White dreams are made of colours: What studying contentless dreams can teach about the neural basis of dreaming and conscious experiences

Reports of white dreams, the feeling of having had a dream experience without being able to specify this experience any further, make up almost one third of all dream reports, yet this phenomenon —until very recently—had not yet been in the focus of targeted investigations. White dreams are typically interpreted as forgotten dreams, and are sidelined as not being particularly informative with regard to the nature of dreaming. In this review article, we propose a paradigm shift with respe ct to the status of white dreams arguing that focusing on this phenomenon can reveal fundamental insights about the neural processes that occur in the dreaming brain.
Source: Sleep Medicine Reviews - Category: Sleep Medicine Authors: Tags: Theoretical Review Source Type: research