Cutting Edge Dream Research

Exploring the connections between dreams and brain functions scientifically. It's simple really - just tell us your dreams and we'll do the rest! We are specifically interested in the details of memorable dreams induced by anti-depression medication and other brain specific drug delivery prescribed medication.

Neuropharmacology Insights

Drawing upon NPA pharmacology training (DNF) while working for 2 years as a dispensing technician in London and a decade+ studying human behaviour and consciousness (2 years economics & international development with the OU, 8 years PPE/Psychology with UHI & counting), a preliminary investigation into the effects of anti-depression medication upon dream experiences yielded a surprising result which could be a prodromal insight into the relationship between  dreams and clinical symptomatology - this could lead to psychological interventions for mental health and well-being hence the aim is to see if this result can be replicated consistently across a larger scale PhD level study.

Double-edged sword

The other cutting edge research is social prescribing within gerontology. We seek to work with care homes and care workers in assisting the elderly (and socially isolated elderly) recall dreams by keeping a dream journal over several years. This may lead to improved memory and new therapeutic approaches (lifestyle-related interventions) for offsetting decline and improving cognitive function in the aging brain. Existing research is 'minimal' and 'inconclusive'; our thesis is that improvement in the elderly mind may occur with the simple yet pragmatic solution of dream journaling* - an habitual memory recall task that forges links between the conscious and sub/non-conscious (our short-term preliminary study showed the time taken to record a diurnal journal increased exponentially from minutes to hours due to increased recall).

Background research by the PhD candidate

Related undergraduate work in a neuroscience, psychology and philosophy of mind dissertation (which applied a brand new insight from this author into how mental imagery factors into our decision making processes) proved it's veracity with a unique visual solution to "The Gettier Problem" that gained a 1st class distinction and which has not since been refuted; published on Academia.edu in 2018, the work also garnered acknowledgments from the likes of Oxford luminary Anthony Grayling CBE

Related postgraduate work in psychology, linguistics and pragmatics focused on types of perception and specifically "spatial deixis". Identified by UHI as "highly ambitious", the research interviewed foreign language teachers across Scotland and sought to find out how the psychological component of spatial deixis manifests in the classroom/teaching space–compared with how the same psychological component manifests as experience-taking aka perspective-taking during full immersion contexts associated with CLIL (Content Language Integrated Learning) and computer gaming. Awarded GMBPsS as a result (graduate membership of the British Psychological Society), UHI described this MSc dissertation as a fascinating area of research whose author "is to be highly commended for identifying a unique question with real practical implications for language teaching." [watch this space! surveillez cet espace! behalten sie diesen bereich im auge!](references available)

*NB: Scottish psychiatrist R.D. Laing once noted that two millennia of sages have “presented us with access to some very simple procedures” and that “unexcited and unalarming methods are so simple they’re often the most difficult of the lot, the least understood of the lot and the most forgotten of the lot”

Laing,R. D. (1982) Pyschiatry Lectures; https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FiCOazoizjU

"Efficacy of journaling in the management of mental illness: a systematic review and meta-analysis" - This study, published in Family Medicine and Community Health, reviews 20 randomized control trials and concludes that journaling can be an effective non-pharmacological tool in managing mental illness https://fmch.bmj.com/content/10/1/e001154

"Journaling’s Impact on Mental Health" - A study by Callie Koziol from the University of Wisconsin–La Crosse, which uses a mixed-methods approach to explore the benefits of journaling, especially among college undergraduates. The results suggest that journaling is adaptable and can be a great tool for bettering mental health and promoting personal growth koziol.callie.eng.pdf (uwlax.edu)

"Relationship between mental health and students’ academic performance" - This literature review published in Discover Psychology discusses the benefits of mindfulness and journaling on mental health and academic performance among university students https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s44202-024-00240-4

In the field of psychology, the subfield of oneirology (/ɒnɪˈrɒlədʒi/; from Ancient Greek ὄνειρον, oneiron, "dream"; and -λογία, -logia, "the study of") is the scientific study of dreams...

...we aim to do so by exploring people's perceptions of dreams-induced-by-prescriptions because we know how medicines like SSRI anti-depressants (selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors) work on a neuronal level so we can compare such neuropharmacological information to people's 'qualia' - the introspectively accessible, phenomenal aspects of perception - in this case - the recall of dreams.

Describing dream recall can be a challenge though; the description of "six people and a dog walking as waves break on a rocky shoreline as two seagulls fly over" relates to the video behind this text, but using that limited definition would conjure up different mental images without the video. Headland or bay? Altitude and types of seagull? Twilight? Colours and hues? How many waves? Speed of waves? Ebbing or waning tide? Cardinal direction? Force? Type, shape and number of rocks? Where is all this in relation to you? Near/far, below/above?..etc. e.g. Google's tool gives 987+ words for describing waves https://describingwords.io/for/waves!

Since, by definition, qualia are subjective, conscious experiences that cannot be fully described or communicated or fully conveyed verbally - and because we cannot copy and paste videos of our dreams - we ask that you simply try your best to be as descriptive as possible. 🙏

NB: Experience-taking of video games is where first-person graphical perspectives are rendered from the viewpoint of the on-screen avatar (deictic centre of a player's character). Similarly, we conjure perspectives with our imagination when immersing our selves in any story be it a radio play or a good book - we imagine scenes being enacted from our own projected deictic centre. In recalling a dream, it is therefore helpful to rely on this same deictic perspective to render the narrative of dreams recalled: Deixis derives from Ancient Greek - δεῖξις (deîxis, “pointing, indicating, reference”) and δείκνυμι (deíknumi, “I show”) and forms an important part of linguistics and pragmatics, serving to interpret speech in context. In dream recall, this deictic perspective is our dream avatar or exteroceptive–interoceptive-point-of-experience* - or simply put - the dynamic viewpoint from whence we recall the full context of our dreams i.e. in dreams we perceive the contexts of environments around our dream deictic centre, and as we move though our dreams there is changing contextual information about the sound, shape, size, location, colour, texture, proximity etc of environmental factors (rooms, mountains, hedgerows, buildings, harbours, other actors etc, etc, etc,). Consequently, in addition to telling the story of the dream (what's happening within the dream environment) - describing the contextual shapes and spaces of the dream environment itself as accurately as possible is equally important to our research.

If there are multiple episodes to your dream, please try to delineate their sequence.

Good luck and enjoy the process! 🙏

*interoception is the collection of senses providing information to the organism about the internal state of the body. Exteroception is any form of sensation that results from stimuli located outside the body and is detected by exteroceptors, including vision, hearing, touch or pressure, heat, cold, pain, smell, and taste. Dreams can be immersive multisensory environments that encompass exteroceptive–interoceptive-like experiences.

Recalling Dreams

Dreams Unveiled

Explore the science of dreams and their connection to neuropharmacology and mental health solutions.

PhD CONTACT

psychology@14008140.online

Neuropharmacology is the study of how drugs affect function in the nervous system, and the neural mechanisms through which they influence behaviour. There are two main branches of neuropharmacology: behavioural and molecular. Behavioral neuropharmacology focuses on the study of how drugs affect human behaviour (neuropsychopharmacology), including the study of how drug dependence and addiction affect the human brain.

Molecular neuropharmacology involves the study of neurons and their neurochemical interactions, with the overall goal of developing drugs that have beneficial effects on neurological function.

Both of these fields are closely connected, since both are concerned with the interactions of neurotransmitters, neuropeptides, neurohormones, neuromodulators, enzymes, second messengers, co-transporters, ion channels, and receptor proteins in the central and peripheral nervous systems.

Deictic descriptions of medication-induced dreams will be compared to these neural mechanisms.