Sculpting Dreams

The Dream Director is presently being tested and if the team finds that the sounds are being incorporated into dreams, it could be used as a therapeutic aid for people who experience traumatic dreams. But Jennie Parker, a psychologist and one of the researchers, still thinks there is a lot of work to be done to determine the potential of the device. Since it uses many typical sounds, it could be difficult for the researchers to determine if dream imagery was actually caused by the Dream Director. "We should really be waiting to see what we find from these initial pilot studies before we start making any predictions about what the Dream Director can actually do," she says. "This is very new work, it is absolutely in its infancy."

Courtesy of Luke Jerram The Dream Director records the person's heart rate and the stage of sleep they are in.

Sleep research in itself is quite a new discipline and was only established in the 1950s after REM sleep was discovered and related to dreaming. The purpose of dreams and the legitimacy of dream therapy is still being debated. According to Professor Jim Horne, Director of Loughborough Sleep Centre, since dreams occur during periods of very light sleep, external stimuli can become incorporated into them, but whether this is significant is another matter. Although he thinks that dreams play a role in keeping our brain stimulated while we sleep, he is also sure that we could do without them. "Some antidepressants remove REM sleep with no apparent detriment to the patient," he says. "If people have traumatic dreams and are disturbed by them then it's probably better to remove them."

But Parker does believe that dreams are important and allow the brain to process emotional information. "I don't necessarily think the images are important but the emotional content is. We need to remember that they are universal and are the most recurring form of altered consciousness," she says.

Since the project straddles the disciplines of science and art, it is not only fuelling the advancement of sleep research but also allowing Jerram to create artwork. His goals are very different from those of the psychologists since for him, the scientific results are a means of producing his art. If the Dream Director is able to successfully alter dreams, he will create a multimedia installation that gallery-goers can borrow overnight to try and go beyond their wildest dreams.

For more information:

Luke Jerram's web site
http://lukejerram.com

Loughborough Sleep Research Centre
http://www.lboro.ac.uk/departments/hu/groups/sleep/