Dream Consciousness (Part 1)

Dream consciousness is defined by the theorist of dreaming science J. Allan Hobson, M.D. as the memory of subjective awareness during sleep. According to Dr. Hobson, its importance for cognitive science derives from two perspectives. One is the brain basis for consciousness itself and the other is the interpretation of dreams. Knowing the brain basis of consciousness reduces the so-called 'hard problem' in a significant way while the provision of an alternative to psychodynamic dream interpretation frees that subject from the controversy in which it has been immersed for more than a century. These twin advances in the science of dreaming are elaborated in Hobson's books and articles from 1977 up to the present.

The 'hard problem' is defined as the difficulty in specifying how subjective awareness could arise from brain activity. Dream consciousness occurs when the brain is activated during sleep; during REM sleep, that activation is as intense as it is in waking. At the same time, the input-output gates of the brain are actively closed and the chemical balance is shifted from aminergic to cholinergic. The result is an activated, offline, cholinergic brain which, per force rather than perchance, dreams. Waking and dreaming are thus two conscious states whose similarities and differences are now understood.

https://www.youtube.com/embed/KvYo19HCI30



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