This Is Why You Dream

People are often surprised that a brain surgeon, who spent time growing neurons in a lab, would have an opinion on lucid dreaming. Initially, I too thought the concept might be fringe or 'woo-woo'—more metaphysical than neuroscientific. However, as I delved deeper, dedicating two of the nine chapters in my book to this subject, I discovered many of my assumptions about dreams were incorrect. Indeed, some aspects of dreaming are surprisingly well-supported by science, while others remain as elusive as dreams themselves should be. Lucid dreaming has been discussed for millennia, even by Aristotle about 2000 years ago. The topic gained significant traction in the neuroscience community in the 1970s and 80s when it was first proven to be possible. How was this proven? Let me walk you through the experiment because the details are crucial. We use electrodes to detect brain activity, including the specific patterns known as sleep spindles. Initially, I was skeptical, suspecting peopl...