From: ken@iat.holonet.net (Ken Easlon)
Subject: Re: "Falling" Asleep
Organization: HoloNet National Internet Access BBS: 510-704-1058/modem
Date: Wed, 6 Jan 1993 04:11:01 GMT


In article <103655@netnews.upenn.edu> ,
rowe@pender.ee.upenn.edu (Mickey Rowe) writes:

>In article <BzsJHL.J31@iat.holonet.net> ken@iat.holonet.net 
>(Ken Easlon) writes: 

>>I think it's associated with the disconnection of gravity sensors in the 
>>sleep state. 

>>This is offered from a strictly subjective point of view, and may not
>>have any neuro-biological basis, but when I'm asleep I tend to maintain a
>>certain amount of body awareness.  For example, if I'm sleeping on my
>>side with one knee cocked, I am more likely to have dreams about climbing
>>stairs or some similar activity requiring the same body position. 
 
I'm kind of curious as to what you're talking about here.  During REM 
sleep (when most dreams occur), there is an active inhibition of your 
motor neurons, but I don't know of any special "disconnection of 
gravity sensors".  Do you?   

Like I said, I don't know if there has been any research on the topic.  My
data comes strictly from my own experience in the hypnagogic state and
dream remberences on awakening.  Since I rarely awake in the middle of a
sound sleep (during some phase of which REM would presumably occur) my data
is based on a kind of mental activity that sleep investigators might have a
name for other than dreams.

Nonetheless, whenever I awake I can almost always remember the most recent
flash or two of the mental activity that I call dreams.  Over the years
I've developed a pretty good idea of some of the properties common to these
dreams, and some of the more interesting include:

     A sense of "down" in the direction of my feet rather than in the
     direction of the center of the earth.

     A pronounced absence of gravitational sensation, such as:
          . the sense of effort in maintaining the kind of posture the
          dream depicted  or
          . the pressure of the real bed or dream ground pressing itself
          against my body

To my (decidedly unscientific) mind this says "gravity disconnect" in
rather pronounced terms, and I'll be very surprised if the idea doesn't
show up in the scientific literature sooner or later.

repeating
>>For example, if I'm sleeping on my side with one knee cocked, I am more
>>likely to have dreams about climbing stairs or some similar activity
>>requiring the same body position. 

>I'm really curious as to how you have tested this.  

ibid.

But actually, the point isn't worth debating.  I was trying to explain my
assumption that my dream feet are in the same direction as my real feet,
which on reflection is a point that stands on it's own (so to speak).

>>I suspect this gravity disconnect is necessary for dreaming about
>>activity, otherwise we'd probably only have dreams of lying down. 
 
>I also think this is a bit of nonsense.  You're presupposing that 
>outer events (e.g. body positions) play a strong role in your dream 
>content.  

Again, not a presupposition, rather the result of a rather large body of
personal experience.   To  reproduce my experience, I would suggest paying
close attention to things like orientation when making the hypnogogic
transition between sleep and wakefulness (and back).

Perhaps I'm a totally unique specimen, but I doubt it.  When lying down
thinking about doing things in the real world I visualize myself erect with
respect to the earth, and at 90 degrees with respect to my current
reclining position.  Indeed it's my appreciation of the effort involved in
getting up and actually performing the imagined act that drives home the
fact that I am indeed awake and lying down.

When I slip into dreamland, I still imagine myself erect with respect to
the dream ground, but gone is the sense of effort that connects me to my
reclining body.  If I pay close attention (as much as can be expected in a
hypnogogic state) I notice that the dream world is at a ninety degree angle
with respect to the real world.

This shifting of "world" orientation suggests to me that my dream self is
sharing body awareness with my sleeping self, since I don't get a sense of
my body changing orientation in the transition, just the environment.

In any event, this line of exploration is dangerously close to being
philosophical, and probably doesn't belong in this forum.  I'm merely
responding to the charge of "nonsense", and defending my implication that
this would be a good area for sleep researchers to look into.


--
Ken Easlon                | "...somebody spoke and I went into a dream..."
ken@holonet.net           |    -Paul McCartney
Pleasantly Unaffiliated   |

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