Hi John,<div>I have a physics background but I have spent the last 2 years working in data analysis of sleep in 2 world famous laboratories in the field. I'm not working on dreams so I cannot give much of scholarly input. Instead I study the sleepless part of sleep called slow wave sleep. During this phase of sleep the EEG shows large amplitude, slower waves (0.5 -5 Hz), in comparison with waking waves (in the beta range above 15 Hz to 40 Hz). These waves are associated with the most restorative part of sleep and memory consolidation. Right now I'm working on a somehow transhumanist project that is to develop an automatic system that can recognize the sleep phases and follow the EEG and then tries to enhance the slow wave sleep by stimulating the brain with sounds at the right frequency and phase. I'm using a Phase Locked Loop to actually lock on the brain patterns during slow wave sleep and then play back to the brain these same patterns to exploit possible resonances in the relevant neural network.</div>
<div><br></div><div>We have done a pilot study (also testing every day the system on myself to try many different parameters and set up) and we got an increase of slow wave power anything in between 20-50 % that is more than what you get with some of the sedative drugs available.</div>
<div>I hope one day to develop a system that is portable and easy enough to use that people could actually use it at home with a wireless EEG and smart phone. </div><div>Just wanted to share this with the group, sleep is a cool subject.</div>
<div><br></div><div>Giovanni</div><div><br><div><br><div class="gmail_quote">On Mon, Aug 20, 2012 at 5:27 AM, John Grigg <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:possiblepaths2050@gmail.com" target="_blank">possiblepaths2050@gmail.com</a>></span> wrote:<br>
<blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0 0 0 .8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex"><div>My question for the list is just how "transhumanist" are your dreams? My own tend to feel like low-budget indie films, where I don't get the girl, and nothing very futuristic happens. The last dream I had that I remember well, had me running around in a Prince of Persia style place (I've never played the games or seen the film), where at one point I jumped and fell around 100 feet, and to my surprise (in the dream) was not hurt. As things progressed I met a very beautiful woman in a sort of a tasteful I Dream of Genie outfit (I don't have a sexy dental hygienist in my life like Spike does, so I have to settle for this), who at one point sat in my lap, but then ran off with a more exciting guy, in a quest to save the day... </div>
<div> </div>
<div> </div>
<div>I had a dream several years ago where I was dressed along the lines of Robin Hood, relaxing on the grass, and in a retro steampunk city that made me think of Atlantis. A parade was going on, with scantily clad women on floats, that ran in front of an extremely deep man-made body of absolutely crystal clear water. Monstrously huge gears and cogs were submerged inside of it, for some unknown purpose, and people were zipping around on the surface with strange looking water jet-ski's that didn't seem to have enough parts to possibly operate. A New Age female friend listened carefully as I spoke about the dream, and then declared authoritatively that I was remembering a previous life that occurred during the age of Atlantis! ; ) </div>
<div> </div>
<div> </div>
<div>Anyway, I just wondered if some of you had really amazing dreams about the future, and how much stock if any, you put into them. And has anyone ever tried lucid dreaming? Years ago I spent $300 on a Novadreamer device to help me to lucid dream, but I could never get the desired effect.</div>
<span class="HOEnZb"><font color="#888888">
<div> </div>
<div> </div>
<div>John</div>
<div> </div>
</font></span><br>_______________________________________________<br>
extropy-chat mailing list<br>
<a href="mailto:extropy-chat@lists.extropy.org">extropy-chat@lists.extropy.org</a><br>
<a href="http://lists.extropy.org/mailman/listinfo.cgi/extropy-chat" target="_blank">http://lists.extropy.org/mailman/listinfo.cgi/extropy-chat</a><br>
<br></blockquote></div><br></div></div>