Researchers led by Giulio Bernardi at the IMT School for Advanced Studies Lucca found that vivid dreams can make people feel as though they slept more deeply, even when brain activity during sleep resembles that of wakefulness.
For years, scientists believed that the feeling of deep sleep was mainly linked to slow brain waves that appear when the brain becomes less active. But the new research suggests that immersive dreams can produce the same sense of restful sleep.
The team studied 44 healthy adults over four nights in a sleep laboratory. Participants were repeatedly awakened during the night and asked to report whether they had been dreaming and how deeply they felt they had been sleeping. Brain activity was recorded throughout the night using EEG sensors placed on the scalp.
In total, researchers collected more than 1,000 awakenings and corresponding reports from participants. The data showed that while shifts toward slower brain waves were often linked to deeper perceived sleep, this pattern changed when people reported dreams.
Even when the brain showed activity patterns similar to those seen during wakefulness, participants still felt they had slept deeply if they had been dreaming. Rich, vivid dreams filled with strong images, unusual events, or emotional intensity were especially associated with the feeling of a good night’s sleep.
By contrast, more abstract or reflective mental activity during sleep was linked to a shallower sense of sleep.
The researchers also found that dreams tended to become more vivid and immersive later in the night. At the same time, people reported feeling as though their sleep was getting deeper, even though the body’s biological need for sleep was gradually decreasing.
According to the authors, dreams may help maintain the sensation of deep sleep by immersing the mind in an internal world that keeps attention away from the outside environment.
Researchers say the work could open new directions for understanding sleep quality and mental well-being. Changes in how often people dream or in the richness of their dreams could potentially affect how satisfied they feel with their sleep.
Earlier, Qazinform News Agency reported that over 10 hours gaming weekly harms young people’s diet and sleep.