Author: Jessica Wiedmer

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Lucid Dreaming and Motor Learning

Lucid Dreams and Motor Learning. 2021 © Jessica Wiedmer

A lucid dream is a phenomenon of sleep where the dreamer is aware of the current state and thus can influence the dream events. One can consciously wake up or influence the actions, or passively observe the events with this awareness. What makes lucid dreaming special is that what is experienced in the dream feels very real. However, not all people can enjoy this by any means. According to Schredl and Erlacher (2011), about 20 percent of the population experiences such dreams more frequently and only one to two percent have lucid dreams regularly. It is possible to learn lucid dreaming, but it is often not easy. 

Prof. Dr. Erlacher is investigating motor learning in lucid dreams at the University of Bern. Existing studies show that motor learning is possible in lucid dreams (Erlacher, 2005). In other words, athletes can train and optimize their movements while sleeping, but only in lucid dreams, where they can control the dream events. Athletes can train especially technique-related aspects well, while muscle mass and endurance cannot be influenced. This makes it possible to train physically demanding sports such as skateboarding or snowboarding in dreams and thus to prepare them anticipatorily for the waking state or to perfect movements through repetition in dreams. 

Motor learning in lucid dreaming is reminiscent of mental training, where sequences of movements can be trained in the imagination while awake. However, the difference is that mental training is an imaginational experience and lucid dreaming is a phenomenal experience (LaBerge et al., 2018). Moreover, lucid dreams are clearer and more vivid than mental training.  

One advantage of training in lucid dreams is, that there is no risk of injury. Especially for martial artists training in sleep is a worthwhile method to try new things without the risk of getting hurt. On the other hand, lucid dreaming is difficult to learn and needs a lot of practice. Erlacher (2011) has conducted studies on a wide range of athletes and asked them whether they train using lucid dreaming. 5% of athletes say that they use this method to train and 77% of them think lucid dream training has improved their sports performance. Studies show that the effects of lucid dream training tend to be greater than mental training as well as similar improvement to physical training (Schädlich et al., 2017).  To make better use of lucid dreams, Erlacher is also researching methods by which lucid dreams can be induced from the outside, for example by a researcher in the sleep lab. But this must be trained and also requires patience, endurance and motivation. And so training in dreams, like almost everything in sports, is often hard work.

Bibliography :
  • Erlacher, Daniel. Motorisches Lernen im luziden Traum: Phänomenologische und experimentelle Betrachtungen. Universität Heidelberg, 2005, doi:10.11588/heidok.00005896.
  • Erlacher, D. (2019). Sport und Schlaf: Angewandte Schlafforschung für die Sportwissenschaft. Springer-Verlag.
  • Schredl, M., & Erlacher, D. (2011). Frequency of lucid dreaming in a representative German sample. Perceptual and Motor Skills, 112, 104–108.
  • Erlacher, D. (2010). Anleitung zum Klarträumen – Die nächtliche Traumwelt selbst gestalten. Norderstedt: Books on Demand. 
  • LaBerge, S., Baird, B., & Zimbardo, P. G. (2018). Smooth tracking of visual targets distinguishes lucid REM sleep dreaming and waking perception from imagination. Nature Communications, 9, 3298. 
    Schädlich, M., & Erlacher, D. (2018). Practicing sports in lucid dreams – characteristics, effects, and practical implications. Current Issues in Sport Science, 3(7).
Featured image :
  • Wiedmer, J. (2021). Lucid Dreams and Motor Learning, made with canva.com
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Folie a deux

© Caneva

“Folie a deux” or “Shared Psychotic Disorder” is a rare type of mental illness in which a person who does not have a primary mental health disorder comes to believe the delusion of a close person with a psychotic or delusional disorder. For example, a wife might come to believe her husband’s delusions even though she is otherwise mentally healthy. 

Shared Psychotic Disorder develops in the context of a relationship in which one person influences the other. The psychotic symptoms develop in the course of a close long-term relationship with a person who already had a psychotic disorder. These relationships can for example be between family members, couples, sisters and in rare cases can even include more than two individuals. The person with a preexisting disorder is called the primary case (Inducer) and the other person is called the secondary case (Inductee or Recipient).

The symptoms of shared psychotic disorder depend on the diagnosis of the primary person with the disorder. The secondary person develops hallucinations or delusions gradually over time and is usually not aware of these changes. Neither the person with the primary mental illness nor the person who develops the same delusions has insight into the problem. Therefore, the first person does not realize that they are making the other person sick. They assume that they are simply showing the truth to the second person.

In general, both individuals behave paranoid, fearful, and distrustful of others. They react very defensive and angry if their shared delusions are questioned. The delusions themselves are usually persecutory. With the separation of the primary and the secondary person, the developed delusions from the secondary person seem to disappear.

 But what causes this extraordinary disorder? There are several possible risk factors for “Shared Psychotic Disorder”:

  • Social isolation of the primary and secondary person from the outside world
  • High levels of chronic stress or the occurrence of stressful life events
  • A dominant primary person and submissive secondary person 
  • A close connection between the primary and secondary person; usually a long-term relationship with attachment (e.g., family members, couples, sisters, etc.)
  • A secondary person with a neurotic, dependent, or passive personality style or someone who struggles with judgment/critical thinking
  • A secondary person with another mental illness such as depression, schizophrenia, or dementia
  • An untreated disorder (e.g., delusional disorder, schizophrenia, bipolar disorder) in the primary individual
  • An age difference between the primary and secondary person
  • A secondary person who is dependent on the primary due to being disabled (e.g., physically or mentally)

To get a better impression of the Shared Psychotic disorder I show you a case described by Mohamed in which an 8-year-old girl was admitted to a psychiatric center. The girl had acute psychosis with agitation, confusion, paranoid delusions, and hallucinations. The girl reported that her neighbors broke into her house, raped her, and injected her with drugs and rat poison. She also stated hearing the neighbors’ voices and additionally suffered from insomnia, and has trouble falling asleep. The girl had no history of psychiatric or medical illness according to her family and her primary care physician. Examinations showed that the 8-year-old had no physical signs of needlesticks or rape, and her mental status was normal except for the paranoid content of her thoughts. When attempts were made to contact the mother, it was discovered that the mother had checked herself into the same psychiatric clinic. The mother reported to her psychiatrist about the same atrocities committed by the neighbors as her daughter. In her records, it was found that the mother had been to the emergency department several times before and reported similar symptoms. The mother always refused psychiatric assessment or treatment. 

After a full assessment, it was revealed that there were no signs of genital trauma and any kind of drugs. The daughter was diagnosed with Shared Psychotic Disorder and the mother was diagnosed with Psychotic Disorder Not Otherwise Specified. 

After the diagnosis, the daughter was separated from her mother and was able to recover quickly. The daughter was left in the care of a family friend. The mother went for treatment and was able to see her daughter under supervision.

Bibliography :
  • Abu-Salha, M. (1998). Folie á Deux: Two Case Reports. Jefferson Journal of Psychiatry, 14(1). https://doi.org/10.29046/JJP.014.1.002
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  • Canva. (n.d.).
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What hinders your New Year’s resolutions?

Hands Holding a 2021 Calendar © Olya Kobruseva

It’s that time of the year again where many are thinking about their New Year’s resolutions. Especially in the current time during the Corona crisis, choices for health behaviors are particularly prominent. Although good resolutions are made, they are often not put into action. But why is that?

A hurdle that can get in the way of achieving healthy resolutions are compensatory health beliefs (CHBs). These are beliefs that an unhealthy behavior can later be compensated by a healthy behavior (Rabia et al., 2006). For example, “It is okay if I eat this snack now because I am going to workout later”. Some findings show that individuals with stronger compensatory health beliefs engage in more unhealthy behavior such as drinking alcohol (Matley & Davies, 2018), smoking cigarettes (Radtke et al., 2012), and have a high-calorie intake (Kronick et al., 2011). The compensatory health beliefs can become problematic when they are used as justification to perform the unhealthy behavior nevertheless the compensatory behavior is not exhibited. The accompanying cognitive bias is not perceived and thus one can justify unhealthy behaviors without performing the compensation. 

A study by Amrein et al. (2021) investigated the relationship between CHBs and unhealthy snack consumption in daily life. Subjects were required to provide information about their snack consumption several times a day, state and trait CHBs related to compensation with subsequent eating behaviors and physical activity. The results of the study show that compensatory health beliefs are important for unhealthy snack consumption in daily life.  That means if you have stronger beliefs about compensating for the snack later, you’re more likely to eat an unhealthy snack.  

Of course, such compensatory health beliefs occur not only in the context of unhealthy eating behaviors, but also take place in other areas. But how can you counteract these beliefs? A good strategy for achieving any type of goal is If-Then plans. Typically, goals are described as an end product such as “I want to quit smoking.” If-Then plans, on the other hand, capture predetermined responses when a particular situation occurs. For example, “When I feel the urge to smoke a cigarette, I will eat a chewing gum instead.” Deciding such things in advance reduces the demands on your willpower.

With these mechanisms in mind, it might be helpful to frame your New Year’s resolutions as If-Then plans to reach (or at least increase the chance of reaching) your desired goals.

Bibliography :
  • Amrein, M. A., Scholz, U., & Inauen, J. (2021). Compensatory health beliefs and unhealthy snack consumption in daily life. Appetite, 157, 104996. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.appet.2020.104996
  • Kronick, I., Auerbach, R. P., Stich, C., & Knäuper, B. (2011). Compensatory beliefs and intentions contribute to the prediction of caloric intake in dieters. Appetite, 57(2), 435–438. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.appet.2011.05.306
  • Matley, F. A. I., & Davies, E. L. (2018). Resisting temptation: Alcohol specific self-efficacy mediates the impacts of compensatory health beliefs and behaviours on alcohol consumption. Psychology, Health & Medicine, 23(3), 259–269. https://doi.org/10.1080/13548506.2017.1363395
  • Rabia, M., Knäuper, B., & Miquelon, P. (2006). The eternal quest for optimal balance between maximizing pleasure and minimizing harm: The compensatory health beliefs model. British Journal of Health Psychology, 11(1), 139–153. https://doi.org/10.1348/135910705X52237
  • Radtke, T., Scholz, U., Keller, R., & Hornung, R. (2012). Smoking is ok as long as I eat healthily: Compensatory Health Beliefs and their role for intentions and smoking within the Health Action Process Approach. Psychology & Health, 27(sup2), 91–107. https://doi.org/10.1080/08870446.2011.603422
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  • Hands Holding a 2021 Calendar by Olya Kobruseva www.canva.com (no date available)

Author : Jessica Wiedmer

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Facts

Things you did not know about sleep

Good night 2020 © Jessica Wiedmer

People spend a third of their time sleeping. While some go through life with the philosophy “sleep is for the weak”, science knows how important good sleep is for your health. There are some things in our everyday behavior, which affect our sleep, but conversely, sleep also affects various areas in our life. In the following, I would like to present to you some facts about sleep you may not have known yet.

Caffeine

Everyone knows that caffeine can help you wake up in the morning or make you more alert. But there are at least two other hidden aspects of caffeine most people do not know. Do you know how long caffeine stays in your system? If you drink a cup of coffee around 2 pm, 50% of the caffeine will still be in your system after about five to six hours. It could be that almost a quarter of that caffeine is still in your brain at midnight. As a result, it can make it harder for you to fall asleep. But not only this, caffeine also affects your brain during sleep. It turns out that caffeine can actually decrease the amount of deep, non-rapid eye movement sleep, which is important for restorative, deep sleep. As a consequence, it could be that you wake up the next morning and you do not feel refreshed, you do not feel restored by your sleep. 

Alcohol

It is often mistakenly thought that alcohol can be a sleeping aid. However, this is not the case. Alcohol can be problematic for sleep in three different ways. First, alcohol is considered a sedative. But sedation is not the same as sleep. In deep sleep, the brain is active and many brain cells fire and go silent together at the same time. This way, brain waves are generated. When you are sedated, none of this takes place. Sedation is a case where we are simply switching off the firing of the brain cells. This causes all the positive aspects of sleep to be lost. Furthermore, alcohol can actually trigger and activate the fight or flight branch of the nervous system during sleep. This causes you to wake up throughout the night, even if you may not notice it. As a result, you will not feel refreshed in the morning. Lastly, alcohol can block your rapid-eye-movement sleep. This kind of sleep is important for your emotional and mental health. 

Memory

Sleep is critical for learning and making new memories. Sleep makes your brain ready to absorb new information. But not only before, but also after learning, we need sleep. This is especially important for the consolidation of what has been learned. While we sleep, the same neurons are activated that were activated during the learning process. Thus, sleep is actually replaying and scoring those memories into a new circuit within the brain, strengthening that memory representation. This process is called replay. The final way in which sleep is beneficial for memory is integration and association. Sleep does not just simply strengthen individual memories; sleep will cleverly interconnect new memories together. 

Emotions

Lack of sleep makes us emotionally irrational and hyperactive. Studies show that the amygdala, which is the brain structure important for emotion, is almost 60% more responsive in sleep-deprived individuals than usual.  This is due to the communication between the prefrontal cortex and the amygdala. Normally, there is good communication between the two. In sleep-deprived people, however, this connection is significantly worse. As a consequence, the amygdala is responding far more sensitively due to a lack of sleep. What is more, sleep can help you soothe difficult emotional experiences. And so, perhaps it is not time that heals all wounds, it is the time during sleep that provides that form of emotional convalescence.

Immunsystem

There is a very intimate association between our sleep health and our immune health. Individuals sleeping less than seven hours per night are three times more likely to become infected by the rhinovirus, otherwise known as the common cold. That is because during sleep at night, the production of immune factors is stimulated. Furthermore, the body actually increases its sensitivity to those immune factors. Thus, your immune system is more robust after a good night of sleep.

Bibliography
Featured image:
  • Wiedmer, J., (2020). Good Night.

Author : Jessica Wiedmer

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current directions Facts

Why are some people left-handed?

Handmade 2020 ©️ Jessica Wiedmer

Have you ever wondered why left-handed people are so rare? Everyone knows that right-handed people are more frequent than left-handed people. You may have heard different theories about how the handedness is determined, but you probably never heard of a theory explaining why left-handed people are so rare. Daniel M. Abram found a way to explain the small number of left-handed people with a mathematical model.

Only one out of ten people is left-handed. The fascinating thing is that this ratio has remained steady for the last 500’000 years. Until today, it is not exactly clear what determines the handedness. One thing we know, however, is that the handedness is nothing you can choose, it is given. Many different theories try to explain this. The observation that left-handed parents tend to have left-handed children more often than right-handed parents, can be explained either by the influence of genes or the environment. Studies with identical twins show that both genes and the environment influence handedness, since identical twins do not have the same dominant hand more often than other siblings do.

This implies that there must be a reason in evolution responsible for the small number of left-handed people. Daniel M. Abrams proposed a mathematical model, which suggests that the ratio of competitive and cooperative pressure is responsible for the small number of left-handed people. 

The advantages of left-handed people are most obvious when facing an opponent in combat or competitive sports. Because there are usually very few left-handed people, most athletes are used to train with right-handed people. When right-handed and left-handed people meet, the left-handed person will be better prepared than a right-handed opponent. Daniel M. Abrams showed that 50% of professional baseball players are left-handed. The imbalance, in the beginning, leads to an advantage for left-handed players. This is called the fighting hypothesis and is an example of negative frequency-dependent selection. The rarer a trait, the more valuable it is. But according to the rules of evolution, a group that has an advantage should grow until the advantage disappears. If all humans did was fight, natural selection would lead to more left-handed people. The number of left-handed people would grow until there would be so many of them that it would not be rare anymore and therefore left-handedness would not be an advantage anymore. Thus, in a purely competitive world, the ratio between left and right-handed people would be 50/50. 

However, human evolution is not only driven by competition but also by cooperation. Cooperative pressure pushes the handedness in the other direction. In golf, where performance does not depend on the opponent, only 4 percent of the top players are left-handed. The reason for this is a phenomenon called “tool sharing”. Many products and tools are made for right-handed people, as they also make up the majority of our society. Left-handed players are worse at using these tools. For this reason, left-handed people would be less successful in a purely cooperative world until they would no longer exist. 

To summarize, according to Abram’s mathematical theory, the stable number of left-handed people is seen as an equilibrium created by competitive and cooperative effects. 

Bibliography:
  • Abrams, D., (2015, February). Daniel Abrams : Why are some people left-handed ? Retrieved from
Featured image:
  • Wiedmer, J., (2020). Handmade.

Author : Jessica Wiedmer