As we fall asleep we forget about the future: A quantitative linguistic analysis of mentation reports from hypnagogia.
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We present a quantitative study of mental time travel to the past and future in sleep onset hypnagogia. Three independent, blind judges analysed a total of 150 mentation reports from different intervals prior to and after sleep onset. The linguistic tool for the mentation report analysis grounds on established grammatical and cognitive-semantic theories, and proof of concept has been provided in previous studies. The current results indicate that memory for the future, but not for the past, decreases in sleep onset - thereby supporting preliminary physiological evidence at the level of brain function. While recent memory research emphasizes similarities in the cognitive and physiological processes of mental time travel to the past and future, the current study explores a state of consciousness which may serve to dissociate between the two.
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Research works printed but not linked: 2
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“[58, 59] reported that participants were very unlikely to describe anticipation of the future in dream reports, relative to in reports of waking thought.”
BackgroundMental time travel to the future might be reduced in sleep.
Speth, J., Schloerscheidt, A. M., & Speth, C. (2017) · Consciousness and Cognition · doi:10.1016/j.concog.2016.11.006 · Cited by 4 · see citing works
Self-citation
- Authors
- Speth, J., Schloerscheidt, A. M., & Speth, C.
- Affiliations
- University of Dundee (GB)
- Corresponding author
- Speth, Jana
- Venue
- Consciousness and Cognition
- Publisher
- Elsevier BV
- Published
- 2016-10
- Volume
- 45
- Pages
- 235-244
- ISSN
- 1053-8100 (ISSN-L)
- OpenAlex
- W2522423681
- Cited by
- 10
- References
- 73
- Citations by year
- 2026: 1 · 2022: 2 · 2020: 1 · 2019: 1 · 2017: 1 · 2016: 4
- FWCI
- 1.27
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- Licence
- cc-by-nc-nd
- www.elsevier.com/tdm/userlicense/1.0/ (tdm)
- Locations
- Consciousness and Cognition (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Discovery Research Portal (University of Dundee) (acceptedVersion, cc-by-nc-nd)
- Topics
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Sleep and Wakefulness Research
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Memory Processes and Influences
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Mind wandering and attention
- Keywords
- hypnagogia, sleep onset, mental time travel, states of consciousness
- MeSH terms
- Adult, Consciousness, Evaluation Studies as Topic, Female, Humans, Linguistics, Male, Memory, Sleep Stages, Databases, Factual, Young Adult
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