The New Neuroscience of Sleep and Dreams

Dr. Rahul Jandial’s 25 years as a neurosurgeon reveals that dreams are deeply connected to neurological functions, with brain imaging showing distinct patterns between waking and dreaming states
During sleep, your brain’s executive network (prefrontal cortex) becomes less active while your imagination network dominates, allowing for emotionally intense and illogical dream experiences
Your brain remains highly active during sleep, with electrical patterns similar to wakefulness. This “paradoxical sleep” serves to maintain brain health and adaptability
Lucid dreaming, where people become aware they’re dreaming, has been scientifically validated through brain scans and even enabled researcher-dreamer communication through eye movements
Dreams with lingering emotional effects are particularly worthy of reflection, as they provide unique insights into your subconscious mind and waking life experiences

(Mercola)—In the video above, Dr. Rahul Jandial, a neurosurgeon and neurobiologist, explores the power of dreams, bridging the gap between your waking consciousness and the vivid landscapes of your nocturnal visions.¹ His insights not only challenge conventional perceptions but also offer a scientific framework to understand the profound impact of dreaming on your daily life.

With 25 years of experience as a brain surgeon, Jandial has witnessed firsthand the delicate interplay of neurons, emotions and the subconscious mind. Drawing from thousands of patient stories, he emphasizes how dreams are intertwined with neurological functions.

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“Dreams that are altered, removing parts of brains and dreams that persist, dreams that can’t be stopped,” he notes,² highlighting the resilience and complexity of our dreaming minds. His transition from the operating room to the laboratory underscores the advancements in neuroscience, enabling a deeper understanding of dreams through exotic imaging and electrical measurements.

The Waking and Dreaming Brain — Two Sides of the Same Coin

Jandial’s presentation includes a compelling comparison between the waking and dreaming brain. “There’s no way to talk about the dreaming brain unless we talk about the waking brain. It’s inseparable from the knowledge of neuroscience,” he asserts.³ This interconnectedness is visualized through brain scans that reveal both similarities and stark differences in neural activation.

During wakefulness, the executive network, primarily located in your prefrontal cortex, dominates. This network is responsible for logic, calculation and task-oriented activities. However, in the dreaming state, this region becomes “dampened,” leading to a reduction in logical processing.

Instead, the imagination network takes the forefront, allowing for the rich, often illogical narratives that characterize our dreams. This shift explains why dreams are fertile grounds for creativity and emotional exploration, unbound by the constraints of our waking logic.

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The Electrifying Nature of Dreams

Jandial paints a vivid picture of the brain as an “electrical garden” teeming with 100 billion neurons firing incessantly.⁴ Even during sleep, your brain remains highly active, challenging the archaic notion that it merely “hibernates.”

“The patterns in certain stages of sleep are so active electrically, metabolically that they’re similar to the patterns we have during waking,” Jandial says.⁵ This active state, known as paradoxical sleep, underscoring your brain’s relentless pursuit of activity and connectivity.

This persistent activity is not without purpose. Jandial posits that dreaming serves as a fundamental process for maintaining your brain’s health and adaptability, with distinct characteristics from wakefulness:⁶

“The dreaming brain is hyper-emotional and the waking brain is hyper-executive-task-oriented. These are the two features of the waking brain and dreaming brain that we have to keep in mind. They are the same brain. They produce the same electricity. There’s blood flow going all the time. There’s no activation and deactivation really. There’s just a modulation of shifts.

The waking brain is executive network pointing outward, relying on the prefrontal cortex more. The dreaming brain is less prefrontal cortex and to compensate a lot more emotion, so much emotion can happen in the dreaming brain that even if you tried to be as wild as you could with your waking brain, you couldn’t match it. The top speed of emotion and visual dynamics in the dreaming brain exceed what is possible during the waking brain.”

While highlighting your brain’s capacity to process emotions and visualize scenarios at an intensity unmatched during wakeful hours, this hyperactivity during dreaming facilitates your brain’s ability to fine-tune itself, fostering creativity, problem-solving and emotional resilience.

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Decoding Erotic Dreams Offers a Window Into Your Subconscious

Among the myriad of dreams, erotic dreams hold a special place in Jandial’s exploration. Contrary to popular belief, these dreams do not rely on physical stimulation or sensory input. “The sensations are just created by the imagination,” he states, illustrating your brain’s remarkable ability to generate complex emotional and sensory experiences independently.⁷

Interestingly, erotic dreams often precede the actual development of sensual capabilities in individuals. This phenomenon suggests that dreams play a role in priming your brain for future experiences, a concept that bridges developmental biology and dream science. Moreover, the prevalence of infidelity themes in erotic dreams raises intriguing questions about the interplay between desire, societal norms and subconscious processing.

Understanding the architecture of sleep is pivotal to comprehending the dreaming process. Jandial introduces the concepts of sleep entry and sleep exit — transitionary states that bridge the gap between wakefulness and sleep. These periods are important, as they represent moments where the boundaries between dreaming and waking blur, allowing for a seamless transition of consciousness.

Sleep paralysis, a phenomenon where your mind awakens before your body, often leads to intense experiences of terror and suffocation. Jandial offers a scientific explanation for these experiences, linking them to your brain’s neurotransmitter fluctuations during sleep transitions.

“The feeling of suffocation is you’re feeling panic of being locked in your brain,” he explains, demystifying the age-old tales of goblins and demons that cultures worldwide have used to describe these nocturnal terrors.⁸

The Reality of Lucid Dreaming — Science Meets Consciousness

Jandial’s talk also covers lucid dreaming — the rare state where individuals become aware that they’re dreaming and exert control over their dream narratives. Initially skeptical, Jandial was persuaded by scientific evidence demonstrating the real-time activation of the executive network in the brain during lucid dreams.

Studies involving medications like the Alzheimer’s drug galantamine have shown a dose-dependent increase in lucid dreaming occurrences, providing tangible proof of its biological underpinnings.

Furthermore, techniques involving eye movements in sleep labs have enabled researchers to communicate with lucid dreamers, confirming the authenticity of their conscious awareness within dreams. This research not only validates the existence of lucid dreaming but also opens avenues for harnessing its potential for creativity and self-exploration.

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Jandial even explains the potential of dreams to predict future neurological conditions, particularly Parkinson’s disease. Through observations in sleep laboratories, he discovered that patients who would later develop Parkinson’s exhibited distinct dreaming patterns years before their diagnosis.

These precognitive dreams often involved intense physical movements that, paradoxically, were executed with fluidity in the dreaming state but translated to rigidity and impaired movements in waking life.

This phenomenon, known as paradoxical kinesia, serves as a harbinger of the brain’s impending degeneration. “The dreams in that way reveal what will happen with the human brain — they predict what will happen,” Jandial says, revealing implications of this discovery for early diagnosis and intervention.⁹

Interpreting Dreams Using a Multifaceted Approach

Dream interpretation, a practice as old as humanity itself, takes on new dimensions with Jandial’s scientific insights. He categorizes dreams into various types — genre dreams, universal dreams, nightmares and erotic dreams — each serving distinct functions in your subconscious processing.

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While some dreams require no interpretation, such as those directly reflecting your waking anxieties, others offer deeper insights into your emotional and psychological states. For instance, expansive dreams experienced by terminally ill patients symbolize a predictable companion to their intense emotional journeys.

Junk dreams, characterized by random and seemingly meaningless imagery, serve as your brain’s way of releasing unnecessary cognitive clutter. Jandial advises focusing on dreams with lingering emotional residues, as they offer valuable reflections on your life and mental state:¹⁰

“The ones you have a lingering, long emotional residue with — to me those are the ones to reflect upon. Those are the ones to think about the next day because they may offer you an insight into your life and into your mind, into your waking life, that you simply couldn’t get elsewhere. This is the therapist built in.

These are the portals to your subconscious — the emotional dreams that happen in the dreaming brain and the occasional memory and the residue that lingers with you as you wake up.”

The Complexities of Sleep Disorders, Dreams and Technology

The Q&A session following Jandial’s presentation explored practical concerns about sleep and dreams. Addressing questions on insomnia, night terrors and neurodiversity, he reiterated the brain-centric nature of sleep. “Sleep is for the brain,” he affirms, dispelling myths that attribute sleep solely to bodily rest.¹¹

For individuals experiencing night terrors and sleepwalking, Jandial acknowledges the lack of definitive treatments but offers hope through understanding the underlying neurological mechanisms. By recognizing these disorders as manifestations of your dreaming brain’s wildness, patients better navigate their experiences and seek appropriate interventions.

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In an era where technology is rapidly advancing, Jandial also pondered the intersection of dreams and artificial intelligence (AI). While acknowledging technologies like Neuralink and large language models, he maintains a critical perspective on the feasibility of translating dream patterns into digital formats.

“Dreaming is divergent,” he explains, contrasting it with the predictive nature of computer algorithms.¹² For AI to emulate the adaptability of the human brain, it would need to incorporate a form of dream-like noise to prevent overfitting — a challenge that remains largely unresolved.

Nonetheless, Jandial remains optimistic about the future of integrating dream science with technological innovation, envisioning a symbiotic relationship that enhances both human cognition and artificial intelligence.

The Ever-Present Dreaming Process

Jandial also emphasized the inevitability and necessity of dreaming. “The dreaming process of liberating emotion, liberating movement, liberating vision is happening every night,” he asserts, “Our memory of it, by design I think, is meant to be minimal so we don’t have dreaming and waking life confusion.”¹³

He likens the process to the brain’s way of keeping itself fine-tuned and adaptable. Whether through sleep entry and exit or the constant toggling between your imagination and executive networks, dreams are integral to your cognitive and emotional well-being.

He encourages individuals to engage actively with their dreams through dream journals, lucid dreaming techniques and mindful reflection. By doing so, you harness the full potential of your dreaming mind, unlocking insights that transcend the limitations of your waking consciousness.

Dreams are not mere byproducts of sleep but essential processes that shape your creativity, emotional resilience and even your future neurological health. In embracing the insights shared by Jandial, you foster a deeper appreciation for your dreaming mind — a place where science meets mystery, and where your innermost self finds expression in the silent narratives of the night.

Five Things New “Preppers” Forget When Getting Ready for Bad Times Ahead

The preparedness community is growing faster than it has in decades. Even during peak times such as Y2K, the economic downturn of 2008, and Covid, the vast majority of Americans made sure they had plenty of toilet paper but didn’t really stockpile anything else.

Things have changed. There’s a growing anxiety in this presidential election year that has prompted more Americans to get prepared for crazy events in the future. Some of it is being driven by fearmongers, but there are valid concerns with the economy, food supply, pharmaceuticals, the energy grid, and mass rioting that have pushed average Americans into “prepper” mode.

There are degrees of preparedness. One does not have to be a full-blown “doomsday prepper” living off-grid in a secure Montana bunker in order to be ahead of the curve. In many ways, preparedness isn’t about being able to perfectly handle every conceivable situation. It’s about being less dependent on government for as long as possible. Those who have proper “preps” will not be waiting for FEMA to distribute emergency supplies to the desperate masses.

Below are five things people new to preparedness (and sometimes even those with experience) often forget as they get ready. All five are common sense notions that do not rely on doomsday in order to be useful. It may be nice to own a tank during the apocalypse but there’s not much you can do with it until things get really crazy. The recommendations below can have places in the lives of average Americans whether doomsday comes or not.

Note: The information provided by this publication or any related communications is for informational purposes only and should not be considered as financial advice. We do not provide personalized investment, financial, or legal advice.

Secured Wealth

Whether in the bank or held in a retirement account, most Americans feel that their life’s savings is relatively secure. At least they did until the last couple of years when de-banking, geopolitical turmoil, and the threat of Central Bank Digital Currencies reared their ugly heads.

It behooves Americans to diversify their holdings. If there’s a triggering event or series of events that cripple the financial systems or devalue the U.S. Dollar, wealth can evaporate quickly. To hedge against potential turmoil, many Americans are looking in two directions: Crypto and physical precious metals.

There are huge advantages to cryptocurrencies, but there are also inherent risks because “virtual” money can become challenging to spend. Add in the push by central banks and governments to regulate or even replace cryptocurrencies with their own versions they control and the risks amplify. There’s nothing wrong with cryptocurrencies today but things can change rapidly.

As for physical precious metals, many Americans pay cash to keep plenty on hand in their safe. Rolling over or transferring retirement accounts into self-directed IRAs is also a popular option, but there are caveats. It can often take weeks or even months to get the gold and silver shipped if the owner chooses to close their account. This is why Genesis Gold Group stands out. Their relationship with the depositories allows for rapid closure and shipping, often in less than 10 days from the time the account holder makes their move. This can come in handy if things appear to be heading south.

Lots of Potable Water

One of the biggest shocks that hit new preppers is understanding how much potable water they need in order to survive. Experts claim one gallon of water per person per day is necessary. Even the most conservative estimates put it at over half-a-gallon. That means that for a family of four, they’ll need around 120 gallons of water to survive for a month if the taps turn off and the stores empty out.

Being near a fresh water source, whether it’s a river, lake, or well, is a best practice among experienced preppers. It’s necessary to have a water filter as well, even if the taps are still working. Many refuse to drink tap water even when there is no emergency. Berkey was our previous favorite but they’re under attack from regulators so the Alexapure systems are solid replacements.

For those in the city or away from fresh water sources, storage is the best option. This can be challenging because proper water storage containers take up a lot of room and are difficult to move if the need arises. For “bug in” situations, having a larger container that stores hundreds or even thousands of gallons is better than stacking 1-5 gallon containers. Unfortunately, they won’t be easily transportable and they can cost a lot to install.

Water is critical. If chaos erupts and water infrastructure is compromised, having a large backup supply can be lifesaving.

Pharmaceuticals and Medical Supplies

There are multiple threats specific to the medical supply chain. With Chinese and Indian imports accounting for over 90% of pharmaceutical ingredients in the United States, deteriorating relations could make it impossible to get the medicines and antibiotics many of us need.

Stocking up many prescription medications can be hard. Doctors generally do not like to prescribe large batches of drugs even if they are shelf-stable for extended periods of time. It is a best practice to ask your doctor if they can prescribe a larger amount. Today, some are sympathetic to concerns about pharmacies running out or becoming inaccessible. Tell them your concerns. It’s worth a shot. The worst they can do is say no.

If your doctor is unwilling to help you stock up on medicines, then Jase Medical is a good alternative. Through telehealth, they can prescribe daily meds or antibiotics that are shipped to your door. As proponents of medical freedom, they empathize with those who want to have enough medical supplies on hand in case things go wrong.

Energy Sources

The vast majority of Americans are locked into the grid. This has proven to be a massive liability when the grid goes down. Unfortunately, there are no inexpensive remedies.

Those living off-grid had to either spend a lot of money or effort (or both) to get their alternative energy sources like solar set up. For those who do not want to go so far, it’s still a best practice to have backup power sources. Diesel generators and portable solar panels are the two most popular, and while they’re not inexpensive they are not out of reach of most Americans who are concerned about being without power for extended periods of time.

Natural gas is another necessity for many, but that’s far more challenging to replace. Having alternatives for heating and cooking that can be powered if gas and electric grids go down is important. Have a backup for items that require power such as manual can openers. If you’re stuck eating canned foods for a while and all you have is an electric opener, you’ll have problems.

Don’t Forget the Protein

When most think about “prepping,” they think about their food supply. More Americans are turning to gardening and homesteading as ways to produce their own food. Others are working with local farmers and ranchers to purchase directly from the sources. This is a good idea whether doomsday comes or not, but it’s particularly important if the food supply chain is broken.

Most grocery stores have about one to two weeks worth of food, as do most American households. Grocers rely heavily on truckers to receive their ongoing shipments. In a crisis, the current process can fail. It behooves Americans for multiple reasons to localize their food purchases as much as possible.

Long-term storage is another popular option. Canned foods, MREs, and freeze dried meals are selling out quickly even as prices rise. But one component that is conspicuously absent in shelf-stable food is high-quality protein. Most survival food companies offer low quality “protein buckets” or cans of meat, but they are often barely edible.

Prepper All-Naturals offers premium cuts of steak that have been cooked sous vide and freeze dried to give them a 25-year shelf life. They offer Ribeye, NY Strip, and Tenderloin among others.

Having buckets of beans and rice is a good start, but keeping a solid supply of high-quality protein isn’t just healthier. It can help a family maintain normalcy through crises.

Prepare Without Fear

With all the challenges we face as Americans today, it can be emotionally draining. Citizens are scared and there’s nothing irrational about their concerns. Being prepared and making lifestyle changes to secure necessities can go a long way toward overcoming the fears that plague us. We should hope and pray for the best but prepare for the worst. And if the worst does come, then knowing we did what we could to be ready for it will help us face those challenges with confidence.