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Dreaming: The Functional State-Shift Hypothesis

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  25 June 2018

M. Koukkou  and
D. Lehmann
D. Lehmann
Affiliation:
Department of Neurology, University Hospitals, 8091 Zürich; and Sleep and Dream Laboratory, Klinik am Zürichberg, 8032 Zürich, Switzerland
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Summary

The different brain functional states during sleep and wakefulness are associated with differences in processing strategies, memory stores, and EEG patterns. Shifts of functional state occur spontaneously or as orienting reactions to processed information, and cause the formal characteristics of dreams. Forgetting of dreams is a function of the magnitude of the difference between states during storage and recall. Based on EEG similarities between sleep stages and developmental stages, brain states during sleep in adults are proposed to correspond functionally with waking states during childhood. Repeated functional regressions occur during sleep, with access to earlier memory material and cognitive strategies unavailable during waking life, so that earlier experiences can be used for current problems. This dream work constitutes the biological significance of sleep.

Type
Papers
Information
The British Journal of Psychiatry , Volume 142 , Issue 3 , March 1983 , pp. 221 - 231
Copyright
Copyright © 1983 The Royal College of Psychiatrists 

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Lehmann, D., M.D., Professor of Neurology and Clinical Neurophysiology, Department of Neurology, University Hospitals, 8091 Zürich; and Sleep and Dream Laboratory, Klinik am Zürichberg, 8032 Zürich, Switzerland Google Scholar
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