Dr. Sidarta Ribeiro - The Oracle of Night

Thoughts on Record: Podcast of the Ottawa Institute of Cognitive Behavioural Therapy

Dreams have long been a source of fascination, mystery & intrigue, yet there is now an abundance of scientific evidence to shed light on the origins, nature, and purpose of this captivating aspect of the human experience. Sleep neuroscientist Dr. Sidarta Ribeiro, joins host Dr. Pete Kelly, C.Psych for an in-depth consideration of many of the themes explored in his book The Oracle of Night: The History & Science of Dreaming. In this discussion they cover:

• what led Dr. Ribeiro to write The Oracle of Night and the meaning behind the title
• the definition of a "dreaming" and the functions dreaming may serve
• the underlying neuroscience of dreaming
• parallels between dreams and what is experienced during psychedelic experiences
• why emotions in dreams can feel so incredibly intense compared to that which is experienced when awake
• the science behind lucid dreaming and tips on how to become proficient in lucid dreaming
• the symbolic meaning and utility of dreams, both individually and collectively
• the evolutionary significance of dreaming and why has it created an adaptive advantage
• the negative impact of modernity on the quality and nature of dreams and our ability to recall/utilize dream content
• how to better remember dreams and become attuned to dream content
• how acute sleep deprivation can act as an "anti-depressant" in the context of severe depression
• the importance of REM sleep for emotion regulation
• Dr. Ribeiro's thoughts on the biggest unanswered questions in the field of dream study, including how dream content is selected by the brain

Dr. Sidarta Ribeiro is a founder and vice director of the Brain Institute at Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Norte in Brazil, where he is also a professor of neuroscience. He received a PhD in animal behavior from The Rockefeller University. Sidarta is the author of The Oracle of Night: The History and Science of Dreaming, his fifth book, and a contributor for Folha de S.Paulo, Brazil´s largest newspaper. He is a Member of the Latin American Academy of Sciences (ACAL) since 2016, he is associate editor of the journals PLoS One, Frontiers in Integrative Neuroscience and Frontiers In Psychology - Language Sciences. He is a member of the Steering Committee of the Latin American School for Educational, Cognitive and Neural Sciences and the Center for Research, Innovation and Education in Neuromathematics (NeuroMat). He served as secretary of the Brazilian Society of Neuroscience and Behavior (SBNeC) from 2009-2011 and was a member of the Brazilian committee of the Pew Latin American Fellows Program in the Biomedical Sciences between 2011 and 2015.