Your Brain On... Dreams
02/21/24 • 31 min
1 Listener
Why do we dream? Is lucid dreaming real? How can dreams be used for therapy? Does cheese really give us nightmares?
In this episode, we discuss the neuroscience and psychology of:
• REM sleep, and how it puts our brain in the ideal state for creating dreams
• Why dreams might be a way for our brains to stop non-visual senses taking over our brains when we sleep
• The links between recurring dreams and trauma, and how external stimuli influence the things we dream about
We speak with renowned author, dreamworker, and poet Rodger Kamenetz about why, even if lucid dreaming is real, we might not want to interrupt the problem-solving, memory-consolidating work our brains undertake when we dream.
And we talk to teacher and psychotherapist Dr. Leslie Ellis about how she incorporates dreams into therapeutic practices, and discuss why dreaming is so difficult to study.
Plus: we take a trip through time, exploring all the world-changing inventions, discoveries, and works of art that were inspired by dreams.
‘Your Brain On’ is hosted by neuroscientists and public health advocates Ayesha and Dean Sherzai.
‘Your Brain On... Dreams’ • SEASON 1 • EPISODE 4
LINKS
Rodger Kamenetz’s website: https://kamenetz.com/
Rodger’s book: The Jew in the Lotus: A Poet's Rediscovery of Jewish Identity in Buddhist India
Dr. Leslie Ellis’ website: https://drleslieellis.com/
Leslie’s Instagram: @dreamsdemystified
Leslie’s book: A Clinician’s Guide to Dream Therapy
FOLLOW US
Join the NEURO Academy: NEUROacademy.com
Instagram: @thebraindocs
Website: TheBrainDocs.com
More info and episodes: TheBrainDocs.com/Podcast
Why do we dream? Is lucid dreaming real? How can dreams be used for therapy? Does cheese really give us nightmares?
In this episode, we discuss the neuroscience and psychology of:
• REM sleep, and how it puts our brain in the ideal state for creating dreams
• Why dreams might be a way for our brains to stop non-visual senses taking over our brains when we sleep
• The links between recurring dreams and trauma, and how external stimuli influence the things we dream about
We speak with renowned author, dreamworker, and poet Rodger Kamenetz about why, even if lucid dreaming is real, we might not want to interrupt the problem-solving, memory-consolidating work our brains undertake when we dream.
And we talk to teacher and psychotherapist Dr. Leslie Ellis about how she incorporates dreams into therapeutic practices, and discuss why dreaming is so difficult to study.
Plus: we take a trip through time, exploring all the world-changing inventions, discoveries, and works of art that were inspired by dreams.
‘Your Brain On’ is hosted by neuroscientists and public health advocates Ayesha and Dean Sherzai.
‘Your Brain On... Dreams’ • SEASON 1 • EPISODE 4
LINKS
Rodger Kamenetz’s website: https://kamenetz.com/
Rodger’s book: The Jew in the Lotus: A Poet's Rediscovery of Jewish Identity in Buddhist India
Dr. Leslie Ellis’ website: https://drleslieellis.com/
Leslie’s Instagram: @dreamsdemystified
Leslie’s book: A Clinician’s Guide to Dream Therapy
FOLLOW US
Join the NEURO Academy: NEUROacademy.com
Instagram: @thebraindocs
Website: TheBrainDocs.com
More info and episodes: TheBrainDocs.com/Podcast
Previous Episode
Your Brain On... Football
When wins and losses shape the mood of entire cities, what’s happening in the brains of football fans?
In this episode, we discuss the neuroscience and psychology of:
• Football fandom, and bonding with others over shared love of a team
• The chemicals that make wins feel so joyous, and losses so painful
• How our empathy systems transport us into the shoes of the players
We explore the evolutionary significance of sports, from honing our motor skills as hunter-gatherers to finding connection and purpose through the global tournaments of today, and share our own stories growing up as football fans.
And, we speak to Dr. Lisa Feldman Barrett, neuroscientist, psychologist, and author, about the physiological effects of watching sports with others — synchronized breathing, matching heart rates, and mirrored movements.
Plus! Our son Alexander Noor Sherzai, a newly accepted graduate student at UCLA in the field of computational medicine/AI and a lifelong fanatical Pittsburgh Steelers fan, joins us for a conversation about the cultural and psychological intersection of football fandom: being a fan from a young age, engaging in online discourse, and concerns around the growing epidemic of sports betting.
‘Your Brain On’ is hosted by neuroscientists and public health advocates Ayesha and Dean Sherzai.
‘Your Brain On... Football’ • SEASON 1 • EPISODE 2
CONTEST
To celebrate the launch of our new podcast, ‘Your Brain On’, we’re giving away prizes to its earliest listeners — like you! Prizes include memberships to our thriving NEURO Academy community, and bundles, like our Better Brain Cooking Box, Books Bundle, and Better Brain Favorites Box.
To enter, all you’ll need to do is subscribe to Your Brain On, leave an honest review of the show on Apple Podcasts, and then sign up for the contest at thebraindocs.com/podcast.
LINKS
Join the NEURO Academy: NEUROacademy.com
Instagram: @thebraindocs
Website: TheBrainDocs.com
More info and episodes: TheBrainDocs.com/Podcast
GUEST LINKS
Lisa’s books:
• Seven and a Half Lessons About the Brain (book): https://amzn.to/2Sp5ar9
• How Emotions Are Made (book): https://amzn.to/2GwAFg6
Lisa’s Twitter: https://twitter.com/LFeldmanBarrett
Lisa’s Website: https://lisafeldmanbarrett.com/
Next Episode
Your Brain On... Lobotomies
From trepanning to Neuralink, we’ve always been curious about operating on our brains — for better or worse.
Tens of thousands of people were lobotomized before the practice began to decline in the 1950s.
The era of lobotomies is one of the darkest chapters in medical history. Many of the period’s missteps can guide how we think about healthcare ethics today, and in the future.
In this episode of Your Brain On, we discuss:
• The origins of lobotomies, and how they became so prevalent in spite of their tragic consequences
• How evolving medical knowledge and technology led to their obsolescence
• Whether we’re about to make the same mistakes, as brain-machine interfaces like Neuralink promise a new generation of cognitive enhancement
We speak to Dr. Warren Boling about the historic context of lobotomies, how the procedure scored one of the most controversial Nobel Prize awards of all time, and what’s coming next for neurosurgical technology. Warren is a renowned neurosurgeon and director of the dept. of neurosurgery at Loma Linda University. He specializes in epilepsy surgery.
We’re also joined by ethicist Dr. Arthur Caplan, for a fascinating talk about the past, present, and future of medical ethics. Arthur is the founding head of the Division of Medical Ethics at NYU Grossman School of Medicine’s Department of Population Health in New York City.
‘Your Brain On... Lobotomies’ • SEASON 1 • EPISODE 5
LINKS
Dr. Warren Boling at Loma Linda: https://lluh.org/provider/boling-warren
Dr. Arthur Caplan at NYU: https://med.nyu.edu/faculty/arthur-l-caplan
Dr. Arthur Caplan on Twitter: https://twitter.com/ArthurCaplan
FOLLOW US
Join the NEURO Academy: NEUROacademy.com
Instagram: @thebraindocs
Website: TheBrainDocs.com
More info and episodes: TheBrainDocs.com/Podcast
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