The Dreamscape Project: Mapping the phenomenological and neurophysiological features of subjective experience during sleep

Abstract

We spend a third of our lives asleep, and sleep teems with vivid dreams. While most people rarely remember their dreams, laboratory studies using timed awakenings show that healthy adults experience multiple dreams per night. Dreams have been hypothesised to play a key role in the development of consciousness and cognition1,2. Dreams are believed to contribute to sleep-related memory consolidation3 and emotional processing4, maintaining a healthy emotional balance and influencing waking mood and well-being5. Dreams are also believed to change in response to real-life events, which in turn can impact sleep quality as well as mood and cognitive functioning in wakefulness. The emotional significance and apparent meaningfulness of dreams has fuelled fascination with dreams for centuries. The flurry of interest in social and print media and numerous scientific studies, including CI Windt’s own work, on how the COVID-19 pandemic has influenced our dream lives is just the latest testament to this fact6,7