0:00:12.170,0:00:13.690
Hi, everyone.

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So, when people ask me about my research,

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and I tell them I study dreams,[br]they ask questions like:

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"Where do dreams come from?"[br]and "Why do we dream?"

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and "What does it means if I have a dream[br]where my teeth are falling out?"

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Then I have to become an ad hoc[br]dream interpreter right there,

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which is okay,

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but one of the prevailing[br]scientific perspectives on dreams

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is the "continuity hypothesis,"

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the idea that we dream about things[br]that we experience while we're awake.

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So last night, I had a dream[br]about basketball.

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Guess what I was doing[br]before I went to sleep?

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Watching the NBA playoffs.

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Or, as cleverly illustrated[br]in this cartoon, the guy says,

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"I think my dream catcher[br]needs some sort of filter.

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I'm getting a lot of dreams[br]about hot stock investments,

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low-cost air fares, and products promising[br]to enhance my sexual performance."

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(Laughter)

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But my research actually examines[br]the opposite question:

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"How are our dreams associated[br]with behavior after we wake up?"

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So let me ask you a question.

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How many of you have ever had a dream[br]about someone that you know?

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All right.

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Keep your hand up [br]if you've ever had a dream,

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and then you were upset[br]at the person in your dream

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for something they did[br]to you in that dream,

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or if someone was upset at you

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for something you did[br]to them in their dream.

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Keep your hands up. [br]Take a look around.

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This was also captured[br]in an episode of Friends

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where Phoebe was mad[br]at Ross for something

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that she couldn't figure out[br]what it was at first.

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She was mad at him the all day[br]and then finally realized

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it was because of something mean[br]that he said about her in a dream.

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My colleagues and I[br]wanted to investigate this.

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This is when I was working[br]on my PhD at Stony Brook.

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In our study,[br]we asked 61 participants

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to keep track of their dreams[br]each night for a two-week period.

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We also asked them to keep track

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of their daily activity[br]with their romantic partners,

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their significant others.

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In this study, we collected[br]almost 850 total dream reports.

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Out of that sample, about one-quarter[br]contains their romantic partners.

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So people are dreaming[br]about their romantic partners

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about 25% of the time.

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Of those dreams,[br]a little bit less than half

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have some kind[br]of positive interaction in them,

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and about one-quarter of those[br]have some kind of conflicts in them.

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People are also having dreams[br]about other people,

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what I would call "infidelity dreams"

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or dreams with romantic[br]cheating behavior in them.

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Let's take a look[br]at some of these dreams.

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I'll show you two happy ones first,[br]with positive interaction in them.

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This dream goes: "I dreamt I was[br]at a carnival with my girlfriend.

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She likes them, so we decided to go[br]to one that stopped in our town.

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We were having fun running around,[br]kissing, tickling each other.

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She kept beating me[br]at the whack-a-mole game

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even though I thought[br]I was winning by a lot...

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In the end, she won[br]a big teddy bear as a prize

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which is apparently what[br]she wanted, so I was happy."

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That's cute.

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(Laughter)

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"This dream was a memory.

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It was our first date, and we were[br]watching Saw II around November.

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I was so scared of the movie,[br]I kept ducking my head into his shoulder

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and squeaking when some[br]gory part appeared.

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He laughed and comforted me.

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In the middle of the movie[br]I rested my head on his shoulder,

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and he put his arm[br]around me and kissed me.

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He was very sweet,[br]and I remember feeling tingly.

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We continued to kiss and hug each other."

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Aw!

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(Laughter)

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So what we're seeing in these dreams[br]is a lot of the same kinds of behaviors

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that people would exhibit[br]with their romantic partners

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in their waking lives.

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They're going on dates,[br]to the carnival, to the movies.

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There's kissing, affectionate behaviour,[br]there's comforting.

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If I showed you these dreams[br]in some regular diary reports,

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you probably wouldn't be able[br]to tell the difference.

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So that shows evidence[br]for the continuity hypothesis.

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That being said, not all dreams[br]are sunshine and roses.

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I'm going to show you some negative[br]dreams now, so fair warning:

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if you're sensitive to conflicts,[br]these get a little rough.

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"A girl left a message[br]on my boyfriend's Facebook page,

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saying that she loved him.

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I find out he called her,[br]they were talking,

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even though he knows[br]how I feel about her.

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On top of that,[br]he tells her that he loves her.

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After badgering him[br]about what they talked about,

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he finally says that he told her[br]he loved her without meaning it.

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I become even more upset[br]and start smacking him across the face,

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yelling and crying[br]how could he do this to me.

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He just says 'I don't know'[br]and I keep yelling and crying

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until finally waking myself[br]out of the dream."

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Ouch!

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So, think about if you[br]have this type of dream,

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and you wake up and your partner[br]is sleeping right next to you,

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what might you say[br]and do in that situation?

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Also, this shows how ubiquitous[br]Facebook has become:

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now it even infiltrates our dreams.

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Let's do another one.[br]This involves a little bit of jealousy.

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"In this dream, I was friends[br]with my boyfriend's ex-girlfriend.

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We were hanging out at my house,[br]having fun, singing karaoke.

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Every time I looked at her,

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I thought very few girls[br]are as beautiful as she is.

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Then my boyfriend comes over.[br]He wanted a picture with her.

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Then I got all jealous[br]and pulled him aside

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to ask him if he thought[br]she was prettier than me.

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I was giving him[br]a lot of attitude, I knew it,

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but I didn't care[br]because of our situation.

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I had every right[br]to be jealous and bitchy.

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He ignored both my question[br]and me for the night.

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I confronted him again,[br]he told me he was very turned off

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by my attitude and behavior.

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I questioned my behavior[br]and wondered if maybe I overreacted."

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There we're seeing more evidence[br]that a dream like this

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might prompt someone when they[br]wake up to reconsider their actions,

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to reconsider their[br]interpersonal relationships.

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Let's do an example[br]of infidelity in dreams.

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"I had met this wonderful,[br]cute affectionate guy.

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He gave me attention, gifts,[br]and wanted to meet my parents.

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He even said he wanted[br]to marry me some day.

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One particular part I remember best.

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He took me to this extravagant[br]store, all gold and silver.

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He gave me jewelry to try on[br]with this beautiful champagne dress.

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I felt so happy the entire dream[br]that I didn't want to wake up."

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It's important to keep in mind

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this person is in a relationship[br]with somebody else -

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a completely different person[br]who she's not having a dream about.

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I'll do one more infidelity dream.

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"I was at a party[br]with my fraternity brothers

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with a bunch of sorority girls[br]I know from school.

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I remember being called constantly[br]from my girlfriend checking up on me.

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It got to the point[br]where we got into a fight

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because I told her she didn't trust me.

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I got beyond drunk and hooked up [br]with some random girl.

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I brought her to my house[br]and we had sex.

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I remember feeling guilty[br]before it went down, but satisfied after."

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I know some of these dreams look like

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they're from deleted episodes[br]of the Jersey Shore,

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(Laughter)

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but what we're seeing

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is that when people[br]have these types of dreams

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with arguments or conflict[br]or betrayal or jealousy,

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they have more conflict[br]with their partners the next day,

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and that's controlling[br]for the previous day's conflict.

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So it is not part of some[br]day-to-day mechanism,

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there's something unique about the dream.

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When people have an infidelity dream,

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cheating on their partner,[br]hooking up with someone else,

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they feel significantly less love[br]and closeness the next day.

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What about sex dreams?

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In case you're curious, we do have some.[br]I'll show you two examples.

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"I guess to write my dream[br]is embarrassing,

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but I'll try to describe it.

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It was a sexual dream where me[br]and my loved one had sex.

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Oddly, it was in my bathroom[br]on the counter sink top.

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I felt happy and excited in my dream,

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and with the look on his face,[br]I'd say he felt the same."

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So this is a relatively good sex dream.

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Here's one that's a little bit, crazy.

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"I was having sex with my girlfriend,

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and my ex-girlfriend[br]kept calling my phone.

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I picked up, told her to leave[br]me alone and to go on with her life.

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I went to my girl,

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and we started to have [br]an intense Kama Sutra kind of sex.

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She kept asking why I'm so mad,

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and I told her that my ex-girl[br]kept harassing me.

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She took my phone, called her,[br]and they started to curse each other.

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We were still naked, she hung up,

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and we went back to bed,[br]still making love.

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And then I woke up."

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Sex dreams are associated[br]with the next day's behavior,

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but it depends on whether[br]the relationship is going well.

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So if the relationship is good[br]and everyone's happy,

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then having a sex dream

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is associated with more love[br]and intimacy and closeness the next day.

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But if the relationship is[br]not going well and they're unhappy,

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then sex dreams are associated[br]with less love and closeness the next day.

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So I want to pause here[br]and just reflect

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because I'm sure some of you[br]might be thinking,

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"Okay, dreams are associated[br]with the behavior the next day, why?

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Why do dreams have this association?[br]Why do they have this effect?"

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The short answer is we still don't know.

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Dreams are one of the big,[br]unsolved mysteries of science.

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There are several competing theories[br]that might explain what's going on here.

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Patrick McNamara proposed the theory

0:09:06.271,0:09:11.660
that dreams evolved in order[br]to facilitate social attachment bonds,

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especially between parents[br]and children and romantic partners,

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and we do see some[br]limited evidence for that here,

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especially with sex dreams[br]associated with more love and intimacy.

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What about conflict dreams[br]that would suggest the opposite,

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that it is almost hurting[br]the attachment bonds?

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And there is another theory[br]that might address this,

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which is more along the lines

0:09:33.212,0:09:37.352
that dreams evolved[br]in order to help us solve problems,

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in order to see difficult issues[br]from a new perspective

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and maybe come to conclusions[br]or have solutions

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that we wouldn't otherwise be able to see

0:09:46.651,0:09:49.191
to adapt to emotionally[br]difficult situations.

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I want to show you a few[br]examples from other studies

0:09:51.744,0:09:53.722
that might support this theory.

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A lot of this research[br]is summarized by Deidre Barrett

0:09:56.977,0:09:59.808
in a chapter she wrote[br]for "The New Science of Dreaming."

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This is a study from William Dement,[br]published in the early 1970s.

0:10:03.433,0:10:08.038
He gave 500 students a brainteaser,

0:10:08.057,0:10:11.937
and he told them to think about it[br]for 15 min before they went to sleep.

0:10:11.957,0:10:14.312
How many of you have seen[br]this brainteaser before?

0:10:14.352,0:10:20.058
" The letters O, T, T, F, F form[br]the beginning of an infinite sequence.

0:10:20.188,0:10:24.078
Find a simple rule for determining[br]any or all successive letters.

0:10:24.148,0:10:27.558
According to your rule,[br]what would the next two letters be?"

0:10:27.828,0:10:29.718
Now out of the 500 students,

0:10:29.748,0:10:34.463
there were 87 dreams that were actually[br]about the brainteaser,

0:10:34.483,0:10:37.195
and a handful of them solved it.

0:10:37.225,0:10:39.813
Here's one example of that dream.

0:10:40.253,0:10:42.554
"I was walking down[br]the hall of an art gallery.

0:10:42.574,0:10:46.964
I began to count the paintings:[br]one, two, three, four, five,

0:10:46.984,0:10:48.940
but as I came to the sixth and seventh,

0:10:48.960,0:10:51.256
the paintings had been[br]ripped from their frames.

0:10:51.276,0:10:52.754
I stared at the empty frame...

0:10:52.774,0:10:55.338
Suddenly I realized[br]the sixth and seventh spaces

0:10:55.348,0:10:57.528
were the solution to the problem.

0:10:57.538,0:11:02.844
O, T, T, F, F stands for[br]One, Two, Three, Four, and Five.

0:11:03.034,0:11:05.984
Six and seven are the next two[br]in the sequence.

0:11:06.014,0:11:09.467
So S and S would be[br]the two letters that follow."

0:11:10.984,0:11:14.874
Here's another study, from[br]Erin Wamsley and Bob Stickgold

0:11:14.904,0:11:18.021
in their lab at the Harvard Med School[br]Division of Sleep Research.

0:11:18.041,0:11:21.143
They gave participants[br]in their study this maze,

0:11:21.183,0:11:25.558
trained them on it, then tested their[br]ability to navigate it five hours later.

0:11:25.578,0:11:30.498
They let some of the participants sleep[br]in between during that five hours.

0:11:30.630,0:11:32.912
And the sleep did help[br]performance a little bit,

0:11:32.942,0:11:38.062
but not nearly as much as if they reported[br]having a dream about the maze.

0:11:38.092,0:11:39.610
Having a dream about the maze

0:11:39.640,0:11:42.842
improved their performance[br]on the retest tenfold

0:11:42.882,0:11:46.422
compared to the people[br]who did not have a dream.

0:11:46.662,0:11:49.377
It's almost as if the dream[br]allows our minds

0:11:49.387,0:11:53.187
to examine different kinds[br]of solutions in a creative way,

0:11:53.197,0:11:57.987
and then we wake up, and we've something[br]to work with we didn't have before.

0:11:58.792,0:12:01.352
Here's some research[br]by Rosalind Cartwright

0:12:01.372,0:12:04.342
that shows when you look at women

0:12:04.362,0:12:07.652
who are suffering from depression[br]after going through a divorce.

0:12:07.782,0:12:09.492
They are actually less depressed,

0:12:09.522,0:12:12.312
more mentally healthy[br]in the future at a follow-up

0:12:12.332,0:12:17.292
if they dream about their ex-partner, [br]about their former spouse.

0:12:17.382,0:12:19.950
This might seem counterintuitive,[br]you might be thinking

0:12:19.970,0:12:22.927
"How can you get over someone[br]if you're dreaming about them?"

0:12:22.967,0:12:26.078
Rosalind Cartwright[br]calls these "dreams that work:"

0:12:26.098,0:12:29.348
those people who incorporated[br]the thing that stressed them out

0:12:29.368,0:12:33.448
into their dream were better off,[br]even if the dream content was negative.

0:12:33.828,0:12:35.278
Another example of this.

0:12:35.308,0:12:40.340
Former smokers who were trying[br]to quit were less likely to relapse,

0:12:40.360,0:12:44.531
less likely to start smoking again[br]if they dreamt about smoking.

0:12:44.855,0:12:46.502
Again, we are seeing this evidence

0:12:46.522,0:12:50.682
that dreams help us to navigate[br]emotionally difficult situations

0:12:50.702,0:12:55.962
and to adapt and solve problems in a way[br]that we would not otherwise be able to do.

0:12:56.032,0:12:59.972
So dreams have this incredible[br]power to help us heal.

0:13:00.116,0:13:01.736
As Bob Stickgold said,

0:13:01.756,0:13:04.626
"When you sleep,[br]your brain is figuring it out

0:13:04.646,0:13:08.949
and holding on to relevant information[br]and throwing out the rest."

0:13:09.810,0:13:13.271
Dreams might also allow[br]for a creative spark.

0:13:13.301,0:13:17.740
They're responsible for some of the[br]greatest innovations ever known to man.

0:13:17.830,0:13:20.330
Remember the periodic table[br]of the elements,

0:13:20.350,0:13:23.050
from high school chemistry class[br]perhaps for some of you.

0:13:23.080,0:13:26.860
Dmitri Mendeleev[br]dreamt the periodic table.

0:13:26.966,0:13:29.545
He had a dream that the elements[br]appeared before him

0:13:29.565,0:13:32.185
and organized themselves[br]according to their atomic mass,

0:13:32.215,0:13:34.550
and he woke up and drew that,

0:13:34.580,0:13:37.440
and that became what we now know[br]as the periodic table.

0:13:37.680,0:13:41.553
Paul McCartney famously[br]dreamt the song "Yesterday."

0:13:41.583,0:13:43.536
Everybody knows that song?[br]♫ Yesterday ...

0:13:43.556,0:13:45.227
Okay, I won't sing.

0:13:45.296,0:13:49.816
But he dreamt the song,[br]woke up, went to his piano,

0:13:49.856,0:13:52.494
thought "Great tune![br]Let me see if I can figure it out,"

0:13:52.504,0:13:54.524
and he found the chords,[br]and that became

0:13:54.534,0:13:57.834
one of the most beautiful[br]songs ever written.

0:13:58.655,0:14:00.935
Now, I think it's unfortunate

0:14:00.965,0:14:05.194
most of us probably won't have[br]one of these deep, profound dreams

0:14:05.214,0:14:06.984
that lead us to these insights.

0:14:07.004,0:14:09.884
And I don't think[br]it's because we're not capable.

0:14:09.914,0:14:12.234
I think it's because most of the time,

0:14:12.254,0:14:15.174
we're not really[br]paying attention to our dreams.

0:14:15.194,0:14:16.941
We don't take them seriously.

0:14:16.971,0:14:20.157
People think that dreams are just[br]a bunch of nonsense and garbage.

0:14:20.177,0:14:21.711
We wake up, we shrug it off,

0:14:21.731,0:14:24.431
we go about our day[br]as if it never happens.

0:14:24.611,0:14:29.461
There's a great quote[br]from my favorite film,

0:14:29.501,0:14:31.670
"Waking Life" by Richard Linklater:

0:14:31.690,0:14:34.660
"Most people are either[br]sleep walking through their waking life

0:14:34.680,0:14:36.785
or wake walking[br]through their sleeping life.

0:14:36.805,0:14:39.583
Either way, they're not[br]going to get that much out of it."

0:14:39.613,0:14:42.243
If I asked you right now to tell me

0:14:42.263,0:14:45.523
whether or not you're dreaming[br]in this very moment,

0:14:45.553,0:14:48.838
most of you probably say,[br]"Of course not. I'm obviously awake."

0:14:48.858,0:14:51.318
My response would be:[br]"How do you know?"

0:14:51.408,0:14:55.228
How do you know[br]this is not a dream right now?

0:14:55.321,0:14:57.086
Most of us can't tell the difference.

0:14:57.096,0:14:58.796
Can you tell when you're dreaming

0:14:58.816,0:15:02.239
or only when you wake up[br]and realize that it was a dream

0:15:02.259,0:15:05.339
do you understand what was going on?

0:15:06.005,0:15:08.493
So I want to conclude

0:15:08.513,0:15:12.168
if you get anything from this talk,[br]I want you to take this home:

0:15:12.188,0:15:14.869
dreams are worth your time.

0:15:14.899,0:15:18.776
They're an important piece of your life[br]and worth paying attention to.

0:15:18.896,0:15:25.503
Dreams represent this great, untapped[br]reservoir of information and insight

0:15:25.533,0:15:27.733
that you can gain about yourself,

0:15:27.753,0:15:31.663
your relationships, your work,[br]your physical health.

0:15:31.935,0:15:34.455
So start tonight,[br]keep a dream journal.

0:15:34.515,0:15:36.655
Put a pad of paper and a pen[br]next to your bed,

0:15:36.665,0:15:37.981
and when you wake up,

0:15:38.001,0:15:41.231
write down whatever was[br]in your head while you were asleep.

0:15:41.261,0:15:43.595
You might be surprised at what you find.

0:15:43.625,0:15:47.345
And your dreams might be trying[br]to tell you something really important.

0:15:47.415,0:15:48.993
All right, thank you.

0:15:49.008,0:15:50.418
(Applause)