Drs. Antonio Zadra & Robert Stickgold: The Fascinating Science of Dreams

Thoughts on Record: Podcast of the Ottawa Institute of Cognitive Behavioural Therapy

Dreams have long been a source of fascination, mystery & intrigue, yet there is now an abundance of scientific evidence to shed light on the origins, nature, and purpose of this captivating aspect of the human experience. Leading sleep & dream scientists Drs. Antonio Zadra & Robert Stickgold join host Dr. Pete Kelly, C.Psych for an in-depth consideration of many of the themes explored in their new book When Brains Dream. In this discussion they cover:

• the experiences that led Drs. Zadra & Stickgold to become interested in studying dreams
• a brief primer on the basic architecture of sleep
• the science around why we dream including an elaborated description of their NEXTUP model (Network Exploration To Understand Possibilities).
• the surprising importance of daydreaming
• the origin and neurological basis of hypnogogic hallucinations
• potential science-based frameworks for dream interpretation
• the neurobiology of why emotions and events in dreams can feel so incredibly powerful and significant
• an in-depth consideration of lucid dreaming
• sleep & dream disturbance in the context of mental illness
• Drs. Zadra & Stickgold's view on the utility of sleep studies
• exploration of the notion of "epic dreams"
• a brief discussion around the biggest unanswered questions around the science of dreaming

Antonio Zadra, PhD, is a sleep and dream scientist at the Hôpital du Sacré-Coeur's Center for Advanced Research in Sleep Medicine and professor of psychology at the Université de Montréal. In addition to numerous publications on sleep, dreams, and dream-related disorders, Dr. Zadra is the co-author of When Brains Dream: Exploring the Science and Mystery of Sleep and the author of The Dreamkeepers, a suspense novel blending sleep science with dream mythology. He lives in Montreal, Canada.

Robert Stickgold is a professor of psychiatry at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center and Harvard Medical School. He has published over 100 scientific publications, including papers in Science, Nature, and Nature Neuroscience. His work has been written up in Time, Newsweek, The New York Times, The Boston Globe Magazine, and Seed Magazine, and he has been a guest on The Newshour with Jim Leher and NPR’s Science Friday with Ira Flato several times, extolling the importance of sleep. He has spoken at the Boston Museum of Science, the American Museum of Natural History in New York, and NEMO, the Amsterdam museum of science. His current work looks at the nature and function of sleep and dreams from a cognitive neuroscience perspective, with an emphasis on the role of sleep and dreams in memory consolidation and integration. In addition to studying the normal functioning of sleep, he is currently investigating alterations in sleep-dependent memory consolidation in patients with schizophrenia, autism spectrum disorder, and PTSD. His work is currently funded by NIMH.

https://antoniozadra.com
https://brain.harvard.edu/?people=robert-stickgold