David Foulkes

Tonic and phasic events during sleep: psychological correlates and implications.

The most widely accepted model of sleep in recent years has been one which draws qualitative distinctions between stage REM and NREM sleep. This conceptualization is now challenged by a tonic-phasic model which contrasts sleep periods of no phasic activation with those of phasic activation, regardless of their status on the REM-NREM dichotomy. This paper describes an experimental test of two hypotheses about sleep mentation based upon the tonic-phasic model: 1. phasic and nonphasic episodes within stage REM are associated with qualitatively different mental activity and 2. nonphasic stage REM is associated with mental activity qualitatively similar to that of NREM sleep. 10 Ss were studied for 4 nights each, with a grand total of 160 awakenings distributed among stage REM-phasic, stage REM-nonphasic, NREM sleep, and sleep onset. Analysis focused upon the last preawakening experience S could recall. Both hypotheses were supported: REM-phasic awakenings were associated with reports of Primary Visual Experience (PVE), REM-nonphasic and NREM awakenings with reports of Secondary Cognitive Elaboration (SCE), with sleep-onset awakenings intermediate in the incidence of PVE and SCE. Considerable discussion is devoted to some of the more general implications of the tonic-phasic model for the study of sleep and sleep mentation.

Telepathy and Dreams: A Failure to Replicate

An attempt was made to replicate the procedures and findings of a previous dream-telepathy study conducted at the Maimonides Dream Laboratory. In that study S had, on each of 8 laboratory sessions, placed the true target in the upper half of his rankings for dream correspondence of 8 potential targets (p = .004). S was restudied for 8 nights in a different laboratory. E signaled an acoustically isolated agent at the onset of Ss REM periods to concentrate on a target (magazine illustration) randomly selected from the target pool of 8. Ss dreams were collected on awakenings from these REM periods. On the following morning, S was given a duplicate target pool and asked to rank the 8 pictures for their correspondence to his dream reports of the night. Two additional judges were given the same task, working both without and with Ss associations to his dreams. Neither S nor the judges were able to exceed chance values in matching targets with nocturnal dream production.

Dream Deprivation: Effects on Dream Content

Dream content elicited following the selective deprivation of rapid-eye-movement sleep was intensified compared to that elicited under nondeprivation conditions. This effect was observed both for repressers and for sensitizers, but was significant only for repressers. On nondeprivation nights, the dream periods of sensitizers were shorter and their dreams more intense than those of repressers.

Primary visual experience and secondary cognitive elaboration in stage REM: a modest confirmation and an extension.

The finding by Molinari and Foulkes (1969) that REM-burst sleep mentation is more sensory and less conceptual than that occurring during episodes of ocular quiescence within EEG stage REM was confirmed, but at a reduced level of absolute discriminability and only when spontaneous portions of Ss dream interview were considered. Evidence was gathered to suggest that bursts of EEG sawtooth waves which often precede REMs are phasic events with mentation correlates comparable to those of REM bursts themselves and that sawtooth activity may, in fact, mark the point at which the most discontinuity is experienced in Ss train of sleep thought. Implications of these findings for tonic-phasic and scanning-hypothesis models are discussed, and the possibility is presented of extending them to studies of non-REM sleep mentation.

Deliberate Presleep Control of Dream Content: An Experimental Study

29 subjects attempted, over a period of 10 nights, to influence their dreams using techniques described in Garfields book, Creative Dreaming (1974). A target suggestion was selected from a list of six suggestions compiled by, or for, each subject. Subjects kept daily records during the experiment both of their efforts at dream influence and of the dreams they recalled. Four judges attempted to identify from the dream material the target suggestion on each subjects suggestion list. The results indicated that the judges were unable to do so at better than chance levels. Thus analysis indicated no reliable evidence that conscious presleep suggestions become incorporated into dream content.