The Science of Sleep

Here is an interesting panel from the June 2011 World Science Festival dealing with the issue of sleep and dreaming:



The web page with annotation introducing this panel can be found here.

I like the bit at 24:20 because it addresses the connundrum of why everybody finds their own dreams "meaningful" but find other people's dreams pretty boring.

The most fascinating bit is the section from 25:20 thru 49:20 where Matthew Wilson looks at his research on a rat's mind. First his has decoded the rat's experiencing the traversing of a maze and he can then follow the rat dreaming or rehearsing that traversal during sleep. What is especially fascinating is his interpretation of non-REM versus REM dreaming.