WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:03.439 Okay, Chelsea, I think I'm going to let you pick 00:00:03.439 --> 00:00:06.099 this one. I have one, two, three, four, five, 00:00:06.219 --> 00:00:08.960 six, seven articles to look, sorry, six articles 00:00:08.960 --> 00:00:11.259 to look at. Are they categorized? I'm going to 00:00:11.259 --> 00:00:15.140 give you categories. One's on animals. One is 00:00:15.140 --> 00:00:21.179 on space. One is on UFOs. One is on pollution. 00:00:21.739 --> 00:00:28.050 One is on dreams. And one is on space law. Those 00:00:28.050 --> 00:00:31.949 all sound really good. This is a really tough 00:00:31.949 --> 00:00:37.530 one. I'm going to go with... I was going to say 00:00:37.530 --> 00:00:39.750 dreams, but then you said space law, so I think 00:00:39.750 --> 00:00:41.729 I'm going to go space law. Oh, and you know what? 00:00:42.649 --> 00:00:44.310 I'm going to stop it there because that one turns 00:00:44.310 --> 00:00:47.409 out to probably be a video because the article 00:00:47.409 --> 00:00:51.090 itself is maybe a paragraph long. Okay, well 00:00:51.090 --> 00:00:53.170 then I choose... Dreams? What's the one I said? 00:00:53.250 --> 00:00:56.320 Dreams, yeah, that one. Okay. This article comes 00:00:56.320 --> 00:00:58.939 from Above Normal News. It was written on February 00:00:58.939 --> 00:01:02.520 16th, 2026 by David Freeman. Article title, Scientists 00:01:02.520 --> 00:01:04.920 have found a way to hack your dreams and it actually 00:01:04.920 --> 00:01:08.280 works. I'm listening. Well, that's good. I'm 00:01:08.280 --> 00:01:10.579 actually really happy when you tell me you are. 00:01:10.799 --> 00:01:13.760 I think it's the first time I've actually told 00:01:13.760 --> 00:01:18.370 you. That is not, but that's okay. A team at 00:01:18.370 --> 00:01:20.450 Northwestern University played sounds in the 00:01:20.450 --> 00:01:22.870 ears of sleeping volunteers during REM sleep, 00:01:23.030 --> 00:01:25.010 watched those volunteers respond from inside 00:01:25.010 --> 00:01:27.569 their dreams using pre -arranged physical signals, 00:01:27.709 --> 00:01:29.409 and then measured what happened when they woke 00:01:29.409 --> 00:01:32.269 up. How did they watch them in their dreams? 00:01:32.829 --> 00:01:35.290 No, they watched them respond from inside their 00:01:35.290 --> 00:01:38.329 dreams. So like they could see them like do something 00:01:38.329 --> 00:01:41.709 measurable. Oh, like outwardly. Okay. Yeah. Okay. 00:01:42.250 --> 00:01:44.769 The people whose dreams were successfully steered 00:01:44.769 --> 00:01:46.890 towards specific unsolved puzzles were twice 00:01:46.890 --> 00:01:48.930 as likely to solve those puzzles the next morning. 00:01:49.030 --> 00:01:51.090 The ones who forgot their dreams entirely but 00:01:51.090 --> 00:01:53.870 still responded to cues while unconscious solved 00:01:53.870 --> 00:01:56.659 at the highest rate of all. The study, published 00:01:56.659 --> 00:01:59.959 in February 2026 in Neuroscience of Consciousness 00:01:59.959 --> 00:02:03.620 by Oxford University Press, is led by Karen Arconcoli 00:02:03.620 --> 00:02:06.420 at Northwestern's Psychology Department. With 00:02:06.420 --> 00:02:08.340 collaborators at the University of Notre Dame, 00:02:08.500 --> 00:02:11.560 it is one of the most direct experimental demonstrations 00:02:11.560 --> 00:02:14.639 ever produced that REM dreams actively contribute 00:02:14.639 --> 00:02:17.460 to creative problem solving, not as folklore 00:02:17.460 --> 00:02:19.879 or anecdote, but as laboratory findings backed 00:02:19.879 --> 00:02:22.800 by statistical analysis and physiological recordings. 00:02:23.580 --> 00:02:26.379 20 participants took part, most of them frequent 00:02:26.379 --> 00:02:29.680 lucid dreamers capable of becoming aware they 00:02:29.680 --> 00:02:32.360 are dreaming while still asleep. Each came to 00:02:32.360 --> 00:02:34.460 the lab for two overnight sessions about a week 00:02:34.460 --> 00:02:37.000 apart. On each visit, they arrived two hours 00:02:37.000 --> 00:02:39.580 before their usual bedtime and were given a series 00:02:39.580 --> 00:02:42.020 of creative puzzles designed to resist analytical 00:02:42.020 --> 00:02:45.039 step -by -step solving. Matchstick problems, 00:02:45.319 --> 00:02:48.000 rebust challenges, spatial and verbal brain teasers, 00:02:48.020 --> 00:02:50.099 the sort of things where you either get the flash 00:02:50.099 --> 00:02:53.150 of insight or you stay stuck. each puzzle came 00:02:53.150 --> 00:02:56.370 with its own unique soundtrack a 15 second clip 00:02:56.370 --> 00:02:58.789 of music or environmental sound participants 00:02:58.789 --> 00:03:00.629 had three minutes per puzzle listening to the 00:03:00.629 --> 00:03:02.909 soundtrack on repeat while they worked when they 00:03:02.909 --> 00:03:04.750 failed they listened to the soundtrack one more 00:03:04.750 --> 00:03:07.110 time and memorized their pairings the evening 00:03:07.110 --> 00:03:09.370 continued until each participant had banked four 00:03:09.370 --> 00:03:12.409 unsolved puzzles then came the wiring electrodes 00:03:12.409 --> 00:03:15.740 were applied to monitor brain waves Eye movements, 00:03:16.020 --> 00:03:18.319 muscle activity, heart rate, and nasal airflow. 00:03:18.840 --> 00:03:21.759 Participants watched either Inception or Waking 00:03:21.759 --> 00:03:23.759 Life while the setup was completed. Amazing. 00:03:23.800 --> 00:03:25.539 Then went to bed with specific... Why would they 00:03:25.539 --> 00:03:28.599 make them watch Inception? I have so many questions. 00:03:29.120 --> 00:03:32.639 They watched Inception? I was not listening to 00:03:32.639 --> 00:03:35.199 that part. Participants watched either Inception 00:03:35.199 --> 00:03:37.479 or Waking Life while the setup was completed 00:03:37.479 --> 00:03:39.639 and then went to bed with specific instructions. 00:03:40.599 --> 00:03:43.759 At 4 a .m., they would be woken for 20 minutes 00:03:43.759 --> 00:03:45.960 of lucidity training, a technique that pairs 00:03:45.960 --> 00:03:48.800 a specific triple beep sound cue with a lucid 00:03:48.800 --> 00:03:51.460 state of mind as they drift back towards sleep. 00:03:51.580 --> 00:03:54.319 After that, sounds might be played during their 00:03:54.319 --> 00:03:57.479 REM periods. If they became lucid, they could 00:03:57.479 --> 00:04:01.039 signal by performing rapid left -right eye movements. 00:04:01.610 --> 00:04:03.389 If they heard a puzzle soundtrack they should 00:04:03.389 --> 00:04:06.150 start working on that puzzle and signal by sniffing 00:04:06.150 --> 00:04:08.669 rapidly in and out through the nose. Of the four 00:04:08.669 --> 00:04:10.789 unsolved puzzles each participant carried into 00:04:10.789 --> 00:04:13.469 sleep, researchers randomly selected two for 00:04:13.469 --> 00:04:16.399 cueing. The other two served as controls. When 00:04:16.399 --> 00:04:19.699 REM sleep arrived, the team first played about 00:04:19.699 --> 00:04:22.300 10 lucidity cues and then began feeding in the 00:04:22.300 --> 00:04:24.360 puzzle soundtracks and title recordings for the 00:04:24.360 --> 00:04:27.699 two selected problems. Cues were delivered every 00:04:27.699 --> 00:04:30.160 15 to 30 seconds, starting barely above the threshold 00:04:30.160 --> 00:04:32.759 of hearing, increasing only while the sleeper 00:04:32.759 --> 00:04:35.639 showed no signs of arousal. I assume they mean 00:04:35.639 --> 00:04:39.300 like waking up by that. Yeah. Any twitch of muscle 00:04:39.300 --> 00:04:41.860 tone, any flicker of alpha waves, and the volume 00:04:41.860 --> 00:04:45.610 dropped back down. After each REM period, participants 00:04:45.610 --> 00:04:48.389 were woken and asked to recount everything they 00:04:48.389 --> 00:04:50.649 could remember. 15 of the 20 participants had 00:04:50.649 --> 00:04:52.810 at least one dream involving an unsolved puzzle. 00:04:53.189 --> 00:04:55.730 Cued puzzles were incorporated into dreams at 00:04:55.730 --> 00:04:58.170 a significantly higher rate than uncued ones, 00:04:58.350 --> 00:05:02.129 with the effect reaching P less than .001, just 00:05:02.129 --> 00:05:06.279 meaning not chance. The cueing worked exactly 00:05:06.279 --> 00:05:08.220 as designed. Playing a puzzle soundtrack during 00:05:08.220 --> 00:05:11.180 REM sleep made people dream about that puzzle. 00:05:11.300 --> 00:05:14.139 The dream reports read like transmissions from 00:05:14.139 --> 00:05:16.220 somewhere profoundly strange. One participant 00:05:16.220 --> 00:05:18.579 signaled lucidity with her eye movements, heard 00:05:18.579 --> 00:05:21.160 a puzzle name played in her ears, then confirmed 00:05:21.160 --> 00:05:23.379 with sniffing signals that she was working on 00:05:23.379 --> 00:05:27.600 it. When she woke, she described recruiting a 00:05:27.600 --> 00:05:29.339 friend's daughter in her dream. The girl, who 00:05:29.339 --> 00:05:31.860 in the dream had autism, did not speak, climbed 00:05:31.860 --> 00:05:34.899 onto a seesaw. Watching this, the dreamer realized 00:05:34.899 --> 00:05:37.180 something about the puzzle. The scales were not 00:05:37.180 --> 00:05:39.759 flat. The actual puzzle required moving five 00:05:39.759 --> 00:05:42.100 matchsticks to balance a hanging scale. Whether 00:05:42.100 --> 00:05:44.519 the seesaw vision helped remains unclear. She 00:05:44.519 --> 00:05:48.439 never solved that one. Another participant's 00:05:48.439 --> 00:05:51.139 case was more striking. She responded to two 00:05:51.139 --> 00:05:53.519 puzzle cues in real time while sleeping, confirming 00:05:53.519 --> 00:05:56.279 through sniffing signals that she was processing 00:05:56.279 --> 00:05:58.819 them. We do not use sniffing signals enough, 00:05:58.939 --> 00:06:01.540 apparently. Nope. When she woke, she remembered 00:06:01.540 --> 00:06:03.819 almost nothing. She had been looking through 00:06:03.819 --> 00:06:06.199 a dresser. Papers with puzzles were inside. She 00:06:06.199 --> 00:06:08.819 solved one and got little celebration. She could 00:06:08.819 --> 00:06:11.410 not say which puzzle. The next morning, she solved 00:06:11.410 --> 00:06:13.470 both cute problems. Something happened in her 00:06:13.470 --> 00:06:15.449 sleeping brain that her waking memory could not 00:06:15.449 --> 00:06:18.129 access, but the cognitive benefit was real. What's 00:06:18.129 --> 00:06:21.069 the cognitive benefit? That they were able to 00:06:21.069 --> 00:06:23.310 solve the puzzle, I think is what they're saying. 00:06:23.410 --> 00:06:26.370 Because, like, they cued up certain sounds to 00:06:26.370 --> 00:06:28.029 make them think about those particular puzzles, 00:06:28.170 --> 00:06:30.990 and they solved those puzzles. Oh, okay. I don't 00:06:30.990 --> 00:06:34.550 see that as a benefit, but okay. Yeah. This connects 00:06:34.550 --> 00:07:04.029 to the study's most unsettling findings. What 00:07:04.029 --> 00:07:07.980 fucking weird stats. Yeah. The people who tried 00:07:07.980 --> 00:07:11.500 hardest did worse. The people who processed the 00:07:11.500 --> 00:07:13.560 problems without any awareness of doing so did 00:07:13.560 --> 00:07:16.180 best. The researchers suggest that non -lucid 00:07:16.180 --> 00:07:18.540 dreams may enhance unconscious incubation by 00:07:18.540 --> 00:07:20.879 allowing incorrect mental pathways to fade while 00:07:20.879 --> 00:07:23.180 the brain ranges across distant associations. 00:07:24.079 --> 00:07:26.560 Deliberate effort during lucid dreams may do 00:07:26.560 --> 00:07:28.899 the opposite, dragging the dreamer back into 00:07:28.899 --> 00:07:31.360 the same wrong approaches that created the impasse 00:07:31.360 --> 00:07:34.060 while awake. That's interesting. It's like, it's 00:07:34.060 --> 00:07:36.639 your awake. problem solving that's still trying 00:07:36.639 --> 00:07:39.160 to work through it and it just can't think outside 00:07:39.160 --> 00:07:41.740 its normal box. So it's not helping to lucidly 00:07:41.740 --> 00:07:43.800 dream. Whereas if you just like let your brain 00:07:43.800 --> 00:07:45.800 go with the flow and you don't remember any of 00:07:45.800 --> 00:07:48.339 it, you're going to solve it. Like that is bizarre. 00:07:48.800 --> 00:07:51.620 Yeah. Puzzles that were dreamed about by any 00:07:51.620 --> 00:07:53.959 measure were solved the next morning at 42%. 00:07:53.959 --> 00:07:56.740 Puzzles not dreamed about were solved at 17%. 00:07:56.740 --> 00:07:58.779 That difference was statistically significant. 00:07:59.180 --> 00:08:01.339 But how are they controlling the puzzles that 00:08:01.339 --> 00:08:03.240 are being solved? Because they're giving them 00:08:03.240 --> 00:08:06.350 four puzzles. But they're only playing songs 00:08:06.350 --> 00:08:09.250 for two of them. So they're controlling the ones 00:08:09.250 --> 00:08:11.069 that they tried to make you dream about versus 00:08:11.069 --> 00:08:14.810 the ones they did not. Oh, okay. Okay, that makes 00:08:14.810 --> 00:08:17.449 sense. I was like, how are they controlling the 00:08:17.449 --> 00:08:20.670 puzzles inside a dream? Dreams are widely known 00:08:20.670 --> 00:08:23.810 as uncontrollable. And if you can't control them, 00:08:23.829 --> 00:08:25.610 it's actually shittier, apparently. Exactly. 00:08:26.750 --> 00:08:29.670 Widely known. Yeah, I think that's far enough 00:08:29.670 --> 00:08:31.589 to go with this article. It actually goes on. 00:08:32.029 --> 00:08:34.710 You know, I could probably finish it. There's 00:08:34.710 --> 00:08:37.529 six. No, we can leave it there. People will link 00:08:37.529 --> 00:08:39.149 to it and you guys can go take a look. Yeah. 00:08:39.230 --> 00:08:41.490 But yeah, that's something like I've always, 00:08:41.649 --> 00:08:44.029 I don't know. It's really interesting that I 00:08:44.029 --> 00:08:46.389 wouldn't have thought that way. Would you? With 00:08:46.389 --> 00:08:48.809 regards to like lucid dreaming actually being 00:08:48.809 --> 00:08:52.830 detrimental to your learning ability? No. I can't 00:08:52.830 --> 00:08:55.049 say it's something that I've ever really thought 00:08:55.049 --> 00:08:58.009 about or thought we should do a study on either. 00:08:58.350 --> 00:09:02.649 Yeah. Just to be straight up. But like we always, 00:09:02.750 --> 00:09:04.409 we've known at least for a really long time, 00:09:04.470 --> 00:09:06.690 like sleeping on something is beneficial. Like 00:09:06.690 --> 00:09:08.649 your brain makes connections while you sleep. 00:09:08.809 --> 00:09:11.610 Yeah. To make you better at things that you're 00:09:11.610 --> 00:09:15.149 trying to learn. Yeah. And it's almost like from 00:09:15.149 --> 00:09:17.970 the study they're showing that you can do things 00:09:17.970 --> 00:09:20.769 during your sleep, but like. Trying to control 00:09:20.769 --> 00:09:23.330 how you're learning during the sleep isn't going 00:09:23.330 --> 00:09:25.190 to help at all. In fact, it probably will hurt 00:09:25.190 --> 00:09:27.610 overall. Come on, I shouldn't say hurt. Just 00:09:27.610 --> 00:09:29.889 not as good as letting your body naturally go 00:09:29.889 --> 00:09:33.529 with the flow. Yeah, I wonder if it's, I don't 00:09:33.529 --> 00:09:35.110 know. It feels like it's right on the tip of 00:09:35.110 --> 00:09:37.370 my brain, but I can't. Maybe you should sleep 00:09:37.370 --> 00:09:39.110 on it. Yeah, maybe I should sleep on it. We can 00:09:39.110 --> 00:09:41.750 talk about it in the next episode. Other than 00:09:41.750 --> 00:09:44.509 that, like, what are the implications? Like, 00:09:44.610 --> 00:09:46.750 why did they go into this study? Why did they 00:09:46.750 --> 00:09:49.350 need to do this study? Maybe... But they wanted 00:09:49.350 --> 00:09:51.149 to see the impact on different types of sleep 00:09:51.149 --> 00:09:55.190 and cues while sleeping on problem solving or 00:09:55.190 --> 00:09:58.730 learning. Yeah. Which is just wild. Like, completely 00:09:58.730 --> 00:10:01.409 not remembering your dream at all is the best 00:10:01.409 --> 00:10:04.450 way of learning as opposed to either remembering 00:10:04.450 --> 00:10:07.950 your dream about it or intentionally taking control 00:10:07.950 --> 00:10:09.710 of your dream and trying to learn during the 00:10:09.710 --> 00:10:12.330 dream. Like that is just wild. In the end, at 00:10:12.330 --> 00:10:15.570 least I don't lucid dream. So in the end, I think 00:10:15.570 --> 00:10:18.590 I'm better off is what I've learned from the 00:10:18.590 --> 00:10:20.950 study at least. Yeah. Although I don't think 00:10:20.950 --> 00:10:22.730 we're trying to like intentionally said anything 00:10:22.730 --> 00:10:24.669 while we sleep either. So who actually knows 00:10:24.669 --> 00:10:27.309 if it's just like, let your brain run wild. Yeah, 00:10:27.330 --> 00:10:29.929 you should definitely. And I'm sure somewhere 00:10:29.929 --> 00:10:32.809 in there, there's a plug for us to say, you better 00:10:32.809 --> 00:10:35.129 be listening to us while you sleep. Yeah. It's 00:10:35.129 --> 00:10:37.750 best just to listen to us while you sleep because 00:10:37.750 --> 00:10:40.690 then. You're absorbing all this like such good 00:10:40.690 --> 00:10:44.429 knowledge and just calm that you guys need for 00:10:44.429 --> 00:10:47.789 your soul. Yeah. Soul. Yeah. Anyhow, you guys 00:10:47.789 --> 00:10:50.389 got 48 hours. You need to sleep and listen to 00:10:50.389 --> 00:10:53.230 us like the whole time. And then if you run out 00:10:53.230 --> 00:10:55.230 of episodes, you do it again. Yeah. And then 00:10:55.230 --> 00:10:57.789 you do it while you're awake. And it's supposed 00:10:57.789 --> 00:11:00.309 to be more beneficial that way. Anyhow. Bye. 00:11:00.509 --> 00:11:00.850 Bye.