Nightmares, bad dreams or uneasiness experienced during dreaming might come to an end thanks to a new scientific discovery which would allow people to control what they dream.
Through the application of an electric current to the brain, scientists led by psychologist Ursula Voss of the J. W. Göthe University in Frankfurt, say that the brain can be induced into a state of lucid dreaming, in which people are conscious they are dreaming and can usually take control of what is happening.
In the study published in the Nature Neuroscience magazine, reported Reuters, the Frankfurt Göthe team created a lab study in which volunteers in an REM phase (Rapid Eye Movement) of sleep experienced lucid dreaming, and were able to remember the dream fully when they woke up. Electroencephalograms showed that these dreams were accompanied by indicative electric activity called gamma waves.
The study said that these brain waves are related to executive functions such as superior order reasoning. Voss and her colleagues sought to give an answer to the situation in which during dreaming, a current is induced with the same frequency as gamma waves in the brain. The scientists indicated that when, through electrodes placed on the scalp in a technique called "Transcranial alternating current stimulation" (TACS), the 27 volunteers reported that they were conscious of what they were dreaming.
If Voss results' are maintained, the technique might help people who suffer from post traumatic stress disorder who relieve events of pain and violence they lived through.
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