Naked Science Forum
Life Sciences => Cells, Microbes & Viruses => Topic started by: thedoc on 23/02/2016 16:19:36
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Nur asked the Naked Scientists:
Can people dream under anesthetics?
What do you think?
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Hallucinate maybe... but not dream. For example, administer enough ketamine and the patient will experience post-op dysphoria and hallucinations in no time.
In order to dream, we need the assistance of REM sleep. General anesthesia leads to activation of the ventrolateral preoptic nucleus, which induces a non-REM state during anesthetic-induced unconsciousness.
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See also: http://anesthesiology.pubs.asahq.org/article.aspx?articleid=1933020
It is of historical interest to note that a common mechanism of dreaming during both sleep and anesthesia was predicted by the psychoanalyst Paul Federn, after the self-analysis of a dream that he experienced under nitrous oxide.