Does anyone know the song at 21:35?

Great blog!! :) .Mine is www.eyeandpen.com

I remember a theory about why we dream so vivid, why dreams are related to life events and facts and why we forget the dreams.

It was like this...in order to close the synapses the brain has to close the stressing issues or opened synapses (unanswered questions) and it starts generating solutions for all opened synapses that's why the dreams have a strong connection with the reality and also sometimes they are solutions to issues on our mind. The more real they are the more easily a solution is accepted by our brain. Also we forget the dreams because if we would remember so vivid dreams we would not be able to make a difference of what really happened and what we dreamed in the long run...

I like this theory and I tend to agree with it.

I've always been really interested in sleep and dreams and have studied it loosely throughout my life. This was one of the best shows I've ever heard on NPR! I sat in my car and listened to the entire show. Couldn't tear myself away. Good job guys!

It annoys me that on this show, as on others I've heard, people make sweeping generalizations about dreams. And they're always different generalizations. Apparently, for some reason this is a topic on which many people unaccountably feel entitled to assume that everyone else is just like themselves.

For instance, one of your guests said, "We never surf the Net in dreams." I beg your pardon! I've done that many times. The same person went on to say "the colors in dreams are always vivid, Technicolor." In fact most of my dreams are in black and white, as has always been the case. It is true that in the infrequent ones that have color, that color is usually vivid -- perhaps because, black and white being the default, when color is there it's there for a specific reason and hence is emphasized. But it's usually not there at all.

I think I have an answer to the question "why do we sleep?".
First, I need to make a suggestion for all those brain scientist to learn at least a little bit of computer science.
Every computer room manager knows that s/he from time to time to run file/Db reorg for all indexed files and/or Data Bases. It is necessary because over the time those files and DBs are giving very slow response. I heard and read many times that the human deprived on sleep has very slow reactions.
Unfortunatelly not every computer professional today knows why over the time files and DBs develop slow responce. It is actually a result of a lot of updates that are handled by bunch of new pointers created to help processing the data.
The data from the files is being loaded in the primary memory during reorganization and then loaded back to disk memory in organized way.
I think that though human/animal memory is not built exactly the same was as computer memory there are some similar elements and/or procedures.
When you drive your car on the street or express way you see other cars, people, houses and many, many other objects. All these objects and/or sounds we accumulate in our memory. These conscious and unconscious memories are stored in our memory in very chaotic way. This leads our brain to work harder and harder and responce slower and slower the same way as computer files and DBs.
That is why we need to sleep to reorganize our memories.
During our sleep our brain(computer) sorts out all the memorized events and objects in the primary memory, delete some of them and them load the needed ones to our secondary memory in organized way.
When pieces of memory are loaded into our primary memory we see dreams in some strange way sometimes.

I recently read in Smithsonian Mag that the human brain made a significant leap in development when humans started using fire. The fire kept the predators away at night so humans could get a good night of uninterrupted dream sleep.

Thanks, this show was really interesting. I have a mild form of schizophrenia. I experience visual and occasionally auditory hallucinations involuntarily and used to mistake them for reality. My condition is genetic, not related to any drug use. I have had been aware of my condition for over 10 years and manage it with therapy and lifestyle, not medication. I have known for many years now that when I do not get enough sleep, especially more then one day in a row, my hallucinations become worse and my ability to "control" my reaction to them worsens (I forget they arent real and react like anybody I suppose would react to whatever I am seeing.) My therapist is also aware that sleep is VERY important to my management of my disease, but not exactly sure why. I should mention I am a very heavy sleeper as well, but only sleep about 7 hours at a time. This show was really interesting for me. THANK YOU!

Enjoyed the Sleep show a lot. A question: what about other kinds of problem solving, especially in creative work? I have
Been writing the same ten pages of my current book for several days,never two days in a row, and wish there could be an "aha!" breakthrough like those you describe. But with writing, I haven't experienced it, as your game-players and the rat in the maze did.

Toward the end of the program there was mention of putting things together in new ways -- creativity -- rather than more direct "How To" learning. I'd like to hear more about that.

Keep up the good work! Great show.

Toni

Wow, i really related to the mom with the son who couldn't sleep. I nearly lost my mind when my son was an infant.

Great program. Re: sleeping cats. Over the years I've had cats that will seemingly sleep through anything. Loud noises, bouncing on the bed when he/she is sleeping on the bed, clapping hands near cat, meowing to cat, etc. However, open a can of tuna in the (downstairs)kitchen and they will zoom down from the upstairs bedroom. Or, if one cat is sleeping on the bed and the other (dominant) one jumps on the bed the other immediately jumps off. Nothing new about this, but may be of interest to new pet owners.

Having spent many years in broadcasting as a writer/voice and production director i have a suspicion of just how much work goes into each program. I want to say thanks; I love your shows; each is a little masterpiece—a gem.

Again, Thank You so much.

PS:After years of listening to your shows i finally had to see how Jad spelled his first and last name; it was driving me nutz!

Jim

www.hilsabeckproductions.com

The guitar piece is Romanza.

Awsome show! Love the program. I sleep in vivid colors and always with start to finish story lines,lots of charactures,drama,plots & resolutions.When Im awake,Im exhausted! I wish I had time to be a novelist!

What is the name of the classical guitar piece on todays episode? My father taught that to me as a kid and I've never known the name of it!

There was some music early in the show, light twinkling music. I thought it sounded like Colleen's "I'll Read You A Story". "http://www.last.fm/music/Colleen/_/I'll+Read+You+A+Story

Any verification? I'll have to try and check the podcast when I can find it.

Do any of the studies consider sleep gender differences, or even gender differences by species/ordered social behavior?

The "ducks" segment suggests a social order, but does not identify social/gender implications. I have observed that wild geese, whom I believe mate for life, and other birds, mourning doves most closely, seem to trade off guard duty within the pairing. While one goose eats or sleeps, the mate stands sentry nearby, and undistracted.

From my own observations, :-), men seem to sleep much more soundly than I do, and I am blessed with excellent sleep-ability. Possibly romantic pre-occupations have on occasion distracted me from deeper sleep. However, is it possible that within a given specie, physical strength affords more secure sleep as related to confidence in ability to respond to threat? A defense advantage? The weaker predisposed to flight and reduced element of surprise; the stronger more able and willing in fight?

I have twice become the adoptive guardian of cats, in both instances mature cats. The first was a female who seemed always to sleep with one eye open for weeks or months. I was so happy the day she finally slept through without stirring and waking when I entered the room! From that day forward she seemed finally to be able to sleep regardless of my movements. My second cat adoption was a male and female pair. Similar pattern of adjustment for the female, but from day one, my boy cat never seemed to have any difficulty sleeping at will, whenever, wherever, regardless of whomever. Such a boy!

As all of my dog pets have been male, I have no comparisons relative to gender, but my last dog continued to sleep, in my bed, after I rose, brushed teeth, fussed around, watered plants, etc. He was often still asleep on my shoulder after I put his leash on him and carried him down three flights of stairs to his first morning outing! So sweet...

Is this a boy thing?

"...and somehow Tetris gets in there everytime." !!!!
I had to stop playing Tetris on my phone because the Tetris dreams were driving me nuts. And when I was a software tester, I used to have dreams that took place in windows. I'd close one dream like a window, and another window would be waiting. When I worked in production, the dreams were all about making a mistake in the budget of a shoot, missing planes, forgetting something on a list.
I'm now a cartoonist. Could not take the dreams that come with gainful employment.

This video reminded me of when I was young, grade school. I used to have these terrible recurring nightmares. Each nightmare started the same way, I was in a large grey room empty except for a faceless figure across the room and every time I would look at this figure it would move farther and farther away, Like the room was stretching, and at some point I would wake up and I would experience the same experience of the room I was in stretching. There was something about this which frightened me so much that I would be screaming and crying for hours. My mother later told me that what I was experience was a night terror and that each night she would worry about me hurting myself in a crazed half awake state. Luckily it seems that I no longer get night terrors but sometimes when someone trys to wake me up while I'm in a deep sleep I say things that I don't remember, quite odd and a bit scary.

I continue to be shocked by NPR's treatment of animal experimentation.

In tonight’s sleep and dream program, the issue of drilling holes in the skulls of lizards (and based on other animals used for this research, also cats, birds, and dolphins), was handled with flip humor—the lizard is soon back on his or her feet, so what could be wrong with invasively drilling into the lizard’s skull for our own scientific interests?

NPR would never treat such exploitation of any disempowered humans in this way—indeed, they might also be back on their feet quickly, but it is wrong to drill holes in the skulls of others because we are interested in their sleep. If the chuckling researchers truly think there is no moral concern with what they are doing, why are these methods never used on human beings?

I am very tired of this kind of indifference with regard to animal experimentation in NPR programming.

Listening to your closing credits had me yawning constantly. I remember hearing that just thinking about a yawn causes you to yawn. Why is that?

That's why we say sleep with one eye open!

One of most intriguing episodes, thanks!

@casey: Those two mechanisms are not mutually exclusive. I guess it's a combination of strengthening the useful signals while getting rid of the useless noise. First you reinforce synaptic connections of emotionally flagged content by simply replaying it. Then you integrate the new content with old flagged content from the archive by making cross-connections. Then you wash over it to reduce baseline noise.

Listening to this at work is making me sleeeepyyyy...

I'm curious how sleep as a means of "rewiring" or strengthening synapses is reconciled with the notion that sleep acts as a volume dial, reducing or quieting the experiences of the previous day.

Hey! Olivia Block!

Both music intermissions are by the band Casino versus Japan. First song is called Troidic, second is Marilyn set me free.

I can relate to seeing the images of organic chemistry reactions when trying to sleep. Radiolab should do a podcast about how the brain constructs maps of one's environment via neuronal signal patterning, very substantive stuff. Acausal consciousness amidst biochemical reactions and the illusory nature of free will, that is the stuff of life (well, for me at least).

John, I don't dream in color, either. My dreams are mostly gray and muted. Oftentimes the faces aren't clear, even when I'm dreaming about someone I know well. Occasionally, a color or two will be vivid in my dream, but that's rare for me.

So does everyone dream I color? I feel left out, it's always dark and colorless in my dreams with shapes and outlines of things. Never any real color. What does that mean?

"Browsing the net never turns up in people's dreams, but tetris does." I have dreams about browsing the net all the time. I'm browsing the net in the dreams and then I don't realize it's a dream until I see a headline that sounds interesting and go "I'll read that" and then realize I can't read anymore because I'm asleep and then I'll wake up.

Very interesting! I'd be curious about organ regeneration/deterioration related to sleep.

Fantastic!
Who produces the music?

What an interesting topic! But unfortunately, those yawns at the end there were quite contagious, and you have me yawning now...you should explore why hearing or seeing a yawn sends someone else into a fit of yawning.

How about the old saying:
" sleep brings sleep".

It has happened to me several times. The more I sleep the more sleepy I am.

So the noise from that sleeping kitten's brain... that's the sound of one cat napping?

Oh man!

Can I EVER identify with the forced sleep deprivation brought about by KIDS. And the thing is that I know I will not achieve regular sleep levels again for the next 2 or 3 years. This just sucks all the pleasure out of the "joys of parenthood" for me.

Personally, I beleive I will hit my parenting stride during my boys' adolecent and teenage years. I'm much better suited for those sets of challenges, because all this sleep deprevation garbage and constant whining is just squeezing the very life-force out of me.

Psychonaut was correct with "Casino Versus Japan" http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ta7d1Z5-7QU

Try giving their other tunes a listen too.

Related: This was a great episode, as usual. I'm just starting to listen to all of them.

Listened to many episodes already, but just heard this one for the first time... I actually sleep better in hotel rooms than at home (perhaps from touring with bands) and when I'm at home I actually seem to dislike sleep. Whatever that is...

I almost stopped listening to this episode because I cannot stand to listen to crying, screaming, children. Really.

I live in an apartment building with very thin, wooden floors. My neighbors above me don't go to bed until after 3:30 in the morning. I lay in bed listening to their footsteps and curse their existence.

I never thought sleeping could be so stressful.

What is the song at 21min.? That is my question...

I was also struck by the dreamy, downtempo song at around the 40 mark, and Shazam seems to be incorrectly attributing the song to Marilyn Monroe (when I fall in love).

However, I'm almost certain this is a loop from Groove Armada track "At the River", layed over another drum loop. Anyhow, that Groove Armada song is quite dreamily blissful. So if you're looking for the full song of the sample at 40:00, you should feel most of the same effect with Groove Armada track:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m-uztVX6QFQ&ob=av2nm

Song from dreams section 40 minutes in:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ta7d1Z5-7QU

I would also like to know the song at 40 mins!

I listened to one of these shows while wearing headphones and fell asleep. I remember dreaming about friends from highschool days meeting in a restaurant, and at some point the class smarty stood to give a toast... he started in, but instantly started reciting an ad for something you guys had on your show about another show... I'd already listened to this show prior to sleeping, and when he made his toast, at first it was funny, the folks at the table laughed, then I realized I'd heard this in the ad, and started to realize that my dream was putting your words I was hearing on the fly, into his mouth... It was like a poltergeist took over his body, but when I realized all this I think that's what fully pulled me to wakefulness; then I tried to scribble all this down, but later, trying to read my sleepy scribblings realized why dream research may be impossible at the level of house-hold funding.

Oh man.... Let me just say that my daughter, who is 20 months old right now, will not sleep. I happened to be listening to the sleep episode the other day while in the haze of sleep depravity, and suddenly felt a little bit better. I can totally relate to Hannah's experiences with children and sleep deprivation. We finally got her to sleep a couple nights in a row and thought she had finally ended her fight against sleep.... Not the case; we battle on!

My daughter lives the "sleep is for the weak" motto, and with the wild schedule of the holidays shows no sign of relenting.

can anybody tell me what song that is at 40 min in? i really like it. also, this was an awesome episode.