It is generally accepted that consciousness differs significantly between sleep and wakefulness. When we sleep, we experience an unconscious stream of thoughts and images. In the waking state, we are aware of everything that is happening to us and can influence the flow of thoughts and actions. Lucid dreams are an exception to the rule, however, even in this state, our consciousness functions in an intermediate mode between sleep and wakefulness.
Can we outline the boundaries between conscious states and are they so straightforward? Author Jennifer M. Windt from Monash University in Australia tried to answer this question. According to Windt, the boundaries between different states of consciousness are more blurred than they seem at first glance. In support of her hypothesis, the scientist cites recent research showing that a significant part of our waking life is spent in a state of wandering mind, or spontaneous thoughts.
Indeed, especially in the digital age, it is becoming more and more common to spend a portion of our life on autopilot. By some estimates, we spend up to 50% of our waking life daydreaming. This state includes any time when our thoughts and attention are not focused on what we are doing and, instead, unfold in a free-associative flow. According to some scholars, dreams may be an extreme form of wandering mind. Windt, for example, claims that dreams are analogous to our consciousness functioning in “offline mode,” free from the influence of the environment, external stimuli, and tasks.
Lucid dreams, despite the apparent differences in consciousness, also take place in “offline mode.” The dreamer experiences events in a dream-like world, but is nevertheless a part of it. In sleep and in reality, we experience states of spontaneous thoughts that take on multiple variations. Future research may thus shed light on the differences in the nature of consciousness, not in terms of the boundaries of sleep and wakefulness, but in terms of different types of mind wandering.
The study was published in December 2020 in the Royal Society journal.
