Publications by authors named "Karen R Konkoly"
Dreams have long captivated human curiosity, but empirical research in this area has faced significant methodological challenges. Recent interdisciplinary advances have now opened up new opportunities for studying dreams. This review synthesizes these advances into three methodological frameworks and describes how they overcome historical barriers in dream research.
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- The study explored the effectiveness of Cognitive Behavioural Therapy for Nightmares (CBT-N) and targeted lucidity reactivation (TLR) in adults with narcolepsy who experience frequent nightmares.
- Participants showed a significant reduction in nightmare frequency (from 8.38 to 2.25 per week) and improved overall sleep quality, with notable improvements in nightmare severity and related symptoms such as sleep paralysis.
- The findings suggest that CBT-N and TLR could be beneficial treatments for managing nightmares in individuals with narcolepsy, highlighting the need for more focused clinical trials in this area.
Article Synopsis
- Lucid dreaming is when you know you're dreaming, and it can help with personal goals and studying how our minds work.
- A method called Targeted Lucidity Reactivation (TLR) helps people become lucid dreamers by using sounds they learned before sleep, and it doesn't need fancy machines.
- In experiments, people who used TLR had more lucid dreams and did better when they heard the same sounds they practiced with before going to sleep.
Therapies focused on lucid dreaming could be useful for treating various sleep disorders and other conditions. Still, one major roadblock is the paucity of systematic information on the consequences of attempting these sorts of dreams. The current study sought to quantify positive and negative aspects of seeking lucid dreams, describe their phenomenology in detail, and identify features associated with positive or negative experiences.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFAmbient light can influence sleep structure and timing. We explored how wearing an eye mask to block light during overnight sleep impacts memory and alertness, changes that could benefit everyday tasks like studying or driving. In Experiment 1, ninety-four 18-35-year-olds wore an eye mask while they slept every night for a week and underwent a control condition in which light was not blocked for another week.
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- Dreams create a unique, often bizarre, reality that feels as authentic as waking life, yet remain difficult to study due to issues with memory and distortion in dream reports.
- Researchers discovered that during lucid dreaming—where individuals are aware they are dreaming—subjects could respond to external questions using eye movements and facial muscle contractions while in REM sleep.
- This study, which included participants with varying levels of lucid dreaming experience, showcases a groundbreaking method for real-time communication about dreams and opens up new avenues for understanding and exploring the cognitive processes involved in dreaming.