A Data Analysis of Dreams

FiveThirtyEight discusses results of a dream analysis study from 1950 and a new study from 2013. Apparently, the majority of dreams were "bad dreams" in both the 1950 and 2013 studies.

I do not find that to be my experience with dreams. I would say the majority of them are weird - not particularly good or bad. It's rare for me to have a good or bad dream and even more rare to have a great dream or a nightmare. It would be interesting to see the dream distribution of people that have more good dreams than bad or neutral dreams to see if there is anything in common amongst those people.

The Brain During an Out-Of-Body Experience

Scientists from the University of Ottawa did an fMRI brain scan on a woman during her out-of-body experience. What it doesn't state is if they were able to confirm what she was doing, especially if it was something taking place in another room.

Mind Pool

Mind Pool - Physical feedback of a user's brainwave activity presented in real time.

This certainly brings to mind the thought of a still pond and that thoughts create the ripples.

The Effects of Sleep on the Brain

A relatively lengthy article from the New York Times on how sleep is good for the brain.

Sleep Could Produce Cells That Protect The Brain's Circuitry

A study in the Journal of Neuroscience says that sleep could produce the cells that create the insulating material known as myeline. The findings are only in mice so far, but may lead to treatment for those with Multiple Sclerosis. The production increased most during REM. It makes me wonder how many more benefits there are to sleep that science hasn't found yet.

Scientists Predict Images in Dreams

Japanese scientists were able to predict what images people saw in their dreams using MRI scans, according to BBC News.  They accomplished 60% accuracy.

Who knows, this could eventually lead to a machine that we could hook up to and report what we saw in our dreams.  It could be an interesting way to jog the brain to remember the dreams from the previous night.

Matt Killingsworth, Track Your Happiness, and the Wandering Mind

Matt Killingsworth wondered if staying in the present was important to being happy, so created Track Your Happiness to gather data to try to answer that question. As it turns out, a wandering mind is more likely to be unhappy. Just another reason to meditate!