RainmanTime
Timekeeper
Seeing as how I am a fan of the scientific method, I had an experience this morning that got me thinking about something. So I thought I would share it here in the form of a testable hypothesis, and then outline potential tests that could either falsify or partially confirm said hypothesis. First, the story of what happened:
As often happens while I am sleeping, I woke up around 1:30AM, well before my 4:30 time when I have to get up for work. I broswed facebook for awhile, and was updated about the goings-on in the life of one of my nieces I have not seen in a long time. I eventually drifted back to sleep, but the thing to note is that, quite possibly, the last thoughts on my mind were about my niece, Terra. Upon awaking just before the alarm went off at 4:30, I realized I had been dreaming. As most people will testify, your dreams are freshest in your mind just as you awake. The dream had several bizzare themes, but of most interest were the other people involved in the dream: My niece, Terra, and her brother and two sisters whom I helped raise when I lived in Ohio in my pre-college years. Upon awakening, and recalling the dream content, I checked Facebook again and I saw that not even 30 minutes prior to my waking up, my niece Terra had added a new post where she answered a "friends quiz question" and it was specifically about me. She being in Michigan, it was likely that she had already gotten out of bed and was FB'ing while I slept. That got me thinking about what triggers dreams. And that leads to my formal proposition of a hypothesis:
PROPOSED: Dreams are initiated by a combination of internal (to the brain) and external means. Investigations could, and perhaps should, be performed to attempt to identify what external means may impact the formation of and content of a person's dreams.
Detailed Hypothesis: (i.e. I am not sure if this is correct, but I state it such that it can be tested) I would submit that it is possible that a physical DNA connection between "sender" and "receiver" could possibly explain a signal that may induce not only a dream in the "receiver" but may induce a dream that includes the "sender" in the dream's content.
Experimental Protocol: Identify a test group and a control group (detailed below) of single-blind test subjects who will be identified as "dream inducers" and "target dreamers". The single-blind nature is such that the "target dreamer" will not know who may be attempting to induce them to dream, nor when it may occur. Obviously, in order to attempt to induce a dream, the "dream inducer" needs to know which "target dreamer" they are aiming for. Hence why the best we could do is single-blind. The experimenter would identify a time when it is known the "target dreamers" would be asleep, and instruct the "dream inducers" to actively think about the "target dreamer" and record their thoughts as they did this for some defined period of time. The "target dreamers" would be instructed to simply record any/all dreams, and what people they knew that were part of the dreams, upon waking.
Test Group: In this group it would be a requirement that the pairing of "dream inducer" and "target dreamer" must share heritage mitochondrial DNA. In other words, the pair must both be descended from a common mother. Brothers and sisters from the same mother would be ideal, but, as in my case, other relatives down the mitochondrial line would not be excluded. The primary test aspect is that they must share mitochondrial DNA.
Control Group: This group would contain "dream inducer" and "target dreamer" pairings that were not related by DNA, but it might be preferable that the inducer and dreamer knew each other for no other reason than to ensure the inducer has memories and thoughts of the target that they could focus on during the test.
Data Analysis: The purpose would be to try to identify a statistically significant number of people from the test group who dreamed about the person who was instructed to try and induce the dream. Similarly, we would expect the data to show no statistically-significant connection between inducer and target in the control group.
Whaddya think? Any thoughts or comments?
RMT
As often happens while I am sleeping, I woke up around 1:30AM, well before my 4:30 time when I have to get up for work. I broswed facebook for awhile, and was updated about the goings-on in the life of one of my nieces I have not seen in a long time. I eventually drifted back to sleep, but the thing to note is that, quite possibly, the last thoughts on my mind were about my niece, Terra. Upon awaking just before the alarm went off at 4:30, I realized I had been dreaming. As most people will testify, your dreams are freshest in your mind just as you awake. The dream had several bizzare themes, but of most interest were the other people involved in the dream: My niece, Terra, and her brother and two sisters whom I helped raise when I lived in Ohio in my pre-college years. Upon awakening, and recalling the dream content, I checked Facebook again and I saw that not even 30 minutes prior to my waking up, my niece Terra had added a new post where she answered a "friends quiz question" and it was specifically about me. She being in Michigan, it was likely that she had already gotten out of bed and was FB'ing while I slept. That got me thinking about what triggers dreams. And that leads to my formal proposition of a hypothesis:
PROPOSED: Dreams are initiated by a combination of internal (to the brain) and external means. Investigations could, and perhaps should, be performed to attempt to identify what external means may impact the formation of and content of a person's dreams.
Detailed Hypothesis: (i.e. I am not sure if this is correct, but I state it such that it can be tested) I would submit that it is possible that a physical DNA connection between "sender" and "receiver" could possibly explain a signal that may induce not only a dream in the "receiver" but may induce a dream that includes the "sender" in the dream's content.
Experimental Protocol: Identify a test group and a control group (detailed below) of single-blind test subjects who will be identified as "dream inducers" and "target dreamers". The single-blind nature is such that the "target dreamer" will not know who may be attempting to induce them to dream, nor when it may occur. Obviously, in order to attempt to induce a dream, the "dream inducer" needs to know which "target dreamer" they are aiming for. Hence why the best we could do is single-blind. The experimenter would identify a time when it is known the "target dreamers" would be asleep, and instruct the "dream inducers" to actively think about the "target dreamer" and record their thoughts as they did this for some defined period of time. The "target dreamers" would be instructed to simply record any/all dreams, and what people they knew that were part of the dreams, upon waking.
Test Group: In this group it would be a requirement that the pairing of "dream inducer" and "target dreamer" must share heritage mitochondrial DNA. In other words, the pair must both be descended from a common mother. Brothers and sisters from the same mother would be ideal, but, as in my case, other relatives down the mitochondrial line would not be excluded. The primary test aspect is that they must share mitochondrial DNA.
Control Group: This group would contain "dream inducer" and "target dreamer" pairings that were not related by DNA, but it might be preferable that the inducer and dreamer knew each other for no other reason than to ensure the inducer has memories and thoughts of the target that they could focus on during the test.
Data Analysis: The purpose would be to try to identify a statistically significant number of people from the test group who dreamed about the person who was instructed to try and induce the dream. Similarly, we would expect the data to show no statistically-significant connection between inducer and target in the control group.
Whaddya think? Any thoughts or comments?
RMT
