Understanding conscious experiences during sleep

Emerging research suggests that elements of awareness persist throughout various sleep stages, challenging conventional notions of unconsciousness during sleep. This dynamic and enigmatic interplay of conscious and unconscious processes during sleep fundamentally questions our understanding of what sleep and dreaming truly entail.

Exploring the complexity of conscious experiences during sleep not only sheds light on their spectrum but also holds potential implications for treating conditions such as post-traumatic stress disorder nightmares, epic dreaming, or nightmare disorder. Moreover, this avenue of research expands our understanding of the capabilities of the brain to monitor the surroundings even in the absence of behavioral signs of awareness. Importantly, physiology, responsiveness, and phenomenology are dimensions of sleep that vary in many ways. We are only beginning to understand the implications of these variations.

This Research Topic aims to illuminate recent advancements in the field of consciousness and sleep research, offering insights into the spectrum of conscious experience during sleep and its profound implications for behavior and mental well-being. We invite papers that examine the role of neural networks and physiological markers in shaping conscious experiences during sleep, considering factors such as (N)REM dreaming, lucid dreaming, as well as the impact of external stimuli and internal cognitive processes on altering the depth and quality of conscious experiences.

Possible topics of interest include, but are not limited to:

● Conscious experience during REM sleep

● NREM dream experience

● Novel insights on the mechanisms of sensory processing during sleep.

● Dream engineering

● Hypnagogic content and its neurophysiological correlates.

● Neural correlates of conscious experiences during sleep → EEG and fMRI

● Lucid dreams induction → conscious awareness of dreaming

Article types and fees

This Research Topic accepts the following article types, unless otherwise specified in the Research Topic description:

• Brief Research Report
• Case Report
• Clinical Trial
• Community Case Study
• Conceptual Analysis
• Curriculum, Instruction, and Pedagogy
• Data Report
• Editorial
• FAIR² Data
• ... View all formats

Articles that are accepted for publication by our external editors following rigorous peer review incur a publishing fee charged to Authors, institutions, or funders.

Article types

This Research Topic accepts the following article types, unless otherwise specified in the Research Topic description:

• Brief Research Report
• Case Report
• Clinical Trial
• Community Case Study
• Conceptual Analysis
• Curriculum, Instruction, and Pedagogy
• Data Report
• Editorial
• FAIR² Data
• General Commentary
• Hypothesis and Theory
• Methods
• Mini Review
• Opinion
• Original Research
• Perspective
• Registered Report
• Review
• Study Protocol
• Systematic Review
• Technology and Code

Keywords: Conscious experiences during sleep, REM dreams, NREM dreams, Dream Engineering, Hypnagogia

Important note: All contributions to this Research Topic must be within the scope of the section and journal to which they are submitted, as defined in their mission statements. Frontiers reserves the right to guide an out-of-scope manuscript to a more suitable section or journal at any stage of peer review.