AyahuascaLSDPsilocybin

Dreams and psychedelics: neurophenomenological comparison and therapeutic implications

This review (2017) studied research literature on psychedelics and dreaming to systematically compare these two states of consciousness. It highlighted the broad overlap between dreaming and psychedelic states supporting the perception that psychedelics acutely affect dreamlike subjective experiences that may show long-term beneficial responses to psychosocial functioning and well-being.

Authors

  • Rafael Kraehenmann

Published

Current Neuropharmacology
meta Study

Abstract

Background

A resurgence of neurobiological and clinical research is currently underway into the therapeutic potential of serotonergic or ‘classical’ psychedelics, such as the prototypical psychedelic drug lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD), psilocybin (4-phosphoryloxy-N,Ndimethyltryptamine), and ayahuasca - a betacarboline- and dimethyltryptamine (DMT)-containing Amazonian beverage. The aim of this review is to introduce readers to the similarities and dissimilarities between psychedelic states and night dreams, and to draw conclusions related to therapeutic applications of psychedelics in psychiatry.

Methods

Research literature related to psychedelics and dreaming is reviewed, and these two states of consciousness are systematically compared. Relevant conclusions with regard to psychedelicassisted therapy will be provided.

Results

Common features between psychedelic states and night dreams include perception, mental imagery, emotion activation, fear memory extinction, and sense of self and body. Differences between these two states are related to differential perceptual input from the environment, clarity of consciousness and meta-cognitive abilities. Therefore, psychedelic states are closest to lucid dreaming which is characterized by a mixed state of dreaming and waking consciousness.

Conclusion

The broad overlap between dreaming and psychedelic states supports the notion that psychedelics acutely induce dreamlike subjective experiences which may have long-term beneficial effects on psychosocial functioning and well-being. Future clinical studies should examine how therapeutic outcome is related to the acute dreamlike effects of psychedelics.

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Research Summary of 'Dreams and psychedelics: neurophenomenological comparison and therapeutic implications'

Introduction

Kraehenmann frames this paper as a focused review comparing night dreams, especially REM sleep dreaming, with states induced by classical serotonergic psychedelics (LSD, psilocybin, ayahuasca). Earlier research has noted overlapping phenomenology and some shared neurophysiology—perceptual alteration, vivid imagery, emotional activation, changes in self-experience and memory processes—leading to the suggestion that dreams may be a prototypical hallucinatory state and psychedelics may function as "experimental dreams." The introduction summarises hypotheses linking serotonergic systems to both sleep regulation and psychedelic action, and proposes that psychedelic therapeutic effects might be mediated in part by their dreamlike experiential qualities. The paper sets out to review literature on dreaming and on psychedelic states separately, then to compare them systematically in terms of perception and imagery, emotion and fear-memory processes, cognition, and self/body experience. Finally, Kraehenmann intends to draw therapeutic implications for psychedelic-assisted treatment based on the neurophenomenological overlap between these states.

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Study Details

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Dreams and psychedelics: neurophenomenological... — Research Summary & Context | Blossom