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Very Short Introductions #127
Dreaming: A Very Short Introduction
What is dreaming, and what causes it? Why are dreams so strange and why are they so hard to remember? Replacing dream mystique with modern dream science, J. Allan Hobson provides a new and increasingly complete picture of how dreaming is created by the brain. Focusing on dreaming to explain the mechanisms of sleep, this book explores how the new science of dreaming is affecting theories in psychoanalysis, and how it is helping our understanding of the causes of mental illness.
J. Allan Hobson investigates his own dreams to illustrate and explain some of the fascinating discoveries of modern sleep science, while challenging some of the traditionally accepted theories about the meaning of dreams. He reveals how dreaming maintains and develops the mind, why we go crazy in our dreams in order to avoid doing so when we are awake, and why sleep is not just good for health but essential for life.
J. Allan Hobson investigates his own dreams to illustrate and explain some of the fascinating discoveries of modern sleep science, while challenging some of the traditionally accepted theories about the meaning of dreams. He reveals how dreaming maintains and develops the mind, why we go crazy in our dreams in order to avoid doing so when we are awake, and why sleep is not just good for health but essential for life.
153 pages, Paperback
First published January 21, 2005
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1509 people want to read
About the author
J. Allan Hobson
40 books24 followersJohn Allan Hobson is an American psychiatrist and dream researcher. He is known for his research on rapid eye movement sleep. He is Professor of Psychiatry, Emeritus, Harvard Medical School, and Professor, Department of Psychiatry, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 78 reviews
October 30, 2021
This is not dreamy Freud stuff, it's hard neuroscience. Be prepared for that.
Maybe the title should be "Consciousness" or "Sleep" A Very Short Introduction. But that'd probably not pull as many readers.
Though the explanation about Science of Sleep (not the Metalband, but shout-out anyway) is still very interesting and eye-opening (pun intended).
The real problem I have with this book: It was written in 2002 and feels a little outdated. Whenever the author writes the sentence: "We just don't know yet", I can't help myself but think "we probably know by now". An update would help this book a lot.
Maybe the title should be "Consciousness" or "Sleep" A Very Short Introduction. But that'd probably not pull as many readers.
Though the explanation about Science of Sleep (not the Metalband, but shout-out anyway) is still very interesting and eye-opening (pun intended).
The real problem I have with this book: It was written in 2002 and feels a little outdated. Whenever the author writes the sentence: "We just don't know yet", I can't help myself but think "we probably know by now". An update would help this book a lot.
December 28, 2015
This book had good points and bad points.
The good was that it dedicated the time to demolish Freudian theories systematically, which is something that the general public needs to hear. It also provided a lot of interesting information about a topic everyone is interested in, but not much is known about.
That said, many of his "explanations" suffered from circularity, chief of which was: "why do we dream? Because the brain is activated during sleep". This is an incredibly silly thing to say, and I am surprised a scientist of his caliber would do so. It's technically true, but it's not giving you any new information. Once you've accepted that there is only matter, and therefore all mental phenomena are created in the brain, then it is of course necessary that dreams be caused by an active brain. What bothered me particularly, was that he used this as proof against freud's theory of dreams being the subconscious trying to communicate cryptically. If Freud were right, dreams would STILL be caused by brain activation. They are not answering the same "why". If there is no better answer yet, don't pretend like this is one!
I did t feel like I learned much more on dreams than what I could have gotten with a few well written news article titles. I was interested in his approach to dream structure rather than content.
I also appreciated the fact that a few experiments and discoveries went against his original preconceptions.
The good was that it dedicated the time to demolish Freudian theories systematically, which is something that the general public needs to hear. It also provided a lot of interesting information about a topic everyone is interested in, but not much is known about.
That said, many of his "explanations" suffered from circularity, chief of which was: "why do we dream? Because the brain is activated during sleep". This is an incredibly silly thing to say, and I am surprised a scientist of his caliber would do so. It's technically true, but it's not giving you any new information. Once you've accepted that there is only matter, and therefore all mental phenomena are created in the brain, then it is of course necessary that dreams be caused by an active brain. What bothered me particularly, was that he used this as proof against freud's theory of dreams being the subconscious trying to communicate cryptically. If Freud were right, dreams would STILL be caused by brain activation. They are not answering the same "why". If there is no better answer yet, don't pretend like this is one!
I did t feel like I learned much more on dreams than what I could have gotten with a few well written news article titles. I was interested in his approach to dream structure rather than content.
I also appreciated the fact that a few experiments and discoveries went against his original preconceptions.
June 30, 2018
I never know a book about dreaming could be so boring.....
January 27, 2020
Un viaggio interessantissimo.
Leggerò altri libri di questa collana su altri temi perché ho l’impressione che abbiano il pregio di spiegare temi complicati senza andare troppo in uno specifico che i “non addetti ai settori” non potrebbero comprendere; ci sono ovviamente state cose che non ho capito del tutto, asserzioni che ho accettato “senza sapere cosa ci fosse dietro”, ma il libro è ricco di esempi e l’autore riprende spesso i concetti e cerca di spiegarli in altre parole. Sicuramente, la traduzione in italiano aiuterebbe.
La cosa che ho amato di più, però, non è stato solo la possibilità di accedere a certi temi in maniera più immediata di quanto si potrebbe fare con una ricerca online, ma soprattutto le innumerevoli domande che questo libro mi ha lasciato e le riflessioni annesse: si chiude il libro con un poco di curiosità soddisfatta e con ancora più fame di sapere - e non è questo bellissimo?
Leggerò altri libri di questa collana su altri temi perché ho l’impressione che abbiano il pregio di spiegare temi complicati senza andare troppo in uno specifico che i “non addetti ai settori” non potrebbero comprendere; ci sono ovviamente state cose che non ho capito del tutto, asserzioni che ho accettato “senza sapere cosa ci fosse dietro”, ma il libro è ricco di esempi e l’autore riprende spesso i concetti e cerca di spiegarli in altre parole. Sicuramente, la traduzione in italiano aiuterebbe.
La cosa che ho amato di più, però, non è stato solo la possibilità di accedere a certi temi in maniera più immediata di quanto si potrebbe fare con una ricerca online, ma soprattutto le innumerevoli domande che questo libro mi ha lasciato e le riflessioni annesse: si chiude il libro con un poco di curiosità soddisfatta e con ancora più fame di sapere - e non è questo bellissimo?
May 1, 2012
We all dream, even if we are not aware of it seems like we had stopped dreaming many years ago. The act of dreaming is an integral part of human sleep, and dreams have always been a source of endless fascination and speculation. People in various cultures and time periods have devoted time and effort to the interpretation of dreams, and many such interpretations have had a significant impact on culture, religion, and even the course of history. One of the early promises of psychology was the claim that it was finally able to put many such interpretive claims to a rigorous test, and psychologist to this day are beset by request from the lay public for the explanation of their own dreams.
In "Dreaming - A Very Short Introduction" we are treated to the best modern scientific exploration of dreams - their nature, their causes, and whether or not they hold any special meaning. It is a very detailed book that covers most of the last hundred years of research on dreams, including the two major scientific and conceptual breakthroughs. The first breakthrough was the realization that the brain is still fairly active when we dream, albeit in the ways that are qualitatively different from those of an awake person. The other insight is more recent and it has brought to the end any hope of a systematic interpretation of dreams: dreams, by and large, don't hold any special meaning. Most dreaming activity is a pretty random activation of various cognitive regions of the brain, and even though we still don't know what purpose those activities may hold we are now highly certain that they don't hold any special message for us. The study of dreaming is still very fascinating for the simple reason that it sheds a lot of light on our understanding of the way that brain works, and this book is a useful survey of the recent advances in neuropsychology.
Unfortunately after reading this book I was uncertain about its main messages and lessons. This is perhaps due to the fact that the author doesn't seem to be able to make up his mind about whether he is writing a survey book of a particular research field, a presentation of his own opinions and insights, or an informal discussion of personal dreams and anecdotes that are relevant to the subject. The writing tends to be pretty glum, and the author doesn't engage in the usual upbeat tone of voice that conveys much excitement about his own research field. This book is filled with a lot of information, but not necessarily with a lot of insight. It is still a worthwhile read, but I'd recommend that you also consider "Sleep: A Very short Introduction."
In "Dreaming - A Very Short Introduction" we are treated to the best modern scientific exploration of dreams - their nature, their causes, and whether or not they hold any special meaning. It is a very detailed book that covers most of the last hundred years of research on dreams, including the two major scientific and conceptual breakthroughs. The first breakthrough was the realization that the brain is still fairly active when we dream, albeit in the ways that are qualitatively different from those of an awake person. The other insight is more recent and it has brought to the end any hope of a systematic interpretation of dreams: dreams, by and large, don't hold any special meaning. Most dreaming activity is a pretty random activation of various cognitive regions of the brain, and even though we still don't know what purpose those activities may hold we are now highly certain that they don't hold any special message for us. The study of dreaming is still very fascinating for the simple reason that it sheds a lot of light on our understanding of the way that brain works, and this book is a useful survey of the recent advances in neuropsychology.
Unfortunately after reading this book I was uncertain about its main messages and lessons. This is perhaps due to the fact that the author doesn't seem to be able to make up his mind about whether he is writing a survey book of a particular research field, a presentation of his own opinions and insights, or an informal discussion of personal dreams and anecdotes that are relevant to the subject. The writing tends to be pretty glum, and the author doesn't engage in the usual upbeat tone of voice that conveys much excitement about his own research field. This book is filled with a lot of information, but not necessarily with a lot of insight. It is still a worthwhile read, but I'd recommend that you also consider "Sleep: A Very short Introduction."
January 3, 2023
Pretty good neuroscience behind dreaming, not just "dreamy" stuff.
December 27, 2021
In Dreaming - A Very Short Introduction, J. Allan Hobson accounts for his own theory of dreaming, the activation-synthesis model, according to which dreams are caused by physiological brain processes. It is contrasted with Freud’s focus on the latent dream content: the content is hidden behind a false façade of manifest content, serving as a psychological defence against unacceptable unconscious wishes.
That Freud’s dream theory is dubious is nothing new; but Hobson fails to convince this reader that dreams are nothing but spontaneous by-products from the activation of diverse brain systems. He exemplifies with many of his own dreams. On page 92 he comments that this dream of his was nothing but a delirious hallucination. But it doesn’t seem delirious to me. On the contrary, it seems quite interpretable.
Just because the limbic system is active when we dream about fleeing from danger, it doesn’t prove that the theme of flight is meaningless in the context of the dream as a whole. I don’t understand this argument. He argues that dreams are largely irrational and generally lack content. To exemplify this, he should have provided dreams other than his own. Dreams are very much affected by personality. In my own dreams, I’m not running about like a madman. They do not appear nonsensical and illogical.
A big minus is that the he mentions the names of other authors without providing references and book titles. A scientific book should include references. Although the book properly provides the neurobiological facts about dreams, i.e., the formal causes, I give it only three stars, because it is in certain respects unconvincing and biased.
That Freud’s dream theory is dubious is nothing new; but Hobson fails to convince this reader that dreams are nothing but spontaneous by-products from the activation of diverse brain systems. He exemplifies with many of his own dreams. On page 92 he comments that this dream of his was nothing but a delirious hallucination. But it doesn’t seem delirious to me. On the contrary, it seems quite interpretable.
Just because the limbic system is active when we dream about fleeing from danger, it doesn’t prove that the theme of flight is meaningless in the context of the dream as a whole. I don’t understand this argument. He argues that dreams are largely irrational and generally lack content. To exemplify this, he should have provided dreams other than his own. Dreams are very much affected by personality. In my own dreams, I’m not running about like a madman. They do not appear nonsensical and illogical.
A big minus is that the he mentions the names of other authors without providing references and book titles. A scientific book should include references. Although the book properly provides the neurobiological facts about dreams, i.e., the formal causes, I give it only three stars, because it is in certain respects unconvincing and biased.
January 18, 2019
I had never thought about dreaming, and simply assumed it's not an area there's much knowledge in, since I could not imagine how it could be studied. To my surprise, nothing could be further from the truth; methodologies exists to do neuroimaging, EEG, and even less advanced techniques yield interesting results. In retrospect, considering that there are therapies for insomnia, I should have known that there's a scientific field studying dreaming. I was very supplied to learn that sleeping is vital to thermoregulation, and it was a nice primer for future references in learning about consciousness to learn about the brain-mind isomorphism. I was also pleasantly surprised at the debunking of Freud, and similar misconstrued reductionist theories like associationism, which the author cleverly managed to falsify and disprove. Still, this book has a kind of circular logic, where the reason we sleep is postulated in a sort of Cartesian circle, and that's thinly disguised by a reference to the cyclical nature of sleeping itself, which is a false analogy and a non sequitur; it's much better to keep to theories that the brain needs to repair itself, or the body needs to conserve energy, etc. There were thought provoking questions raised, though - what does dreaming tell us about consciousness? Is it like delirium? Why did it evolve? Does it do different things for different people? (the last one is my silly takeaway from trying to figure out a way out of the circular reasoning; All in all, it is a good idea to read this book, and maybe sleep on it.
October 12, 2020
A fascinating (albeit somewhat dense and challenging) book on the current scientific knowledge about dreaming, linking the study of dreaming and sleep science to all kinds of adjacent (and some not-so-adjacent) domains: neurophysiology, brain chemistry, psychology/psychiatry (including discussions on similarities between dream states and psychosis as well as a good thrashing of Freud), philosophy (interesting discussions on how the study of dreaming give us major clues to the nature of consciousness, perceptual awareness and meta-consciousness), how dreaming and REM/NREM sleep play a role in learning and memory formation/consolidation, etc. Extremely worthwhile read.
August 27, 2016
Contains a lot of trivia and entertaining analyses of the author's own dream journal, but does not have a definitive pattern in which to tie all the thoughts on dream theory together in an enlightening manner. It provides much information and several points of view on what may or may not cause dream states and what they may mean, but by the end of the book, the result is no clearer understanding on the topic as researchers seem to still be in a state of flux and lack of consensus in their studies.
December 30, 2016
My notes while reading the book:
Chapter 1: What is dreaming?
What causes dreaming? Why are they so strange? Why are they hard to remember?
Will give scientific answers. How we perceive think and feel. A formal approach. Not content or interpretation.
Recalls a dream.
Formal vs content approach.
*Form:
1. Sleep onset dreaming: brief and without elaborate plot development
2. Cognition: thinking. No hallucinatory aspects. Emotions. Non-progressive. E.g. on the night of exam. (Non-REM)
3. REM: long, hallucinatory, elaborste plot, scene change, character instability. Very rich. Acceptance of the events as real despite their bizarreness. Emotional intensity. Poor reasoning.
Type 1 and 2 can be explained by being the remained of brain activity. Type 3 needs an elaborate explanation.
REM and brain activity. 95% of sleepers when woken during REM report dreaming. All people dream, but they often forget them if not waken at the time.
Wrote 300+ dream reports over 25 years. Took info from other dream journals (e.g. 256 reports by "Engine Man") and sleep lab reports. Home based reports (the night cap) to compare spontaneous awakening vs artificial one, all in natural settings. This generated a lot of reports.
Chapter 2: Why did the analysis of dream content fail to become a science
Most focused on content; Interpretation. Religious or psychoanalysis.
Will take on psychoanalysis. Frued was a 100 years too early, the technology of his age didn't permit him to undergo such studies. He was very speculative.
Frued picked up the idea of distorted message in dreams and acted as a "high priest". Called his ideas a religion. He retained an agency, brain-mind, ed-ego.
Dreams and future. Superstitions. No evidence to support it, but several against it. Lucid dreaming. Selective rememberence of hits only.
Very similar to delerium.
Why memory is selective in dreaming. Episodic/declaritive memory. This has the potential to tell us a lot about how memory work and its functions. Thinking.
David Hartley's Associationism.
The failures of psychoanalysis to explain dreams. Day residue disproved. Absence of brain science at the time. Limited data about dreams, only 4 dream reports, all by him. Ignored ideas of David Hartley and Hermann Helmholtz.
Sexual repression in dreams unrealistic as there are sexual dreams. False memories and self fulfilling prophecies.
Brain-mind isomorphism; for every mental state a corresponding similar, but not identical to brain state.
Chapter 3: How is the brain activated during sleep
Dreams do not occur just before awakening nor are they mete responses to external stimuli; they are the result of a brain function.
History of the development of modern understanding of brain activity in sleep. Direct observation would have discoveted REM sleep long time ago. Technology wasn't the issue, it was their limited conception. Dream induction by mostly French scholars could have discovered it.
EEG and sleep lab.
Discovery of EEG by Burger (German) in 1928, the first to discover special brain activity at sleep. Discovery of REM by a scientist who was doing experiments on infants and children.
4 stages of sleeping, REM and Non-REM are 1 and 2, where dreams are most likely to occur. Stages 3 and 4 are where it is least likely to occur.
Changes in sleep while dreaming happen to brain activity, eye movement, heart rate, respiration and muscle tones.
A sexual dream. Halusinosis and lack of self reflection. Strong emotions. As if the brain was activated in a partical selective way.
Some people still lean toward brain-mind dissociation. REM is the best predictor of dreaming.
Biology of sleep and dream science. Dream science moving from psychology to physiology. Reductionism. Freud didn't collect data or observe well. Now we have that. We can so to speak fulfill Freud's dream.
Chapter 4: Cells and molecules of the dreaming brain
Discovery of neurons and their function starting from 1890s (action potentials, neurotransmitters, synapses etc). Reflexive vs spontaneous neuronal activity.
Do animals (e.g. cats) dream? Depends on their consciousness. Their brains are active during sleep, the same type of activity as in human brains. They probably do dream. Doesn't include primitive mammals.
Speculations on evolutionary advantage of REM sleeping. Thermal regulation. Procedural learning. It's spontaneous and originates from brain stem.
Norepinephrine and seratonin inhibition during REM?
"Our so called minds are functional states of our brains. The mind is not something else, it is not a spirit, it is not an independent entity, it is the self activated brain whose capacity for subjectivity remains to be explained, but whose form for subjectivity can now be understood."
"This is the most radical assertion of modern dream science; waking and dreaming are two states of consciousness with differences that depend on chemistry."
REM sleep dreams enhanced by cholenergic drugs (acetyle choline).
Chapter 5: Why dream? The functions of brain activation while sleep
Do babies dream? Probably. Since 30 weeks gestation. REM sleep for long hours 8+ daily. Helps with brain development.
Language important for dreams.
Sleep benifits and sleep deprivation effects. Nothing special about REM or non-REM sleep deprivation? Need more studies.
Sleep deprivation studies on rats. Severe effects start from 2 weeks. Reversible.
Skin breaks down. Heat seeking behavior. Weight loss, despite eating. Capacity to regulate body temperature lost. Then at 3-4 weeks they die, as they can't resist bacteria.
We have a very strong tendency to sleep, which suggests it has a very important surcival value.
Sleep important to regulate temperature. Brain activation during sleep has relation to thermal regulation. Only mammals have REM sleep, and only they have thermal regulation.
Function of dreaming. Reorganization of info in brain? Lifelong developmental role? Sleep refreshes our skills needed for survival.
Chapter 6: Disorders of dreaming
Nightmares. Limbic brain. Night terrors (+post traumatic night terrors), NREM sleep and no recall for the dream, sweating and high HR. Result from selective activation of negative feelings in brain.
Sleep walking. Sleep talking. Partial activation of brain, enough to move, but not enough to wake up. The upper voluntary movement centers inactivated, but lower brain centers are activated. The movements are mechanical.
Post traumatic dreams. In NREM sleep.
REM sleep behavior disorder (RBD). Inacting of dreams in physical world.
Chapter 7: Dreams as delerium
Similar characteristics betweeb the two. Confabilation. Visual hallucinations. Delusions. Emotions. Disorientation.
Depression and REM sleep.
Chapter 8: The new neuropsychology of dreaming
CT, fMRI and PET scans show us that the regions for logical thinking (e.g. dorso lateral region of prefrontal cortex) are disabled during sleep, while those responsible for feeling are active. This is a direct confirmation of the hypothesis.
When some regions in brain are damaged dreaming is not conscious and when others are danaged it is not visual. Blind people who weren't blind from birth (i.e. had some visual perceptions) can see in dreams. Other blind people get other hallucinations from other senses.
Chapter 9: Dreaming learning and memory
Procedural unconscious learning. Procedural memory.
Chapter 10: Dream consciousness
Alternative consciousness. Defines consciousness. Qualia and the hard problem. Coherence of dreams.
Chapter 11: The interpretation of dreams
Freud was 50% right and 100% wrong. What he got right. Emotions and instincts play an important part in dreaming. What he got wrong, everything else (e.g. wish fulfillment and repression). True and false causality.
Conclusion
Summary. What we know, what we don't know. The main results. Relationship to consciousness.
Chapter 1: What is dreaming?
What causes dreaming? Why are they so strange? Why are they hard to remember?
Will give scientific answers. How we perceive think and feel. A formal approach. Not content or interpretation.
Recalls a dream.
Formal vs content approach.
*Form:
1. Sleep onset dreaming: brief and without elaborate plot development
2. Cognition: thinking. No hallucinatory aspects. Emotions. Non-progressive. E.g. on the night of exam. (Non-REM)
3. REM: long, hallucinatory, elaborste plot, scene change, character instability. Very rich. Acceptance of the events as real despite their bizarreness. Emotional intensity. Poor reasoning.
Type 1 and 2 can be explained by being the remained of brain activity. Type 3 needs an elaborate explanation.
REM and brain activity. 95% of sleepers when woken during REM report dreaming. All people dream, but they often forget them if not waken at the time.
Wrote 300+ dream reports over 25 years. Took info from other dream journals (e.g. 256 reports by "Engine Man") and sleep lab reports. Home based reports (the night cap) to compare spontaneous awakening vs artificial one, all in natural settings. This generated a lot of reports.
Chapter 2: Why did the analysis of dream content fail to become a science
Most focused on content; Interpretation. Religious or psychoanalysis.
Will take on psychoanalysis. Frued was a 100 years too early, the technology of his age didn't permit him to undergo such studies. He was very speculative.
Frued picked up the idea of distorted message in dreams and acted as a "high priest". Called his ideas a religion. He retained an agency, brain-mind, ed-ego.
Dreams and future. Superstitions. No evidence to support it, but several against it. Lucid dreaming. Selective rememberence of hits only.
Very similar to delerium.
Why memory is selective in dreaming. Episodic/declaritive memory. This has the potential to tell us a lot about how memory work and its functions. Thinking.
David Hartley's Associationism.
The failures of psychoanalysis to explain dreams. Day residue disproved. Absence of brain science at the time. Limited data about dreams, only 4 dream reports, all by him. Ignored ideas of David Hartley and Hermann Helmholtz.
Sexual repression in dreams unrealistic as there are sexual dreams. False memories and self fulfilling prophecies.
Brain-mind isomorphism; for every mental state a corresponding similar, but not identical to brain state.
Chapter 3: How is the brain activated during sleep
Dreams do not occur just before awakening nor are they mete responses to external stimuli; they are the result of a brain function.
History of the development of modern understanding of brain activity in sleep. Direct observation would have discoveted REM sleep long time ago. Technology wasn't the issue, it was their limited conception. Dream induction by mostly French scholars could have discovered it.
EEG and sleep lab.
Discovery of EEG by Burger (German) in 1928, the first to discover special brain activity at sleep. Discovery of REM by a scientist who was doing experiments on infants and children.
4 stages of sleeping, REM and Non-REM are 1 and 2, where dreams are most likely to occur. Stages 3 and 4 are where it is least likely to occur.
Changes in sleep while dreaming happen to brain activity, eye movement, heart rate, respiration and muscle tones.
A sexual dream. Halusinosis and lack of self reflection. Strong emotions. As if the brain was activated in a partical selective way.
Some people still lean toward brain-mind dissociation. REM is the best predictor of dreaming.
Biology of sleep and dream science. Dream science moving from psychology to physiology. Reductionism. Freud didn't collect data or observe well. Now we have that. We can so to speak fulfill Freud's dream.
Chapter 4: Cells and molecules of the dreaming brain
Discovery of neurons and their function starting from 1890s (action potentials, neurotransmitters, synapses etc). Reflexive vs spontaneous neuronal activity.
Do animals (e.g. cats) dream? Depends on their consciousness. Their brains are active during sleep, the same type of activity as in human brains. They probably do dream. Doesn't include primitive mammals.
Speculations on evolutionary advantage of REM sleeping. Thermal regulation. Procedural learning. It's spontaneous and originates from brain stem.
Norepinephrine and seratonin inhibition during REM?
"Our so called minds are functional states of our brains. The mind is not something else, it is not a spirit, it is not an independent entity, it is the self activated brain whose capacity for subjectivity remains to be explained, but whose form for subjectivity can now be understood."
"This is the most radical assertion of modern dream science; waking and dreaming are two states of consciousness with differences that depend on chemistry."
REM sleep dreams enhanced by cholenergic drugs (acetyle choline).
Chapter 5: Why dream? The functions of brain activation while sleep
Do babies dream? Probably. Since 30 weeks gestation. REM sleep for long hours 8+ daily. Helps with brain development.
Language important for dreams.
Sleep benifits and sleep deprivation effects. Nothing special about REM or non-REM sleep deprivation? Need more studies.
Sleep deprivation studies on rats. Severe effects start from 2 weeks. Reversible.
Skin breaks down. Heat seeking behavior. Weight loss, despite eating. Capacity to regulate body temperature lost. Then at 3-4 weeks they die, as they can't resist bacteria.
We have a very strong tendency to sleep, which suggests it has a very important surcival value.
Sleep important to regulate temperature. Brain activation during sleep has relation to thermal regulation. Only mammals have REM sleep, and only they have thermal regulation.
Function of dreaming. Reorganization of info in brain? Lifelong developmental role? Sleep refreshes our skills needed for survival.
Chapter 6: Disorders of dreaming
Nightmares. Limbic brain. Night terrors (+post traumatic night terrors), NREM sleep and no recall for the dream, sweating and high HR. Result from selective activation of negative feelings in brain.
Sleep walking. Sleep talking. Partial activation of brain, enough to move, but not enough to wake up. The upper voluntary movement centers inactivated, but lower brain centers are activated. The movements are mechanical.
Post traumatic dreams. In NREM sleep.
REM sleep behavior disorder (RBD). Inacting of dreams in physical world.
Chapter 7: Dreams as delerium
Similar characteristics betweeb the two. Confabilation. Visual hallucinations. Delusions. Emotions. Disorientation.
Depression and REM sleep.
Chapter 8: The new neuropsychology of dreaming
CT, fMRI and PET scans show us that the regions for logical thinking (e.g. dorso lateral region of prefrontal cortex) are disabled during sleep, while those responsible for feeling are active. This is a direct confirmation of the hypothesis.
When some regions in brain are damaged dreaming is not conscious and when others are danaged it is not visual. Blind people who weren't blind from birth (i.e. had some visual perceptions) can see in dreams. Other blind people get other hallucinations from other senses.
Chapter 9: Dreaming learning and memory
Procedural unconscious learning. Procedural memory.
Chapter 10: Dream consciousness
Alternative consciousness. Defines consciousness. Qualia and the hard problem. Coherence of dreams.
Chapter 11: The interpretation of dreams
Freud was 50% right and 100% wrong. What he got right. Emotions and instincts play an important part in dreaming. What he got wrong, everything else (e.g. wish fulfillment and repression). True and false causality.
Conclusion
Summary. What we know, what we don't know. The main results. Relationship to consciousness.
September 13, 2025
Dreaming: A Very Short Introduction, by the late J. Allan Hobson, promises to provide readers with a concise overview of the science of dreaming. In practice, however, it often feels less like an introduction and more like an extended platform for Hobson’s own theories, delivered in a style that is neither particularly accessible nor especially engaging. While I did learn a fair amount from the book, I was left with the impression that it falls short of its stated aim.
To its credit, the book does contain some useful features. Hobson includes examples from his own dream diary, which add a personal and illustrative dimension. Similarly, the Q&A sections scattered throughout are welcome additions, clarifying common misconceptions and breaking up the otherwise heavy prose.
Unfortunately, these strengths are overshadowed by deeper issues. From the outset, Hobson takes pains to disparage earlier proponents of dream content analysis. While it is fair to challenge outdated psychoanalytic models, his tone is so dismissive that it risks alienating readers who approach the subject with an open but neutral perspective. The relentless critique of content-based approaches and dualist notions of mind and spirit narrows the scope of discussion, rather than expanding it. I could not help but feel that dream form and dream content analysis need not be treated as mutually exclusive.
The style of writing is another barrier. Hobson frequently indulges in extraordinarily long sentences, commonly 30 - 60 words, which makes the text unnecessarily muddy. Combined with his tendency to use unconventional phrasing and heavy scientific jargon, the result is a book that is far less digestible than should be expected from an “introduction.”
Structural issues also weaken the text. The later chapters, in particular, suffer from repetition, circling back to the same core explanations while addressing slightly different questions. While this may reflect the limits of what science could say about dreaming at the time of writing (2002), it nonetheless makes for a tedious reading experience. Moreover, much of the “unknowns” Hobson discusses have since been clarified by subsequent research, which further reduces the book’s contemporary relevance.
In sum, while this book contains moments of insight and remains historically interesting as a record of Hobson's scientific perspective, it is not well-suited for beginners seeking a clear and balanced overview of the field. Its outdated content, convoluted prose, and polemical tone undermine its usefulness, and more recent introductions offer a better entry point.
To its credit, the book does contain some useful features. Hobson includes examples from his own dream diary, which add a personal and illustrative dimension. Similarly, the Q&A sections scattered throughout are welcome additions, clarifying common misconceptions and breaking up the otherwise heavy prose.
Unfortunately, these strengths are overshadowed by deeper issues. From the outset, Hobson takes pains to disparage earlier proponents of dream content analysis. While it is fair to challenge outdated psychoanalytic models, his tone is so dismissive that it risks alienating readers who approach the subject with an open but neutral perspective. The relentless critique of content-based approaches and dualist notions of mind and spirit narrows the scope of discussion, rather than expanding it. I could not help but feel that dream form and dream content analysis need not be treated as mutually exclusive.
The style of writing is another barrier. Hobson frequently indulges in extraordinarily long sentences, commonly 30 - 60 words, which makes the text unnecessarily muddy. Combined with his tendency to use unconventional phrasing and heavy scientific jargon, the result is a book that is far less digestible than should be expected from an “introduction.”
Structural issues also weaken the text. The later chapters, in particular, suffer from repetition, circling back to the same core explanations while addressing slightly different questions. While this may reflect the limits of what science could say about dreaming at the time of writing (2002), it nonetheless makes for a tedious reading experience. Moreover, much of the “unknowns” Hobson discusses have since been clarified by subsequent research, which further reduces the book’s contemporary relevance.
In sum, while this book contains moments of insight and remains historically interesting as a record of Hobson's scientific perspective, it is not well-suited for beginners seeking a clear and balanced overview of the field. Its outdated content, convoluted prose, and polemical tone undermine its usefulness, and more recent introductions offer a better entry point.
April 17, 2023
To be honest, I thought the subject was interesting and the author started off in a no-nonsense approach to dreaming. The debunking of various Freudian interpretation was also at first well-executed. However, for some reason I found this book, supposedly short and introductory (and hence hopefully friendly for non-experts) to be written in a difficult-to-read manner. It almost sounded condescending at times. Furthermore, a lot of the anecdotes and "explanations" are not exactly helpful even if they are correct - I had to actually think quite a bit just to grasp something that is actually not very deep.
Overall, I still can recommend this book if you just want to know what dream and sleep research entails and our current understanding and framework, but I don't think many will find this book enjoyable to read or get much out of it (or more accurately, nothing much will remain in your mind unless you are already very enthusiastic about the subject). One should use this book as a stepping stone to better ones (which I don't know).
Overall, I still can recommend this book if you just want to know what dream and sleep research entails and our current understanding and framework, but I don't think many will find this book enjoyable to read or get much out of it (or more accurately, nothing much will remain in your mind unless you are already very enthusiastic about the subject). One should use this book as a stepping stone to better ones (which I don't know).
March 6, 2025
Hobson, with this book, offers a clearly written and succinctly argued scientific approach to dreaming. Three things that stuck out me is that (1) dreams, neurologically speaking, are closest to instances of delirium (think: Alzheimer's), (2) during REM are body temperature is not regulated, and (3) it is possible that PTSD resulting from war trauma more clearly affects dreams because the emotional rather than cognitive experience is more 'online' when one is waking from sleep and, as such, the emotional state of an assault continues to register in the dreams. Beyond this, I found the author's description of dreams as watching a movie rather than analytically interacting with stimuli as a helpful description of the phenomenon of dreams. I would be curious to see how a narrowly scientific approach to dreams would integrate and correct (or be corrected by, as the case may be) more religious approaches. Unfortunately, this book doesn't tackle this questions as they are a priori ruled out.
March 10, 2020
Mixed emotions on this little book. Not sorry I read it, because Hobson explores some really interesting aspects of consciousness as it relates to dreaming, but large sections of the book were frustrating for me. Hobson spends an inordinate amount of time explaining all the ways he disagrees with Freud, to the point where it starts feeling like a personal vendetta. Then he makes a point of discrediting any approach to dream research that doesn't involve hard science - which I get, since I feel that way about astrology, but still! Even he admits there's so much we don't understand about how dreaming works; maybe give a little more credit to the folks who throughout history have just tried to make some sense of it all. But, in the end, there are some interesting scientific nuggets here, and I did actually enjoy the illustrated excerpts from his dream journal.
December 12, 2023
The author has a very clear stake in an academic battle over which theory of dreaming is correct. He spends too much time talking about Freud to discount him and too little time on the obviously related field of sleep studies. Perhaps he wanted to give a popular audience what it wanted, but what I personally wanted was a more confident discussion of the most up to date research. While it does achieve this, the ratio of what I liked from what I didn't wasn't great.
It should be 3/5 for "worth it and pretty good but has flaws" but I'm taking off a star because the author had the gall to suggest dream theory solves the hard problem of consciousness. Really? He completely misunderstood the problem. Not that a construct of a construct can be created, but that this meta-construct is apparently completely unique in the universe.
It should be 3/5 for "worth it and pretty good but has flaws" but I'm taking off a star because the author had the gall to suggest dream theory solves the hard problem of consciousness. Really? He completely misunderstood the problem. Not that a construct of a construct can be created, but that this meta-construct is apparently completely unique in the universe.
December 4, 2019
Good points:
The main idea makes much sense. We should be as obsessed about specific dream content as we are about about the ramblings of a person with high fever and delirium; or the utterances of your granny with Alzheimer. It is the formal analysis of dreams, the general differences in cognition between dreaming and normal conscious thinking, that gives us the best way to approach the problem. In the same way that you can study grammar generally, without delving in the specific meaning of a sentence.
Bad points:
Slightly repetitive.
Gives non-answers to important questions. For example, to the biological function of dreams.
I listened to the audiobook, which was very clear and correct. But there are tables, and with the audiobook you don't see them.
The main idea makes much sense. We should be as obsessed about specific dream content as we are about about the ramblings of a person with high fever and delirium; or the utterances of your granny with Alzheimer. It is the formal analysis of dreams, the general differences in cognition between dreaming and normal conscious thinking, that gives us the best way to approach the problem. In the same way that you can study grammar generally, without delving in the specific meaning of a sentence.
Bad points:
Slightly repetitive.
Gives non-answers to important questions. For example, to the biological function of dreams.
I listened to the audiobook, which was very clear and correct. But there are tables, and with the audiobook you don't see them.
May 20, 2025
It's hard to write short books on any subject and VSI has the best and worst of those tendencies. On the subject of dreams, do you take the scientific approach to sleep studies or the full history of dream interpretation, in psychology and beyond? Hobson tries to split the difference, leaning toward neuroscience, and to include a lot of his own dream diary experiences into the narrative. While the latter shows some dedication to the subject I'm not sure it added much when space is at a premium. Trying to walk a line between the failure of a standardized dream interpretation in Freudian (and later Jungian) style, while musing on his own dreaming and interpretations relative to his life made for a bit of a muddle.
December 11, 2020
The author, Hobson, was someone who had dream-journaled himself for a long time and most likely with the intention to find meaning in the plot contents of the dreams. Through his research he arrived at the conclusion that there is no meaning in the stories of dreams. He makes a good argument and I believe it's possibly true. What I didn't like is the tone he expressed himself in. Regularly, he let's through that now he feels contempt for people who believe there is a meaning in our dream contents. If you enjoy bursting someone's soap bubbles, that's fine. How about you offer them how else they could find spiritual guidance instead of just showing contempt?
January 23, 2019
A fascinating clinical look at dream forms and brain activation during various stages of sleep. While a dense read and surprisingly rather repetitive, it was a great introduction to many of the brain-mind systems that affect our waking and sleeping states. The author does try several times to extrapolate his explanations to include a much larger perspective on the human consciousness and its reliance on brain chemistry, which I found to be quite a stretch, but he otherwise does a remarkable job of explaining various clinical tests and interpreting their outcomes.
February 7, 2020
I did not care too much for this book. Part of it was the style of writing; lots of words, not much said. The other part was this was less an introduction to dreaming and more the specific theories of J. Allan Hobson, as well as a stroll through all his personal dreams.
In the book he rightfully dismisses Freud, but then goes a little too far to the other side. Hobson argues the forms of dreams are the most important aspect of dreams, and that the symbolism and signs are of little importance.
In the book he rightfully dismisses Freud, but then goes a little too far to the other side. Hobson argues the forms of dreams are the most important aspect of dreams, and that the symbolism and signs are of little importance.
April 17, 2023
[3.5*] Very sciencey - makes sense when Hobson explained his aims of the book and his specific expertise etc. For me would have preferred to read a book more on dreaming as an experience, maybe the more psychological and subjective, rather than a LOAD on brain function and science - felt too heavy to enjoy as a book and to be honest a lot of information (especially the technical stuff) is lost on me as soon as its been read. But if you're studying it from a science standpoint then a very useful book, and for me certainly good to have as a reference.
July 3, 2025
GREAT basic intro to Dream science. If you aare looking for a 1st book or a follow up to classics that predate modern brain scans, this is Teir 1.
Author makes the same mistake all dream scholars do focusing on thier own dreams and experice too much.
It does almost nothing to cover dreaming and mytholgy/history. It is also very light on studies that include people with disabilites or brain trama, two cutting edge areas of dream science.
This book will make the cut for an intro to dream science and culture class.
Author makes the same mistake all dream scholars do focusing on thier own dreams and experice too much.
It does almost nothing to cover dreaming and mytholgy/history. It is also very light on studies that include people with disabilites or brain trama, two cutting edge areas of dream science.
This book will make the cut for an intro to dream science and culture class.
December 17, 2025
Hobson's book critiques Freud's theories on dreaming, emphasizing a scientific approach by examining brain activity during REM sleep. It addresses issues of dream recall and correlates subjective experiences with objective scientific measures. Key topics include the onset of dreaming in infancy, sleep variations, connections between sleep and mood disorders, and insights from brain imaging. Hobson promotes understanding dreams as cognitive processes and highlights advancements in sleep science that improve dream and consciousness interpretation.
July 28, 2025
J. Allan Hobson articulated his activation-synthesis theory of dreaming, positing that dreams emerge from the brain’s interpretation of random neural impulses during REM sleep. Yet, he frequently made sharp, cynical remarks about Freud’s psychoanalytic theories, nearly every three pages. Why do some physiological or physicalist theorists, like Hobson, fail to remain calm and composed in scientific discourse?
January 26, 2020
I would definitely not like to be Hobson's friend, and I also suspect that he was the kind of fourteen-year-old to read a poem and say, laughingly and in too loud of a voice, 'Man, what were they smoking?' But this was a wonderful read – more scientific and more sensitive than I could have hoped.
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April 30, 2021The book describes the key points of the 'Activation-Synthesis' theory, which I wasn't familiarized with. The theory puts a heavy emphasis on REM sleep and the corresponding activity in the brainstem. So, I recommend this to people, who'd like to read about the theory and its implications for sleep consciousness.
March 27, 2022
short but precise
For all of its brevity the book does provide a decent introduction into modern scientific views on dreaming. Based on reason and evidence rather than wishful thinking.
In short it’s all functional. The actual content is not of much significance.
If this is true then So much for the extended fantasies of Freud and Jung and countless others throughout the ages.
For all of its brevity the book does provide a decent introduction into modern scientific views on dreaming. Based on reason and evidence rather than wishful thinking.
In short it’s all functional. The actual content is not of much significance.
If this is true then So much for the extended fantasies of Freud and Jung and countless others throughout the ages.
September 6, 2022
A bit of good information sandwiched between the ranting of an author who has needlessly strong opinions about his intellectual opponents. My recommendation: read a few Wikipedia articles on the topic instead of this book. Too much time wasted ranting & rambling to deliver a pretty shallow set of information.
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June 7, 2024"Sueño luego existo" escribe Hobson en esta obra en la que presenta algunas de las teorías en torno al sueño y la razón por la que soñamos, haciendo enfásis en los procesos metabólicos que implica el sueño y no a la interpretación, como se hizo hasta el estudio del proceso del sueño en el siglo XX.
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