As we fall asleep we forget about the future: A quantitative linguistic analysis of mentation reports from hypnagogia

Abstract

Citation for published version (APA):Speth, J., Schloerscheidt, A. M., & Speth, C. (2016). As we fall asleep we forget about the future: a quantitative linguistic analysis of mentation reports from hypnagogia. Consciousness and Cognition, 45, 235-244. DOI: 10.1016/j.concog.2016.08.014 General rights Copyright and moral rights for the publications made accessible in Discovery Research Portal are retained by the authors and/or other copyright owners and it is a condition of accessing publications that users recognise and abide by the legal requirements associated with these rights.• Users may download and print one copy of any publication from Discovery Research Portal for the purpose of private study or research.• You may not further distribute the material or use it for any profit-making activity or commercial gain.• You may freely distribute the URL identifying the publication in the public portal. Take down policyIf you believe that this document breaches copyright please contact us providing details, and we will remove access to the work immediately and investigate your claim. AbstractWe present a quantitative study of mental time travel to the past and future in sleep onset hypnagogia. Three independent, blind judges analysed a total of 150 mentation reports from different intervals prior to and after sleep onset. The linguistic tool for the mentation report analysis grounds on established grammatical and cognitive-semantic theories, and proof of concept has been provided in previous studies. The current results indicate that memory for the future, but not for the past, decreases in sleep onset -thereby supporting preliminary physiological evidence at the level of brain function. While recent memory research emphasizes similarities in the cognitive and physiological processes of mental time travel to the past and future, the current study explores a state of consciousness which may serve to dissociate between the two. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

Constructive episodic simulation in dreams

“…In apparent contradiction with the present observations, Speth et al [ 58 , 59 ] reported that participants were very unlikely to describe anticipation of the future in dream reports, relative to in reports of waking thought. However, unlike in the present study, Speth et al assessed future-thinking by coding explicit language specifically mentioning the future within the text of the dream report itself (e.g.…”

“…However, unlike in the present study, Speth et al assessed future-thinking by coding explicit language specifically mentioning the future within the text of the dream report itself (e.g. “ I’m thinking about the formal tomorrow night ” [ 58 ]). This method would not have been sensitive to instances in which participants dreamed of imagined scenarios that related to the future, without specifically remarking on this in the text of the dream report (which they were not instructed to do).…”

A New Measure of Hallucinatory States and a Discussion of REM Sleep Dreaming as a Virtual Laboratory for the Rehearsal of Embodied Cognition

“…It may be due to the single‐mindedness of dreams (Rechtschaffen, ) that dreamers often appear to act on the demands of objects. Single‐mindedness describes “the strong tendency for a single train of related thoughts and images to persist over extended periods without disruption or competition from other simultaneous thoughts and images” (Rechtschaffen, p. 97), which hinders reflections and ponderings of alternative future scenarios that would require additional, near‐simultaneous simulations (Speth & Speth, ; Speth, Schloerscheidt, & Speth, ). It therefore seems that in REM sleep, to think is to do , which often leads dreamers to act on any impulses right away.…”

“…The current MHS has been pre‐validated in a previous study (Speth & Speth, ,b). It integrates two linguistic tools for the quantitative analysis of mentation reports: (a) the linguistic analysis of motor imagery and (b) the linguistic analysis of cognitive agency (Speth & Speth & Speth, ; Speth, Schloerscheidt, & Speth, ; Speth et al., ; Speth, Harley, & Speth, ; Speth et al., ). Brief descriptions of these tools are presented in the following, while the complete rating manual for our new MHS is included as supplementary material.…”

How deep is the rift between conscious states in sleep and wakefulness? Spontaneous experience over the sleep–wake cycle

“…This type of approach involving a comparison between reports from waking, sleep onset and/or REM sleep has already been used to investigate differences in passive versus active participation, future versus past oriented thought, auditory verbal experience and the transition from reflective to hallucinatory thought [140][141][142]. There is also evidence that if one tries to suppress thoughts about a particular topic or person in waking, those thoughts are more likely to reappear as cognitive control loosens during sleep onset [106].…”