Cognition During Sleep Hyperassociativity Associativity And New Connections

Cognition During Sleep: Hyperassociativity, Associativity and New Connections

Do Both Psychopathology and Creativity Result from a Labile Wake-Sleep-Dream Cycle?

Laypeople think of wake, sleep and dreaming as distinct states of the mind/brain but “in-between”, hybrid states are recognized. For example, day-dreaming or, more scientifically, the default network occurs during wake. Equally, during sleep, lucid dreaming in rapid eye movement (REM) sleep presents as another hybrid state. But hybrid states are usually temporary. This book explores the possibility of an enduring hybrid wake-sleep-dream state, proposing that such a state may engender both creativity and psychopathologies. REM sleep is hyper-associative. Creativity depends on making remote associations. If REM sleep and dreaming begin to suffuse the wake state, enhanced creativity may result. But moderate to severe interpenetration of wake, sleep and dreaming may engender psychopathologies – as the functions of wake, sleep and dreaming are partially eroded.

Fragmentation in Sleep and Mind: Linking Dissociative Symptoms, Sleep, and Memory

Fragmented, dissociated consciousness can characterize the mind in both wake and sleep states. Dissociative symptoms, during sleep, include vivid dreaming, nightmares, and alterations in objective sleep parameters (e.g., lengthening of REM sleep). During waking hours, dissociative symptoms exhibit disparate characteristics encompassing memory problems, excessive daydreaming, absentmindedness, and impairments and discontinuities in perceptions of the self, identity, and the environment. Llewellyn has theorized that a progressive and enduring de-differentiation of wake and dream states of consciousness eventually results in schizophrenia; a lesser degree of de-differentiation may have implications for dissociative symptoms. Against a background of de-differentiation between the dream and wake states, the papers in this volume link consciousness, memory, and mental illness with a special interest for dissociative symptoms.