By LAUREN KASZUBA
Staff Writer
Have you ever had such a good dream that, well, you never wanted it to end? We probably all have. Most of us dream four to six times a night, but we forget 90 percent of our dreams just about ten minutes after they end.
Scientist Francis Krick wrote that “we dream to forget.” However, scientists around the globe are working to interpret the content of our dreams. In addition to this, Daniel Oldis,an independent dream researcher, is working with David M. Schnyer at the University of Texas at Austin to record the movement and speech in our dreams.
You can’t tell me after reading that sentence that you aren’t even slightly interested in this concept. I had to read about the fact that they are actually researching something like this more than a few times to actually believe it. That is absolutely insane!
Sure, we all have those dreams we just want to forget about, but how about the ones that are the ones we never want to forget? Meeting your favorite celebrity, going to your dream vacation spot? I know that I wish I could’ve gotten a recording of the dream where I actually had a decent career in the television industry and knew that I could pay my college debt off. What a dream that was!
Personally, this seems like an amazing idea. I’m all for this, quite frankly. If you don’t think this is a good idea, remember that there are scientists out there that are so close to being able to do this. You can’t tell me you wouldn’t even try it just once.
Basically, scientists record movement through an electromyogram that measures nerve impulses to muscles while objects sleep. Even though you don’t move while you dream, nerve impulses still hit the muscles. Through this process, they are trying to pick up basic movements going on in a dream, such as walking or a hand shake.
Two students are used as subjects in each study.
As for deciphering speech, five or six electrodes would be placed on a participant’s lips and throat. Before a participant goes to sleep, each participant pronounces every phoneme (specific sounds in the English language) to record muscle patterns. This creates a template that can be used to determine what someone is saying in a dream.
Overall, I find this to be one of the most interesting pieces of scientific news I’ve heard this year. While the device probably has its flaws, it’s amazing that the scientific world has come this far to be able to do this. You never know where this could take us.
