Dr. Matthew Walker

Now, you can have a thousand of those every night that are completely useless, but all you need is one of those to make that advanced leap. That's the novel difference between 2001 and Space Odyssey, where they're banging bones around and then all of a sudden one of them realizes... Christ, this thing is actually a weapon.

It's not just a bone. What does it mean if we keep dreaming about the same situation or the same person, people that have sort of consistent dreams with consistent characters or scenarios in?

It's not just a bone. What does it mean if we keep dreaming about the same situation or the same person, people that have sort of consistent dreams with consistent characters or scenarios in?

It's not just a bone. What does it mean if we keep dreaming about the same situation or the same person, people that have sort of consistent dreams with consistent characters or scenarios in?

Yeah. Repetitive dreaming and repetitive nightmares. Some of it we think from the PTSD literature is about trying to reprocess emotion and emotional experiences and something maladaptive short circuits that. So you keep trying to reprocess. That's one theory. The other is that we We don't know if necessarily that's your brain simply trying to prioritize the memory circuit.

Yeah. Repetitive dreaming and repetitive nightmares. Some of it we think from the PTSD literature is about trying to reprocess emotion and emotional experiences and something maladaptive short circuits that. So you keep trying to reprocess. That's one theory. The other is that we We don't know if necessarily that's your brain simply trying to prioritize the memory circuit.

Yeah. Repetitive dreaming and repetitive nightmares. Some of it we think from the PTSD literature is about trying to reprocess emotion and emotional experiences and something maladaptive short circuits that. So you keep trying to reprocess. That's one theory. The other is that we We don't know if necessarily that's your brain simply trying to prioritize the memory circuit.

And it's saying that every night I want to etch and score that memory into the sort of the neural circuit glass of the brain ever more strongly because it's important. So one camp is it's maladaptive. And it's a process failed. The other is it's adaptive. And it's just simply telling your brain, pointing you to saying, this is the important stuff. We're going to memorize it more.

And it's saying that every night I want to etch and score that memory into the sort of the neural circuit glass of the brain ever more strongly because it's important. So one camp is it's maladaptive. And it's a process failed. The other is it's adaptive. And it's just simply telling your brain, pointing you to saying, this is the important stuff. We're going to memorize it more.

And it's saying that every night I want to etch and score that memory into the sort of the neural circuit glass of the brain ever more strongly because it's important. So one camp is it's maladaptive. And it's a process failed. The other is it's adaptive. And it's just simply telling your brain, pointing you to saying, this is the important stuff. We're going to memorize it more.

I would say that for people who are undergoing sort of repetitive nightmares, we used to have no real good memory. treatments for it. Now I spoke about processing as one way that we've done this with PTSD patients, but there's now actually a very effective psychological treatment for nightmares. And it's called, um, I image rehearsal therapy or I R T for short.

I would say that for people who are undergoing sort of repetitive nightmares, we used to have no real good memory. treatments for it. Now I spoke about processing as one way that we've done this with PTSD patients, but there's now actually a very effective psychological treatment for nightmares. And it's called, um, I image rehearsal therapy or I R T for short.

I would say that for people who are undergoing sort of repetitive nightmares, we used to have no real good memory. treatments for it. Now I spoke about processing as one way that we've done this with PTSD patients, but there's now actually a very effective psychological treatment for nightmares. And it's called, um, I image rehearsal therapy or I R T for short.

And it comes back to, we made a discovery back in, uh, 2003. What we found is that when you form a memory, uh, That memory is fragile. And when you sleep, the brain fixates it. So it's now stable and it's set and it's hard coded into the brain.

And it comes back to, we made a discovery back in, uh, 2003. What we found is that when you form a memory, uh, That memory is fragile. And when you sleep, the brain fixates it. So it's now stable and it's set and it's hard coded into the brain.

And it comes back to, we made a discovery back in, uh, 2003. What we found is that when you form a memory, uh, That memory is fragile. And when you sleep, the brain fixates it. So it's now stable and it's set and it's hard coded into the brain.

However, we then discovered that when you come back the next day, if you recollect, if you reactivate that memory again, it opens that memory back up to being fragile and susceptible to being molded and changed. And you think, well, why would you go through the act of cementing it only to basically kind of undo that cementing process? Think about a memory system. Think about a Word document.

However, we then discovered that when you come back the next day, if you recollect, if you reactivate that memory again, it opens that memory back up to being fragile and susceptible to being molded and changed. And you think, well, why would you go through the act of cementing it only to basically kind of undo that cementing process? Think about a memory system. Think about a Word document.

However, we then discovered that when you come back the next day, if you recollect, if you reactivate that memory again, it opens that memory back up to being fragile and susceptible to being molded and changed. And you think, well, why would you go through the act of cementing it only to basically kind of undo that cementing process? Think about a memory system. Think about a Word document.

I type in the Word document and then I hit the save button, which is sleep. I come back the next day, I double click on the Word document and I can't edit it. I want it to be flexible. And your brain has that ability. So the brain, every time you recollect a memory, you open it back up to change and then you modify it and then you sleep again and you re-consolidate the memory.