[thedoc (OP)]

Nur asked the Naked Scientists:







   Can people dream under anesthetics?







What do you think?

[exothermic]

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.

[smart]

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.