Neurophilosophy of Dreaming

This book is devoted to a historical reconstruction and to a philosophical
interpretation of physiological research on sleep and dreaming during the last
sixty years, with emphasis on the new physiology of dreaming. More than a
thorough analysis of the scientific developments in various fields of research
pertaining to rapid-eye-movement (rem) or paradoxical sleep and dreaming, from
neurochemistry and psychophysiology to developmental and evolutionary biology,
the book puts emphasis on the progress of ideas about the biochemical
mechanisms of sleep, from the rather simple ideas in the sixties about
monoaminergic mechanisms, to the crisis of the monoaminergic theory and to the
later development of much more complex models of sleep and wakefulness
mechanisms. Philosophically speaking, this account raises questions about the
relevance of classical concepts of causality in experimental medicine in the
case of systems whose complexity level is initially unknown. Another still
much debated issue which is dealt with is the equivalence between rem-sleep
and dreaming, and the question of mental activity in sleep. Is rem-sleep
really the unique physiological basis of dreaming? The author gives also an
assessment of several theoretical ideas about the function of rem-sleep,
including ideas about the possible role of rem-sleep in the brain’s continuing
process of individuality.