Hey there. Welcome to Life Noggin. You may think that since I'm merely an animation, I wouldn't be able to dream, right? Well, you're wrong. Last night, I had a dream I had humanlike facial features and wasn't confined to the screen of your computer. And I was able to explore the human world. And look at all those fancy toilets! I mean, look at this weird thing.
哈囉。歡迎來到 Life Noggin。你可能會覺得因為我只是個動畫角色,我就不會做夢,對吧?嗯哼,那你就錯了。我昨晚夢到我有人類的五官,而且還能飛出你的電腦螢幕。而且我還可以探索人類世界。看看那些很潮的馬桶!我的意思是,你看這東西多奇怪啊。
A lot of people can't remember their dreams, and it's a kind of strange that we can't recall something we do every single night. We are asleep about a third of our lives and dream at least 25 percent of that time. Most of our dreaming occurs during a stage of sleep called rapid eye movement, or REM. In this stage, as the name suggests, our eyes move around, but the rest of our body becomes paralyzed. That may seem terrifying, but it stops you from acting out your dreams, which could have some serious consequences, like you falling off your bed or flying into the sun.
很多人想不起他們的夢,而我們沒辦法想起我們每天晚上都在做的事情有點奇怪。我們一生中大約有三分之一的時間都在睡覺,其中至少有百分之二十五的時間都在做夢。我們大部分做夢的時候都發生在睡覺的一個階段,叫做快速眼動睡眠期,或稱作 REM。在這個階段,就如名稱所說,我們的眼睛會四處轉動,但你身體的其他部分是動不了的。聽起來可能很可怕,但這可以避免你把夢中的動作直接做出來,這樣可能會導致嚴重的後果,像是跌到床下或是飛到太陽上。
But dreaming isn't limited to just REM. Dreams have been reported even when the sleeper had only non-REM sleep. And even if a person gets a normal amount of REM sleep, lesions in their temporoparietal junction and medial prefrontal cortex are associated with a loss of dream recollection. But luckily, most of us don't have that problem. So then why do we forget most of our dreams?
但做夢並不只限於 REM 階段。即使睡覺的人僅處於非快速動眼睡眠期,也有做夢的狀況。而且即使一個人已經得到充分的 REM 階段睡眠,若顳頂葉交界區和內側前額葉皮質有損傷,也會造成重憶夢境失敗。但幸運的是,我們大多數人都沒有那個問題。那為什麼我們還是會忘記自己大部分的夢呢?
Well, as we talked about in our video about why we forget things, humans are really good at filtering out information that doesn't matter. If something doesn't grab our attention or isn't essential to know, you don't remember it. Think about the stream of consciousness you have when you're making breakfast in the morning. Chances are you can't recite it back to me. Some scientists think the same is true of dreams.
我們在之前的影片中探討過為什麼我們會忘記事情,因為人類非常善於過濾不重要的資訊。如果某件事情沒有吸引到你的注意,或沒必要知道,你就不會記住這件事。想想看你今天早上做早餐時的意識流。你可能會沒辦法詳述給我聽。有些科學家認為這與夢境遺忘的情況相同。
But perhaps there is a neurological difference between those who recall most of their dreams and those who do not. To test this, researchers studied the brainwaves of both types of sleepers. They primarily studied alpha waves between eight to 12 hertz, which are also present when you are awake. Interestingly, oscillations of these alpha waves are associated with inhibition, meaning that a decrease in amplitude would correspond to a release in inhibition, and therefore it increased excitability. So let's relate that back to our dreams.
但這之間可能有神經上的差異,而這差異存在於能回想起大部分夢境和無法想起的人之間。為了測試,研究員研究了兩種睡眠者的腦波。他們主要研究 8 到 12 赫茲的 α 波,這在你醒著的時候也存在。有趣的是,這些 α 波的波動和壓抑有關,意思就是,振幅降低相當於壓抑的釋放,因此會讓你比較興奮。讓我們把那理論回推到我們的夢。
While the volunteers were awake, tones were played in their ears along with occasional and random first names. Those who recall their dreams four or more times a week had a more sustained decrease in their alpha waves compared to those who only recall their dreams once or twice a month. In other words, the high recalling group had a deeper processing of the first names while they were awake.
自願受試者清醒時,會播放一些音調給他們聽,也伴隨著偶然且隨機出現的名字。那些能回想起一週間四次以上自己的夢的人,α 波會持續降低,與那些只能回想起一個月內夢境一兩次的人相比的話。換句話說,高回憶夢境組清醒時,對於名字的處理比較深入。
However, this difference was not there during REM sleep. Instead, the alpha waves increased, possibly causing the volunteer to wake up. In fact, the main difference between groups was that those who recalled their dreams often woke up more throughout the night. This led scientists to believe that the time awake allows the dream's information to be encoded into long-term memory, allowing the sleeper to remember it the next morning. More time awake, more time to store the information. Makes sense, right?
然而,在快速動眼睡眠期並沒有這樣的差異。α 波反倒增加,可能會造成自願受試者醒過來。事實上,兩組最主要的差異就是,能回想起夢境的人通常半夜時比較常醒來。這讓科學家相信,醒來的那段時間讓夢境的資訊登錄到長期記憶中,讓睡眠者隔天早晨還能記得夢見什麼。醒來的時間越長,就有越多時間可以儲存資訊。聽起來很合理,對吧?
But before we can say anything conclusive, we need more research. We are just at the tip of the iceberg when it comes to our knowledge about dreams and my knowledge about toilets. What is happening there? Anyway, why we forget dreams is still not exactly known. So tell me, do you remember most of your dreams? And if so, what's the weirdest dream you've had?
但在我們說任何結論性的話之前,都需要更多研究。當說到我們對做夢的知識時,我們所知的僅是冰山一角,跟我對馬桶的知識一樣少。這到底是怎麼用的啊?不管怎麼說,我們為什麼會忘記夢境依然沒有清楚的解答。那告訴我,你記得你大部分的夢嗎?如果記得的話,你做過最奇怪的夢是什麼呢?
- 「吸引某人的注意」- Grab Someone's Attention
If something doesn't grab our attention or isn't essential to know, you don't remember it.
如果某件事情沒有吸引到你的注意,或沒必要知道,你就不會記住這件事。 - 「可能」- Chances Are
Chances are you can't recite it back to me.
你可能會沒辦法詳述給我聽。 - 「也有同樣情況、也適用於…」- The Same Is True Of
Some scientists think the same is true of dreams.
有些科學家認為這與夢境遺忘的情況相同。