The brain that (not) sleeps. Part Two: Manipulating sleep and dreams

Abstract

In the first part of the article, the author illustrated how sleep contributes to maintaining psychophysical well-being and body efficiency. He also described how new techniques for studying brain activity, such as high-density electroencephalography, have made it possible to observe partial brain reactivations associated with dreams during sleep. In the second part of the article, the studies concerning the origin and function of dreams are further addressed and discussed. In particular, the article describes the main difficulties researchers face in studying dreams and how new investigation techniques could allow us to overcome them, focusing on the possibilities of "reading" dreams directly from the brain or modifying them at will. The new research field of dream engineering could allow us to understand the nature and function of dreams and may also have important implications and applications in clinical settings.