Short Meditation Trainings Enhance Non-REM Sleep Low-Frequency Oscillations

Dentico, Daniela; Ferrarelli, Fabio; Riedner, Brady A.; Smith, Richard; Zennig, Corinna; Lutz, Antoine; Tononi, Giulio; Davidson, Richard J.

doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0148961

Cited by 34 publications

(39 citation statements)

References 43 publications

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“…Not only is it logically possible to have functional wakefulness without conscious experience (i.e., "wakeful unawareness"), but the possibility is also empirically demonstrated by the existence of a wake/sleep cycle in some types of coma patients, for example in the minimally conscious state (MCS) or in unresponsive wakefulness syndrome (UWS), tellingly termed Wachkoma in German (Laureys et al, 2010). In addition, it is empirically plausible that the conscious experience of wakefulness can exist in low-arousal states like NREM sleep, as shown by the existence of lucid dreamless sleep (Dentico et al, 2016;Ferrarelli et al, 2013;Maruthai et al, 2016;Mason et al, 1997;Mason & Orme-Johnson, 2010;Metzinger, 2019, sec. 5;Thompson, 2015aThompson, , 2015bWindt, 2015a;Windt, Nielsen, & Thompson, 2016).…”

Section: Case Study #2mentioning

confidence: 99%

Minimal phenomenal experience

Metzinger¹

2020

PhiMiSci

150

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This is the first in a series of instalments aiming at a minimal model explanation for conscious experience, taking the phenomenal character of “pure consciousness” or “pure awareness” in meditation as its entry point. It develops the concept of “minimal phenomenal experience” (MPE) as a candidate for the simplest form of consciousness, substantiating it by extracting six semantic constraints from the existing literature and using sixteen phenomenological case-studies to incrementally flesh out the new working concept. One empirical hypothesis is that the phenomenological prototype of “pure awareness”, to which all such reports refer, really is the content of a predictive model, namely, a Bayesian representation of tonic alertness. On a more abstract conceptual level, it can be described as a model of an unpartitioned epistemic space.

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Section: Case Study #2mentioning

confidence: 99%

Minimal phenomenal experience

Metzinger¹

2020

PhiMiSci

150

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“…According to Thompson (2015) , proficient meditators occasionally report “witnessing sleep,” when they experience no specific thought contents or imagery. These participants had differences in EEG activity during sleep when compared to non-meditators and inexperienced meditators, such as enhanced gamma-band activity ( Mason et al, 1997 ; Ferrarelli et al, 2013 ; Dentico et al, 2016 ; Maruthai et al, 2016 ).…”

Section: Hinduismmentioning

confidence: 96%

The Dream of God: How Do Religion and Science See Lucid Dreaming and Other Conscious States During Sleep?

Mota-Rolim

Bulkeley²,

Esmaile

et al. 2020

Front. Psychol.

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Lucid dreaming (LD) began to be scientifically studied in the last century, but various religions have highlighted the importance of LD in their doctrines for a much longer period. Hindus’ manuscripts dating back over 2,000 years ago, for example, divide consciousness in waking, dreaming (including LD), and deep sleep. In the Buddhist tradition, Tibetan monks have been practicing the “Dream Yoga,” a meditation technique that instructs dreamers to recognize the dream, overcome all fears when lucid, and control the oneiric content. In the Islamic sacred scriptures, LD is regarded as a mental state of great value, and a special way for the initiated to reach mystical experiences. The Christian theologian Augustine of Hippo (354–430 AD) mentions LD as a kind of preview of the afterlife, when the soul separates from the body. In the nineteenth century, some branches of the Spiritism religion argue that LD precedes out-of-body experiences during sleep. Here we reviewed how these religions interpret dreams, LD and other conscious states during sleep. We observed that while Abrahamic monotheisms (Judaism, Christianity, and Islam) recognize dreams as a way to communicate with God to understand the present and predict the future, the traditional Indian religions (Buddhism and Hinduism) are more engaged in cultivating self-awareness, thus developed specific techniques to induce LD and witnessing sleep. Teachings from religious traditions around the world offer important insights for scientific researchers today who want to understand the full range of LD phenomenology as it has emerged through history.

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“…Finally, an early study (Faber, Saayman, & Touyz, 1978) reports a higher frequency of dream recall, longer laboratory dreams and marginally longer home dreams in Yoga meditation practitioners as compared to non-meditating controls; there was also a higher incidence of "archetypal" themes in the dreams of meditators, i.e., themes characterized by mythological references, emotionality, irrationality and remoteness from everyday life. While a small number of studies examined sleep in meditation practitioners (Dentico et al, 2016;Ferrarelli et al, 2013;Maruthai et al, 2016;Mason et al, 1997) laboratory studies with experimental awakenings for dream collection and a control group are lacking.…”

Section: Meditation and Dreamsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Differences in dream content during a daytime nap and the relationship of the dream content to procedural learning in Vipassana meditators and controls.

Solomonova¹,

Dubé²,

Samson-Richer³

et al. 2018

Preprint

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Vipassana meditation is characterized by observing bodily sensations, developing emotional and attentional stability and promoting pro-social qualities. Whether these qualities are also reflected in dream content is not currently known. Evidence relating dream content with sleep-depending learning is mixed: some studies suggest that dreaming of a task is beneficial for improvement, while others find no such effect. This study aimed at investigating whether meditators have qualitatively different dreams than controls; whether meditators incorporate a procedural learning task more often than controls; and whether dreaming about the task is related to better post-sleep performance on the task.20 meditators and 20 controls slept for a daytime nap at the laboratory. Prior to sleep and upon awakening they completed a procedural learning task. Dream reports were collected at sleep onset and upon awakening (REM/N2 sleep). Dreams were then scored for qualities associated with meditation practice and for incorporations of the procedural task and of the laboratory. Meditators had longer dreams, slightly more references to the body and friendlier and more compassionate interactions with dream characters. Dreams of meditation practitioners were not more lucid than those of controls. Meditators did not incorporate the learning task or laboratory into dream content more often than controls, and no relationship was found between dream content and performance on a procedural task. In control participants, in contrast, incorporating task or laboratory in REM/N2 dreams was associated with improvement on the task, but incorporations at sleep onset were associated with slightly worse performance on the task.

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Short Meditation Trainings Enhance Non-REM Sleep Low-Frequency Oscillations

Cited by 34 publications

References 43 publications

Minimal phenomenal experience

Minimal phenomenal experience

The Dream of God: How Do Religion and Science See Lucid Dreaming and Other Conscious States During Sleep?

Differences in dream content during a daytime nap and the relationship of the dream content to procedural learning in Vipassana meditators and controls.

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