof will go down - it will not return," - says Vladimir Kovalzon.

Antonio Pereda. "Dream of the Knight"

“And I had to consult several times with such patients who actually live only in a dream. This is practically like drug addicts. He is not interested in the day. superhero: Superman, Spider-Man or something like that. And it is absolutely clear, clear, how these sensations are perceived in life," says Roman Burzunov.

In different cultures, such practices at all times were allowed only to people who were prepared, who had studied all sorts of ways to work with their consciousness and subconscious, who were well acquainted with the state of deep meditation.

"Now in the Western world and in Russia, we most often study dreams without any yogas, without any practices. A person simply comes inside awareness with what he is. Because awareness itself does not make him either better or worse. It allows (the awareness within the dream) to be realized. And a person with negative thoughts begins to realize these negative thoughts. Here the law does not allow him to do this. There he has free hands.

For our brain it doesn't matter where we do it: inside the dream we are doing destruction or here. Why? Because the most serious pathological changes are taking place in the brain of this person, because the person has already allowed himself to do this. He had already allowed himself to be killed. Inside the dream, if he allowed himself to be killed, then this is already a skill, "says Olard Dixon.

While the idea of lucid dreaming is still a fantasy for many, businessmen and scientists are putting dreams on stream. For several years now, devices have been on sale that allow, if not to master lucid dreams, then certainly to order the dream that a person wants to see.

“Now such studies on dream induction are underway. They are based mainly on some, say, the formation of conditioned reflexes. , some sound or light, or smell. And accordingly, a certain conditioned reflex arises that connects this sound, color or smell with what you want you to dream about. And then the device during a dream (and it can, in principle, be tracked according to a certain motor activity there, and so on) to give these signals to a person. And they work like a kind of trigger that causes what you thought about. Although this is also not a 100% result. It is also like a kind of training, "explains Roman Burzunov.

Scientists do not stop at the possibility of programming the brain for given dreams. Incredible research is already underway. Scientists are trying to develop a program that can read the images that our brain receives. The first successful results have already been obtained in California.

Neuroscientists were able to recreate the visual images that arose in the head while watching randomly selected videos. This means that the day is not far off when we will be able to record our dreams, as if on film, and watch them during the day and analyze the information that our body sends us.

Any hallucinations associated with sleep are parasomnias. Parasomnias are unwanted events that occur during sleep. In addition to hallucinations, these include teeth grinding, sleepwalking, sleep-talking, etc. Hallucinations in a dream are imaginary, but very realistic events. For the most part, they are visual, but there are also sound (even musical), gustatory, olfactory, tactile, and even associated with the sensation of movement. Hallucinations can be confused with both dreams and reality.

Hypnagogic hallucinations or daydreams

Hypnagogic hallucinations are visual illusions that usually occur in the evening before falling asleep, when the eyes are already closed. Often this period is called drowsiness and is located between wakefulness and sleep. Therefore, they are closer to the type of pseudo-hallucinations than to true hallucinations, since they do not show a connection with the real situation. The phenomenon is also characteristic of healthy people. This condition appears infrequently, lasts from several seconds to several minutes. This condition may also occur with sleep deprivation. How long does it take for a person to stay awake to have hallucinations? Sometimes they begin to appear on the second or third day without sleep.

Otherwise, this type of hallucination is called Lhermitte's syndrome. In common parlance, you can also find such a definition as a dream in reality. There is no clear definition of the concept of waking sleep, and often outsiders understand it as completely different phenomena: hallucinations that occur during sleep paralysis, and hypnagogic hallucinations before falling asleep or after waking up, as well as lucid dreams and even dreams. However, it is more correct to use the concept of waking sleep precisely in relation to hypnogagic hallucinations. This type of hallucination was first described in 1922 by the French neurologist J. J. Lermitte.

The phenomenon can be observed in both children and adults. Some adults see them throughout their lives from time to time. Sleep researchers believe that everyone has experienced hallucinations at least once in their lives before falling asleep. During the period of remission, visions may not be for several months, and sometimes even years. Visions are bright, so often a person who has experienced this condition can remember this all his life.

visual hallucinations

Hypnogagic hallucinations can be multiple, single, scene-like, sometimes kaleidoscopic. Visual images (most often, these are moving people and animals reduced in size) are distinguished by mobility, kaleidoscopicity, quickly change their shape, size, location in space. Those suffering from hallucinations act as contemplatives who have no sense of fear. A person retains a critical attitude towards visible images. A person can simultaneously perceive the real world along with dreamlike experiences mixed with it (for example, visual images echo with real voices or noises breaking into a dream).

In ordinary dreams, the person himself is a participant in the ongoing events, while this is not typical for hypnagogic hallucinations. It is as if a person is watching a movie that his brain is showing him. A person does not tense up, while calmly reacting to what is happening. This is an uncharacteristic state of sleep. In addition to all this, a person is interested in what he sees. The observed pictures with such visions are quite definite, detailed, there is no blurring in them.

Simultaneously or separately with visual hallucinations, auditory hallucinations can also occur when falling asleep. A person can hear voices before going to sleep, pronouncing separate words or connected, filled with semantic content, phrases, individual tones, short musical passages. Phrases are heard clearly and loudly.

Hypnagogic hallucinations in healthy people are physiological, functional. Such nocturnal voices in the head arise against the background of an existing external stimulus and are perceived along with it, without merging, as happens with illusions. For example, in the sound of a ticking clock, the sound of rain, the patient can hear the voices of people. Dominant hallucinations show the presence of a mental trauma that caused the parosomnia. For example, a person who has lost a loved one hears his voice.

If auditory hallucinations begin to communicate with the sleeping person, talk to him, demand an answer - this may be a symptom of a serious illness and you need to see a doctor. Hypnagogic hallucinations can appear in acute intoxication and infectious psychoses, as well as in schizophrenia in a state of exacerbation. In this case, dark, frightening figures or their individual fragments are often seen: eyes or heads, for example.

Less commonly, but also occurs such hallucinations during awakening. If hallucinations occur during going to sleep, they are called hypnagogic, if during awakening - hypnopompic. However, in the specialized literature, the term common to both conditions is usually used - hypnagogic hallucinations.

Who has hypnagogic hallucinations

Hallucinations before falling asleep are quite common. More often they occur during puberty and in young people. For most, the frequency of episodes decreases with age. However, in the elderly, hypnagogic hallucinations may appear along with other manifestations of insomnia. Hallucinations at night are common in patients with narcolepsy. The following factors are the most common cause of their occurrence:

taking narcotic and toxic drugs;
alcohol intake;
anxiety and stress;
insomnia;
emotional disorders.

The syndrome occurs as a result of irritation of the reticular formation of the midbrain. Sometimes short hallucinations at night can occur in patients with epilepsy. Often there are hallucinations from lack of sleep. Sometimes migraine attacks can be the cause of Lhermitte's syndrome. Also, hypnagogic hallucinations are observed with local lesions of the brain stem in the region of the third ventricle and legs of the brain as a result of a hemorrhage, tumor, and with upper basilar syndrome. Also, the pathology may have an inflammatory-intoxication etiology.

Hypnagogic hallucinations in children

Particular attention should be paid if you see that your child has hallucinations before bedtime. This can be evidenced by his story that yesterday before going to bed he saw an aunt who said something or a dog came. The child's psyche is still very immature, so it can produce such pictures if the child is emotionally overwhelmed after an active day. This is usually evidence of stress or emotional overstrain. For example, such hallucinations or waking dreams are known, when, having survived the death and funeral of a grandfather or grandmother, a child sees them before going to bed.

Since hypnagogic hallucinations can frighten a child, it is necessary to protect the child's psyche from the influence of stress and emotional overstrain. Otherwise, sleep pathologies can lead to insomnia, bedwetting, to the fact that the child will ask his parents to bed at night.

What to do with Lhermitte's syndrome

If hypnagogic hallucinations do not bring any inconvenience and rarely occur, then you can simply forget about them. If they cause increased anxiety, interrupt sleep, after which daytime sleepiness is observed, then you should consult a doctor to establish a regimen and get recommendations for restoring healthy sleep.

What you can do yourself to restore sleep and rest:

go to bed at the same time;
avoid strong emotional impressions before going to bed;
do not abuse alcohol and smoking, exclude drugs;
before going to bed take a walk in the fresh air;
do not overload the stomach before going to bed;
properly arrange a sleeping place: ventilate the room before going to bed, remove all light irritants, buy a comfortable mattress and an orthopedic pillow.

What is a daydream

The phenomenon of waking sleep is well described by Jack London in the novel Straitjacket. Death row agronomy professor Darrell Standing is subjected to regular straitjacket torture, with which he eventually learns to travel through time and the world in a transformation between sleep and reality.

There are many practitioners who try to practice this state. A waking dream is the line between reality and sleep, when the body seems to be already sleeping, and the brain still gives all the signals characteristic of wakefulness. The state in a dream and in reality differs in that in a dream the brain is already completely asleep. How to induce a waking dream?

So that after waking up your head does not hurt, you need to master some safety rules:

do not set an alarm with a sharp sound;
it is better to let soft, slowly increasing volume music or a friend wake you up with a light touch;
for the first time, try to immerse yourself in a waking dream for 2 minutes and then gradually increase the waking sleep time to half an hour;
try not to interfere with anything at this time.

How to induce a waking dream

Turn on a night light so you don't get confused when you wake up.
Take a lying position on the floor. You can lay foam or a blanket. It is necessary to lie on your back, stretch your arms, close your eyes.
Breathe exactly 3 seconds per inhale and exhale. Slowly increase the length of your inhale/exhale until you feel dizzy and see black dots in front of your eyes.
Try not to think about anything, imagine a peaceful landscape, the chirping of birds, the sound of a waterfall.
Do not move under any circumstances. At some point, you will feel immersed in a state between sleep and reality.
Now open your eyes. From now on, let your observer friend start counting the time.
Now you will find yourself in the unreal space of your subconscious, your mind will wander in the labyrinths of the subconscious.
After waking up, you do not need to immediately get up abruptly. Adjust a bit to reality.

This is a very interesting and unusual experiment.

You take a mirror belonging to another person - the birth of a noble offspring.

A noble noble person is hiding - to recovery.

A noble man leaves on a horse - clarity in official business.

A sick person is laid on a wagon - portends death.

A sick person climbs a wagon - portends great misfortune.

A sick person gets up - portends death.

A sick person either cries or laughs - portends recovery.

A sick person riding in a boat portends death.

A sick person singing songs portends great misfortune.

Seeing another person in the mirror is a misfortune with a wife or lover.

To see how a person is killed is a great happiness.

Seeing another person or yourself dead is fortunate.

To see a person who reads a book - a noble offspring will be born.

Seeing a noble person come - misfortune will pass you by.

You return money to a person - getting rid of the disease.

Talking with a bad person, a villain - there will be a quarrel.

Giving a knife to a person is a misfortune.

You give a person some clothes - official business will arise, there will be illness, illness, grief.

You give a person a longitudinal flute - portends fame, glory.

Holding a sword or knife in your hands, injecting another person is a loss.

Another person gives a brush - portends the promotion of talent.

Another person holds your mirror in his hands - portends misfortune with his wife.

Another person plays musical instruments - you will be recognized as right in litigation, litigation.

Another person supports a bedridden patient - a promotion.

Another person shoots at you - the arrival of a traveler.

The smell of rot, falling from a burning person - portends happiness.

A snake or dragon kills a person - portends a great misfortune.

A snake bites a person - portends the acquisition of great wealth.

The snake follows the man - speaks of the betrayal of his wife.

A noble person distributes clothes and hats to people - fortunately.

A rat bites a person by the clothes - you will achieve what you were striving for.

They bite a person - portends a loss.

Eat honey with a person - portends happiness and benefits.

A dead person eats - portends a disease.

Repeatedly stabbing a person with a knife is a joy and benefit.

Giving an umbrella to a person is parting with this person.

To move to a new house belonging to another person is fortunately.

You buy a house from a person in a rural area - moving due to a change in duty station.

To receive paper money from a person is a great happiness.

To receive a knife from a person - there will soon be an appointment.

To entrust a person to do your business is a great misfortune.

Invite a person to enter a government institution - drink and food.

You accept simple clothes made of hemp fabric from another person - unfortunately.

A noble person comes - misfortune will pass you by.

To cut with swords with a man - portends great luck, profit.

To swear with a person is fortunately.

You yourself shoot at a person - portends a long trip.

Sorrow and tears about a person from afar portend misfortune.

A man who is learning to write is dreaming - great wealth, nobility.

Killing another person - portends wealth and nobility.

A person tells you about death - portends longevity.

A person says things that are very pleasant for you - misfortune, grief is approaching.

The person gives you a big bucket - benefit.

A person gives a broom, a broom - portends a place in the service.

A man gives you a comb or comb - you get a wife or a concubine.

A man gives three swords - you will become the head of the district, the governor.

A person gives a bow or crossbow - help from the outside.

A man calls you from the street - portends misfortune.

A person pricks himself with a bamboo stick - happiness, prosperity, good luck.

A man catches fish - indicates good luck.

A person cries, baring his teeth - there will be rivalry, litigation.

A person invites you to drink wine - longevity.

A man with a severed head comes to meet you - to great happiness.

A person puts you in a very awkward position, you experience humiliation - you will gain wealth.

A person kicks you - the acquisition of wealth

A stranger beats you - gaining strength.

A person humiliates you - wealth.

A person who reads a book - a noble offspring will be born.

Human speech comes from the well - there will be joyful events.

Interpretation of dreams from the Chinese dream book

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visual hallucinations

Auditory

Less commonly, but also occurs such hallucinations during awakening. If hallucinations occur during going to sleep, they are called hypnagogic, if during awakening - hypnopompic. However, in the specialized literature, a common term for both conditions is usually used - hypnagogic hallucinations.

Who has hypnagogic hallucinations

taking narcotic and toxic drugs;
alcohol intake;
anxiety and stress;
insomnia;
emotional disorders.

Hypnagogic hallucinations in children

What to do with Lhermitte's syndrome

What you can do yourself to restore sleep and rest:

go to bed at the same time;
avoid strong emotional impressions before going to bed;
do not abuse alcohol and smoking, exclude drugs;
before going to bed take a walk in the fresh air;
do not overload the stomach before going to bed;
properly arrange a sleeping place: ventilate the room before going to bed, remove all light irritants, buy a comfortable mattress and an orthopedic pillow.

What is a daydream

So that after waking up your head does not hurt, you need to master some safety rules:

do not set an alarm with a sharp sound;
it is better to let soft, slowly increasing volume music or a friend wake you up with a light touch;
for the first time, try to immerse yourself in a waking dream for 2 minutes and then gradually increase the waking sleep time to half an hour;
try not to interfere with anything at this time.

How to induce a waking dream

Turn on a night light so you don't get confused when you wake up.
Take a lying position on the floor. You can lay foam or a blanket. It is necessary to lie on your back, stretch your arms, close your eyes.
Breathe exactly 3 seconds per inhale and exhale. Slowly increase the length of your inhale/exhale until you feel dizzy and see black dots in front of your eyes.
Try not to think about anything, imagine a peaceful landscape, the chirping of birds, the sound of a waterfall.
Do not move under any circumstances. At some point, you will feel immersed in a state between sleep and reality.
Now open your eyes. From now on, let your observer friend start counting the time.
Now you will find yourself in the unreal space of your subconscious, your mind will wander in the labyrinths of the subconscious.
After waking up, you do not need to immediately get up abruptly. Adjust a bit to reality.

This is a very interesting and unusual experiment.

List of used literature:

Vinnik DV The ontological status of hallucinations in the concept of indirect realism // Philosophy of Science. - Novosibirsk: Institute of Philosophy and Law of the Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences, 2008. - No. 1
Esquirol J.-E. D. On hallucinations in the mentally ill. - Paris, 1817
Goghari VM, Harrow M, Grossman LS, Rosen C (June 2013). “A 20-year multi-follow-up of hallucinations in schizophrenia, other psychotic, and mood disorders.” Psychol Med. 43(6):1151-60

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Which of the people did not want to test, test the psyche for strength and try to become a Superman? This is interesting because the human brain is still not fully understood. It contains an amazing world with amazing secrets and mysteries, and no one has the opportunity to know the limit of their capabilities. Spiritual practices have gained great popularity in this matter, among which waking sleep is known. They talk a lot about it, but few know the rules and are able to test it.

What is a daydream?

This is a nice action. In it, you will see yourself in unusual places that you won’t be able to visit in ordinary life. Do crazy things, because no one will know about it. Enjoy the popularity, complete the unfinished business and see people with whom there is no way to communicate in the present tense. But this is not like trance, although people confuse these concepts.

Unlike habitual dreams that we dream of at night when we sleep, waking sleep does not occur when the brain is disconnected from reality. Therein lies the difference. In waking sleep, the eyes remain open and the body is relaxed to such an extent that the environment is unimportant to it. But at the same time, we are aware of the reality of what is happening and at the same time we see hallucinations. Thoughts at such moments are not controlled by the brain, so strange people and impossible phenomena sometimes appear in a dream.

Almost all people who have tried this phenomenon on themselves were dissatisfied with the result. They experienced, and after the end of the session, they felt tired and nervous, experienced a headache. After waking up, some fell asleep again, but now for almost a day. These people don't want to go back to dream experiences. But there are those who are interested in conducting this experiment on themselves. No one can predict in advance what you will experience during a waking dream. But that's what makes it more interesting.

Habitual dreams are considered strange and unrealistic compared to daydreams because sleeping people do not control the brain and thoughts, thereby allowing dreams to develop in any direction.

Children also have dreams that are incomprehensible to adults. For example, dreams about an invisible friend or that a child is a daughter or son in a royal family. Such children think that in fact they live with foster parents, and at that moment the real ones attend balls and run the country.

Therefore, it can be seen that our needs, needs and everything that we dream about are expressed in waking dreams. But night dreams, in addition to this, express fears and dangers. Therefore, waking dreams are sometimes called daydreams.

Safety regulations

Before inducing a waking dream, you must master the safety rules.

It will be unusual for the brain to work in this mode, and in order for it not to “break down” from a high load, you should choose the right moment to wake up.
You should not take an alarm clock: it can drive you crazy with a sharp and loud sound - this is no exaggeration!
The best option is to ask an assistant to gently wake you up by touching your arm or shoulder.
This should be done a couple of minutes after falling asleep. Don't worry, this is enough time for the first time.
After a certain number of sessions, you will gradually increase the time of the experiment, but no more than 30 minutes. If the time increases, then there will be a risk of nervous and mental exhaustion.
Arrange the session so that nothing interferes with the process. In a turbulent environment, nothing can be done. Warn family and friends about the severity of the experience. It would be even better to close yourself in a room with an assistant.
If you have a big event coming up the next day, consider skipping the experience. After the session, you will be in such a state that it will become impossible to concentrate and strain your brain.

How to induce a waking dream?

The first stage is preparatory.

The first thing to do is to take a supine position. Do not lie down on the bed, otherwise the body will think that you are getting ready for sleep and fall asleep. It is better to lie on the floor, for convenience, spread a blanket or blanket.
Lie on your back, stretch your arms along the body, close your eyes and relax.
Have an assistant turn off the bright light and turn on the lamp. You should see the space around you, but not be blinded by electric light.
You need to breathe evenly, without sharp sighs. Each inhalation and exhalation should last for three seconds. Slowly increase this interval, but do not allow the level of oxygen in the body to decrease. You will feel dizzy and see black dots running before your eyes. Don't be alarmed, it's just because of the large amount of air in your lungs.
Throw thoughts out of your head, try not to think about anything. Or at least not think about serious problems. Imagine a peaceful landscape, the sound of a waterfall or waves, the chirping of birds and mountain peaks. No matter what, but in the head should be a calm picture.
In no case do not move, even if this desire is impossible to endure. You will feel discomfort, but they will soon pass. When this happens, you will feel such a strong relaxation that there will be a feeling of lightness and airiness. It is at this moment that you will fall into a waking dream.

The second stage is sleep itself.

It's time to open your eyes. The assistant needs to turn on the stopwatch, and then begin to carefully count the time. At this time, you will realize that you are in a space that the subconscious mind has come up with.
It will be wonderful if at this moment you understand that what is happening is unreal. Sleep in reality can be controlled. You will be able to summon the desired items, determine the further development of events and do things that are impossible in reality.
But more often than not, it's the other way around. Hallucinations take control of the plot, problems and worries burst into sleep, and the mind wanders in the labyrinths of the subconscious.
If this happens, you will lie in this state for a long time and wake up. In this case, we need an assistant.
The assistant needs to wake you up a couple of minutes after the start of the experiment, but if he finds signs of anxiety in your behavior, then you should do it earlier.

The third stage is awakening

After you wake up from a dream, you do not need to get up immediately. Lie down for a bit and try to come to your senses.
For the future, it will be useful to remember the details of the visions. With this, you can understand your desires and internal problems.
If a waking dream alarmed you, it would be useful to go to a specialist to explain the meaning to you. Or try to figure it out yourself, because only you will understand your inner world.

Waking sleep is not only an interesting experiment. It is in some respects more useful than ordinary sleep. For example, the surge of energy after waking sleep is much greater than after a night's sleep. And the fact that in such a dream we can do anything without consequences in real life makes you more confident. But there is no need to replace real life, friends and loved ones with virtual dreams. You should understand the difference between these concepts.

March 31, 2014, 12:28