Comment by hawkharris | Hacker News Reader

Comment by hawkharris | Hacker News Reader

I think #6, the question about sleep and dreams, is especially interesting.

On another NPR broadcast, I heard a researcher talk about how our bodies make up for sleep we lose. It's not like owing a debt to the bank and paying it back all at once, he said. If we go days without sleep and then crash, we won't quite cognitively recover from the lost sleeping time - even if we sleep for many more hours than usual.

One biological explanation, he said, is that the need to make up for many hours of lost sleeping time has not been a significant factor in evolution; modern humans are the first species that intentionally deprives itself of sleep for long periods of time.

I thought it was fascinating to think about the concept of humans evolving to go longer periods without sleep and to cognitively recover by "cashing in" on rest, so to speak.

I'm sorry that I can't remember the author's name to provide more concrete details; if anyone else also heard the talk, please share a link if possible.

It's a fascinating question, but I don't see why it is one of the "10 most important questions in science".

>modern humans are the first species that intentionally deprives itself of sleep for long periods of time.

Is that correct? It feels wrong. Plenty of species will endure all kinds of stresses when it comes to survival.

From the article: >Was Freud right about his theory that dreams are some sort of expression of repressed desires?

This one is easy. No. Dogs dream.

How do you know dogs don't have repressed desires?

hah. Touche.

In my dreams, I may "express" fantasies, like flying, or jumping ridiculous heights, or falling from such heights without hurting myself like a super cat/ninja hybrid, or giving enthralling musical performances. I never express repressed desires though. Like, if a girl has rejected me in real life, she usually does the same in the dreams. If in real life I wouldn't dare touch, say, her butt, I'm just as restrained in my dreams.

One reason it might be one of the 10 most important questions in science is that dreaming helps solve problems. When you sleep on a problem the mind magically presents an answer to the problem the next day. Aside from it's metaphorical implication that it's important to dream big, dreaming could literally help answer the other 9 questions.

I find it intriguing HN readers don't consider it important, actually.

>I find it intriguing HN readers don't consider it important, actually.

Understanding dreams (and consciousness) is really tied to understanding the human brain. I would consider that, in general, to be one of the questions of science, not dreaming specifically.

After all, is the phenomenon of dreams that much more interesting than, say, the phenomenon of memories and recollection, or emotional experience, or learning, or anything else brain-related?

It's not clear to me how one can make themselves dream.

You can stimulate memories and recollection, induce emotional experience, and can initiate learning with known ways that work, even if the understanding of how they work isn't fully developed.

Are there known ways to stimulate a dream?

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