Waking Life Research Articles

Two studies of childhood dreaming.

The technique of dream retrieval by nocturnal awakening during periods of rapid eye movement (REM) sleep was employed with preschoolers and with both normal and emotionally disturbed male adolescents. Dreams of children at both ages were generally directly related to their waking lives, but personality pathology was associated with more vivid and unrealistic dreaming.

A CONTRIBUTION TO THE NATURAL HISTORY OF THE SPOTTED‐NECKED OTTER (LUTRA MACULICOLLIS LICHTENSTEIN) IN TANGANYIKA

SummaryThe Spotted‐necked Otter (Lutra maculicollis Lichtenstein), locally common in northwestern and south‐western Tanganyika, was not listed in the country's fauna until 1951. There is no previous literature about the otter in Tanganyika, and very little about it in other parts of Africa, although it is widely distributed south of Lat. 10° N., and common in Lake Victoria, where this study was made. It is a typical otter, weighing under 20 lbs., and reaching just over three feet overall. Sexes are rarely distinguishable in the field. The amount of white coloration varies from practically none to nearly the whole underside. Eyesight is poor but scent and hearing are moderately acute. Four kinds of call were noted. It is predominantly a lake‐dweller and spends almost all its waking life in the water, being comparatively clumsy on land. Most otters seen were in parties of four to six individuals and all move about considerably, although there is no true migration. Swimming otters use mainly the hind feet and dives normally last 15 seconds. Urination and defaecation take place on land and much time is spent basking and grooming. The main food is small fish but larger fish and some molluscs and crustaceans are also eaten. Otters are diurnal and the main fishing period is soon after dawn. The breeding cycle may be as follows: July—mating; September—young born; November—young taught to swim and fish; January—family parties moving about. Main enemies are man and probably crocodiles. Otters do not appear to have an adverse effect on the fishing industry.

High Flying and Decompression Treatment of Whooping-cough

Affective experiences are central not only to our waking life but also to rapid eye movement (REM) sleep dreams. Despite our increasing understanding of the neural correlates of dreaming, we know little about the neural correlates of dream affect. Frontal alpha asymmetry (FAA) is considered a marker of affective states and traits as well as affect regulation in the waking state. Here, we explored whether FAA during REM sleep and during evening resting wakefulness is related to affective experiences in REM sleep dreams. Electroencephalography (EEG) recordings were obtained from seventeen human participants (7 men) who spent two nights in the sleep laboratory. Participants were awakened five minutes after the onset of every REM stage after which they provided a dream report and rated their dream affect. Two-minute pre-awakening EEG segments were analyzed. Additionally, eight minutes of evening pre-sleep and morning post-sleep EEG were recorded during resting wakefulness. Mean spectral power in the alpha band (8-13 Hz) and corresponding FAA were calculated over the frontal (F4-F3) sites. Results showed that FAA during REM sleep, and during evening resting wakefulness, predicted ratings of dream Anger. This suggests that individuals with greater alpha power in the right frontal hemisphere may be less able to regulate (i.e., inhibit) strong affective states, such as Anger, in dreams. Additionally, FAA was positively correlated across wakefulness and REM sleep. Together, these findings imply that FAA may serve as a neural correlate of affect regulation not only in the waking but also in the dreaming state. <b>SIGNIFICANCE STATEMENT</b> We experience emotions not only during wakefulness but also during dreaming. Despite our increasing understanding of the neural correlates of dreaming, we know little about the neural correlates of dream emotions. Here we used electroencephalography to explore how frontal alpha asymmetry (FAA)—the relative difference in alpha power between the right and left frontal cortical areas that is associated with emotional processing and emotion regulation in wakefulness—is related to dream emotions. We show that individuals with greater FAA (i.e., greater right-sided alpha power) during rapid eye movement (REM) sleep, and during evening wakefulness, experience more anger in dreams. FAA may thus reflect the ability to regulate emotions not only in the waking but also in the dreaming state.

Alterations of Personality

IN what is in ordinary parlance called somnambulism, or sleep-walking, the patient rises in the night, performs a number of seemingly intelligent actions directed to some special end, answers questions with regard to such actions with a variable amount of coherence, returns to bed, and generally, but not in all cases, wakes in the morning with no remembrance of that which he has done during the night. Such is somnambulism in its narrower sense. It exhibits the individual in an abnormal psychological condition, the actions performed in this abnormal condition being generally unconnected in memory with the normal sequence of events in waking life. The word somnambulism is, however, now used in a wider and at the same time more technical sense, being applied to all cases where the individual, either spontaneously or through hypnotic suggestion, falls into an abnormal condition distinguishable from the normal condition of his or her waking life. It is with the alterations of personality exhibited during the state of somnambulism in this wider sense that M. Binet's volume chiefly deals. The subject is one that is beset with peculiar difficulties and one in which extreme caution is necessary in drawing anything like definite conclusions. But it is one that is throwing, and is likely to throw, important side light on normal psychology, and one that may prove helpful in elucidating the difficult problem of the nature of the association of brain and consciousness. It will only be possible in the space at our disposal to indicate the nature of some of the evidence M. Binet adduces, and the interpretation suggested by this learned and lucid writer. Les Altérations de la Personnalité. Par Alfred Binet. Bibliothèque Scientifique Internationale. (Paris: Ancienne Librairie Germer Baillière et Cie., 1892.)