Abstract Index Conference Index

ABSTRACT

1. Panel, 120 minutes.

 2. The Causes And Functions Of Nightmares, Dreams And REM Sleep.

 3. Mark Blagrove, PhD

Department of Psychology
University of Wales Swansea
 email m.t.blagrove@swansea.ac.uk

Mark Blagrove is President-Elect of ASD and a consulting editor of the journal Dreaming. He researches into the psychology of dreaming and also sleep deprivation at the University of Wales Swansea, where he teaches a course on sleep and dreams.

Katja Valli is a PhD student at the University of Turku, Finland. She works with Antti Revonsuo, the author of the nightmares as threat rehearsal paper in the BBS special issue.

 David Kahn is a researcher at the Harvard Neurophysiology Lab, and has recently published on how characters are recognized in dreams.

 Milton Kramer is a past-president of ASD and researches into PTSD and dreaming.

Antonio Zadra is at the psychology department of the University of Montreal, and researches into nightmares.

 4. Do we rehearse threat avoidance during nightmares? What is the relationship between dreams and REM sleep? Does REM sleep aid memory? How do NREM dreams, and waking cognition, differ from REM dreams?  These questions have been addressed in the December special issue of the prestigious journal Behavioral and Brain Sciences. The panel will discuss these questions and give their views on the special issue. 

 5 Learning objectives: i) To understand the evidence behind views of whether or not nightmares, dreams or REM sleep have any functions; ii) To understand the evidence for whether or not dreaming is related specifically to REM sleep; iii) To understand contrasting views of how dreaming is related to waking cognition.

 Evaluation questions: i) Is there evidence that nightmares, or REM sleep, have any learning or memory function? ii) Is dreaming in any way specific to REM sleep, or to REM sleep processes? iii) How is dreaming related to waking cognition?

 7. No schedule restrictions as far as I know. Some of this panel may be relevant to the nightmare CE program. 

 8. Abstract. The journal Behavioral and Brain Sciences is published bimonthly and provides major review and target articles that summarize particular areas of research in psychology, and provide provocative reevaluations of current evidence. In December 2000 this prestigious journal had a special issue on dreams, nightmares, and REM sleep with papers on the relationship of dreaming to other conscious states (Hobson, Pace-Schott, & Stickgold); whether dreams in REM sleep are different to NREM dreams (Nielsen); whether we rehearse threat avoidance during nightmares (Revonsuo); whether dreaming and REM sleep are controlled by different mechanisms (Solms); and whether REM sleep has a memory consolidation function (Vertes and Eastman). Many members of ASD provided short critical commentaries on each article, which are published in the special issue. This panel will address the questions raised in the special issue, discuss relationships between the five papers, and discuss the importance of the special issue to dream studies and to psychology and neuroscience. We will have copies of the special issue on sale at the conference.  

The papers addressed by each panel member will be as follows:

 Mark Blagrove (Hobson et al; Vertes & Eastman, Revonsuo);

David Kahn (Hobson et al.);

Milton Kramer (Hobson et al, Revonsuo, Solms, Nielsen)

Katja Valli (Revonsuo);

Antonio Zadra (Revonsuo).

9. Mark Blagrove.

    MA (Experimental Psychology)  Cambridge University, 1979-82

    PhD The structuralist analysis of dream series, Brunel University, London, 1985-89.

    Research Fellow, Loughborough University Sleep Laboratory, 1989-91

    Lecturer in Psychology, University of Wales Swansea, 1991-present.

    Consulting Editor for Journal of Experimental Psychology: Applied and Dreaming

     President-Elect ASD 2000-01