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A History of Sleep and Dreaming

The history of sleep and dreaming goes back to the BC era, when ancient Greeks and Egyptians were the leading technological force. The Egyptians analyzed the meaning behind dreams, seeking to identify meaningful dream symbols and even prophecies from the gods. As with many Egyptian concepts, the Greeks soon wove this idea into their own culture.

Superstition aside, the Greek philosopher Aristotle actually came up with the first scientific theory of sleep in 350 BC when he wrote: "a person awakes from sleep when digestion is complete".

Actually, this is not true at all. But kudos for trying. The rest of the scientific community would ignore the science of sleep for another 2,000 years... Sleep and dreaming would become one of the most under-researched areas of human behavior.

Circadian Rhythms

In 1729, a French geophysicist identified biological rhythms by conducting a now-classic circadian experiment. Intrigued by the daily opening and closing of the leaves of a heliotrope plant, the frivolously named Jean-Jacques d'Ortous de Mairan decided to test whether this biological behavior was simply a response to the sun. To do so, he confined a plant to the dark - yet the daily rhythmic motions of the heliotrope's leaves persisted even in the absence of sunlight. de Mairan created had discovered Circadian Rhythms in plants, thought to originate from an endogenous clock.

Similarly, the human Circadian Rhythm is a 24-hour cycle driven by our biochemical, physiological, and behavioral processes. For example, we enter our deepest sleep around 2am, and we have the lowest body temperature around 4.30am. Our greatest level of alertness occurs around 10am and we have the best co-ordination around 2.30pm. This biological clock evolves to match your daily habits, and can even resynchronize itself when you cross multiple time zones in a matter of hours.

Sigmund Freud

Nearly two centuries later, the history of sleep and dreaming was changed forever. The infamous psychoanalyst Sigmund Freud published his controversial book, The Interpretation of Dreams.

Whether we love or hate Sigmund Freud, we have to admit that he revolutionized the way we think about ourselves. Much of this revolution can be traced to his seminal work, The Interpretation of Dreams, that outlined his theory of unconscious forces in the context of dream analysis.

Introducing the id, the superego, and their problem child, the ego, Sigmund Freud advanced scientific understanding of the mind immeasurably by exposing motivations normally invisible to our consciousness. While there's no question that his own biases and neuroses influenced his observations, the details are less important than the paradigm shift as a whole.

After Freud, our interior lives became richer and vastly more mysterious. He revealed that our minds are full of hidden memories and desires. He also believed in a meaning behind dreams - but rather than foretelling the future, they held psychological insights.

Soon after, some important advances in technology kick-started a revolution in sleep research. The history of sleep was being remodeled. Scientists all over Europe began documenting the physiology of sleep, measuring brainwaves with the EEG machine, and linking Rapid Eye Movement (REM) patterns to stages of dreaming.

Who Discovered Lucid Dreaming?

We have to thank the eighth century Tibetan Buddhists for the discovery of lucid dreaming. They learned how to control dreams with Dream Yoga. They used a technique similar to the modern version, Wake Induced Lucid Dreams (WILD), to maintain full consciousness while slipping directly into the dream state.

In the modern world, lucid dreaming was first classified in the 1960s by Celia Green. She realized it was a separate state of consciousness and identified the scientific potential. Green was also the first to make the connection with REM sleep and false awakenings.

It was not until 1975 that lucid dreaming was scientifically proven in the lab. Alan Worsley at the University of Hull in England managed to signal to the outside world when he was in a conscious dream with a pre-determined set of eye movements.

However, the research went under the radar and it was Stephen LaBerge in 1978 who famously performed this experiment and published data on the first scientifically-verified signal from a dreamer's mind to the outside world. LaBerge continues to be a leading force in scientific lucid dream research to this day, as the founder of The Lucidity Institute and author of the book Exploring the World of Lucid Dreaming.

That is a brief history of sleep and dreaming. Read on to continue learning about the science of sleep and dream analysis...