Manufacturing Dreams

New submitter geekgirl09 sends in a story from Wired about the U.S. Army's efforts to develop methods for digitally manufacturing dreams to soothe combat vets who suffer from PTSD. From the article: "Fifty-two percent of combat veterans with PTSD (post traumatic stress disorder) reported having nightmares fairly often, according to the National Vietnam Veterans’ Readjustment Study. ... So the researchers will ask troops to take control of the 'creation of the customized healing imagery (therapeutic dreams) to counter the impact of nightmares,' according to a military contracting document. The hope is that these 'power dreams' can be watched from laptops and 'home training and 3-D goggles work to gradually enhance the strength of these new neurological images.'"

Comments

Re:Obligatory

[redback]

Nested Inception references?

Re:Hollywood has taken over

[Anonymous Coward]

muslins? Oh sheet!

Can't wait for a diagnosis like:

[Lord_of_the_nerf]

"Soldier, I'm recommending six-weeks of dreams about puppies."

Re:Obligatory

[Lord_of_the_nerf]

The reference article beat you to it.

Lucid Dreaming

[djh2400]

What about lucid dreaming? Is it a viable (and/or cheaper) option compared to these "therapeutic dreams"?

It seems to me that the best dreams would be those which can be experienced and directed as one wishes.

Re:Lucid Dreaming

[NeutronCowboy]

It's not Science (TM) is scared of them, it's that they're really, really hard to reproduce reliably under lab conditions. Even if you get one person that can reliably do it, it's then even harder to find another person to do it under the same circumstances. End result: you end up with a lot of anecdotes, no data, no theory, no predictions and no way to measure things consistently.

That's why you don't hear science dealing with it.

Re:Lucid Dreaming

[bky1701]

You must be afraid of Gnomes! You aren't making an effort to prove they exist.

Dreaming is a Private Thing

[quark101]

This reminds me of the Isaac Asimov story Dreaming is a Private Thing where dreams are manufactured and sold as one of the ultimate forms of entertainment. Instead of looking at some of the obvious implications that might spring to mind, Asimov (as he often did) looks instead at the lives of the people who produce the dreams that are then recorded for others to view, and what life might be like for such a person.

What the article talks about is, of course, very different then the story, but with advances in brain imaging and research it may one day be a possibility.

Re:Obligatory

[Cryacin]

It's not turtles all the way down you know. Eventually you hit Tortoise and the SVN repository.

Obscure

[EdZ]

Paprika reference.

Dr Chiba was a therapist, so it's relevant too!

Re:How About

[TapeCutter]

War is not the only cause of PTSD, a freind of mine wittnesed a horrific industrial accident where his mate was crushed by large steel rollers up to his waist. The top half of the victims body balloned because all his organs and blood were forced into his chest. He was still alive for several minutes while trapped in the rollers. My friend has been a miserable ball of anxiety attacks and nightmares since then, and that was over a decade ago.