Northwestern University scientists exploring the possibility of programming your brain to solve problems during rapid eye movement (REM) sleep have found compelling evidence that this type of “dream engineering” is not only possible, but potentially valuable as well.
The team behind the sci-fi-sounding research suggests that the ability to engineer dreams for problem-solving could motivate other researchers to “take dreams more seriously” as a tool for improved mental health and well-being.
They also suggest that their findings offer a crucial step toward proving the theory that REM sleep “may be especially conducive to helping individuals come up with creative solutions to a problem.”
Dream Engineering with Music During REM Sleep
Although there is anecdotal evidence that people may have greater success at solving a problem after they “sleep on it,” in the past, there has been little scientific support for the role of sleep in such Eureka moments. Studying the role our dreams might play in problem-solving has also proven elusive because it is difficult to systematically manipulate what a sleeper is dreaming about.
To investigate the possibility of a higher level of “dream engineering,” the researchers examined what is known as targeted memory reactivation (TMR), where subjects are presented with sounds during sleep that remind them of a prior experience of trying to solve a specific puzzle. The research team then recruited 20 individuals who reported previous experience with lucid dreaming, a state where the dreamer has some level of conscious awareness in their dream.
During the first phase of the experiments, the subjects were presented with complex brain-teaser puzzles and given a 3-minute time limit to solve them. Significantly, each puzzle was accompanied by its own musical soundtrack. The team notes that difficult puzzles, combined with the short test duration, left most volunteers unable to find the solution.
Next, the researchers set up polysomnographic recordings to measure and document the subjects’ physiology while they slept overnight in the lab. Notably, they used electrophysical verification to confirm each subject was asleep before progressing to the next phase.
Results Show Ability to Solve Problems After Related Song Cues Were Played
As each subject began to show signs of REM sleep, the researchers played the soundtracks corresponding to half of the unsolved puzzles. According to TMR theory, hearing the song associated with an unsolved puzzle could encourage the unconscious mind to seek a solution while the conscious mind was still asleep.
After the researchers presented the puzzle soundtracks, they observed participants performing previously agreed-upon physical cues, such as sniffing in and out to indicate that they had heard the song and were programming their minds to search for a solution.
Once the subjects were awake, the researchers asked them about their dreams. As hoped, many dreamers recalled fragments or ideas from the puzzles. Even more intriguing, 12 of the 20 participants experienced a level of dream engineering that resulted in specific puzzles being “prompted” more than the puzzles that did not have their associated soundtracks played during REM sleep.
When the study subjects were once again presented with the puzzles, the solve rate for those that did not have their associated songs played during REM sleep remained at 20%. However, when the subjects were presented with the puzzles that had their songs played during REM sleep, the solve rate climbed from 20% to 40%, a result the researchers termed “significant.”
A deeper analysis of the participants’ responses revealed that 75% experienced some level of dream engineering, including “fragments or ideas” from the puzzles. They also found that whenever puzzles were incorporated into the content of their dreams, they were solved 42% of the time, compared to 17% when they were not present during dreaming.
“We Could Be Closer to Solving the Problems We Want to Solve”
When discussing the results, the study’s lead author, Karen Konkoly, a postdoctoral researcher in Paller’s Cognitive Neuroscience Laboratory and a Ph.D. from Northwestern, said the most surprising result was the influence of dream engineering even when lucid dreams were absent.
“Even without lucidity, one dreamer asked a dream character for help solving the puzzle we were cueing,” Konkoly explained. “Another was cued with the ‘trees’ puzzle and woke up dreaming of walking through a forest. Another dreamer was cued with a puzzle about jungles and woke up from a dream in which she was fishing in the jungle, thinking about that puzzle.”
Konkoly said these successes represented ‘fascinating examples’ of dream engineering because they suggested dreams can be influenced by sounds and dreamers can follow instructions “even without lucidity.”
Next, the research team said they plan to apply their TMR interactive dreaming method to the study of other dream-related functions, including emotional regulation and generalized learning. Konkoly said she hopes their current findings end the planned experiments, “will help move us towards stronger conclusions” about dreams and their underlying functions.
“If scientists can definitively say that dreams are important for problem solving, creativity, and emotion regulation, hopefully people will start to take dreams seriously as a priority for mental health and wellbeing,” the researcher explained.
While the study authors conclude that their single effort does not definitively prove the validity of dream engineering, senior author Ken Paller, the James Padilla Professor of Psychology and director of the cognitive neuroscience program in the Weinberg College of Arts and Sciences at Northwestern, said that in today’s world, many problems require “creative solutions.”
“By learning more about how our brains are able to think creatively, think anew, and generate creative new ideas, we could be closer to solving the problems we want to solve, and sleep engineering could help,” Professor Padilla concluded.
The study “Creative problem-solving after experimentally provoking dreams of unsolved puzzles during REM sleep” was published in Neuroscience of Consciousness.
Christopher Plain is a Science Fiction and Fantasy novelist and Head Science Writer at The Debrief. Follow and connect with him on X, learn about his books at plainfiction.com, or email him directly at christopher@thedebrief.org.