2023-10-12 21:42:00
Researchers from Inserm, CNRS and AP-HP published this Thursday, October 12, a study which shows sleepers without any particular problems are capable of capturing verbal information transmitted by a human voice, and responding to it. by contractions of the facial muscles.
A study that could call into question the definition of sleep. Researchers from Inserm, CNRS, Sorbonne University and AP-HP published a study this Thursday in the journal Nature Neurosciences which shows that we are capable of responding to external requests while sleeping.
According to research, sleepers without particular disorders are able to pick up verbal information transmitted by a human voice and respond to it with contractions of facial muscles. However, these abilities appear intermittently during almost all stages of sleep.
There would therefore be intermediate states between waking and sleeping. To find out, the researchers analyzed 22 patients without sleep disorders and 27 narcoleptic patients, who are more often able to have lucid dreams (in which they are conscious and can shape the scenario).
A nap test
“One of our previous studies showed that two-way communication, from the experimenter to the dreamer and vice versa, is possible during lucid paradoxical sleep,” explained Delphine Oudiette, researcher at Inserm. in cognitive neuroscience in a press release. Now, we wanted to know if these results could be generalized to other stages of sleep and to individuals who do not have lucid dreams.”
To do this, participants took a nap during which the researchers spoke a series of real and made-up words, which had to either elicit a frown or a smile, to classify them. Upon awakening, patients were then asked to report whether they had had a lucid dream and whether they remembered interacting with anyone.
“Most participants, whether narcoleptic or not, were able to respond correctly to verbal stimuli while remaining asleep. These events were certainly more frequent during lucid dream episodes, characterized by a high level of consciousness; but we “We observed them occasionally in both groups, during all phases of sleep”, then revealed Isabelle Arnulf, head of the sleep pathologies department at the Pitié-Salpêtrière AP-HP Hospital.
Research is continuing and could be used to improve sleep disorders or promote learning, for example. They could also call into question the very definition of sleep – a period during which the body and mind are at rest – since it could be much more active than previously thought.
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