Even when we surrender to what feels like complete unconsciousness, our brains may not fully shut down. New research published in Nature Communications—from the DREAM (Dream EEG and Mentation) Project—suggests that parts of the brain remain active even during the deepest stages of sleep, and that dreaming isn’t limited to REM sleep as once believed.
This large-scale, international collaboration, coordinated by Monash University in Australia, unites decades of sleep and dream research into one open-access database. Drawing from 20 separate studies across 13 countries, the project analyzed 2,643 awakenings from 505 volunteers, offering the most comprehensive picture yet of what happens inside the human mind while we sleep.
Rethinking What We Know About Dreams
For more than half a century, REM sleep (rapid eye movement) has been considered the exclusive realm of dreaming. This phase, marked by vivid mental imagery, temporary muscle paralysis, and rapid eye movements, has long been synonymous with the dream world. Scientists once assumed that outside of REM sleep, the brain essentially went dark — resting, repairing, and recharging for the next day.
But the new data from the DREAM project paint a much more complex picture. While participants reported dreams in about 85% of REM awakenings, they also described dream-like experiences in 40% to 60% of non-REM (NREM) awakenings. That means that even in stages once believed to be dreamless — including slow-wave sleep, the deepest and most restorative phase — the mind can remain partially active.
In these deeper phases, some participants recalled emotional sensations, fragmented thoughts, or hazy imagery, suggesting that consciousness doesn’t completely disappear but fluctuates in depth and intensity. Using EEG (electroencephalography) and MEG (magnetoencephalography) technologies, researchers captured brain activity in the 30 seconds leading up to each awakening. What they found was astonishing: during NREM dreams, the brain began to display faster, smaller oscillations — the kind typically seen during quiet wakefulness.
In simpler terms, it seems that the brain may “wake up” in patches while the body stays asleep. This hybrid state supports the emerging idea that consciousness during sleep is not an on-off switch but a sliding spectrum — with different brain regions taking turns dipping in and out of awareness.
The Brain’s Hidden Conversations
This discovery challenges long-held assumptions about how consciousness functions. It suggests that even when we appear still and silent, our minds are conducting subtle internal dialogues — processing emotions, replaying memories, or weaving fragments of experience into the narrative fabric of dreams.
The implications stretch beyond sleep science. Understanding how consciousness flickers between active and passive states could shed light on neurological conditions, anesthesia awareness, and even coma recovery. Sleep, it turns out, may be the most natural laboratory for studying the boundaries of the conscious mind.
When Artificial Intelligence Learns to Read Dreams
Perhaps the most futuristic aspect of the DREAM project lies in its use of artificial intelligence. Each awakening in the study was categorized into one of three experiences:
- A clear, reportable dream
- A “white dream” — an experience that feels like something happened, though nothing can be recalled
- No experience at all
By comparing these reports with corresponding brainwave patterns, researchers trained AI models to predict when a person was dreaming based solely on neural data. Even with simple EEG inputs, the models could moderately detect dreams during NREM sleep, and performed better when analyzing REM patterns.
This approach represents one of the first major steps toward non-invasive dream detection — a technology that could one day help monitor levels of consciousness in patients or track cognitive health through sleep activity.
According to Discover Magazine, these findings could have profound clinical potential. For instance, reduced REM activity has been linked in other studies to an increased risk of Alzheimer’s disease. Being able to monitor and interpret dreaming activity through brainwave analysis might one day serve as an early diagnostic tool for neurodegenerative disorders.
Global Effort, Universal Curiosity
The scope of the DREAM project underscores a rare spirit of international cooperation in neuroscience. Led by Monash University’s Giulio Bernardi and a team of 53 authors from 37 institutions, the initiative represents a shared scientific mission: to understand what the brain does when the body rests.
In a press statement, Bernardi called the project “a decisive step in the exploration of human consciousness,” highlighting that for the first time, decades of dream research have been brought together in one open-access platform.
This democratization of data allows scientists around the world to access EEG recordings, subjective dream reports, and analytical tools — paving the way for new breakthroughs in understanding how thought and awareness emerge from neural activity.
Beyond Science: The Philosophy of Sleep
While the DREAM database offers empirical data, it also revives an age-old philosophical question: What is consciousness? If the brain can produce fragments of experience while we’re deeply asleep, then perhaps awareness isn’t bound to wakefulness at all.
Dreams — whether vivid or fleeting — might be the bridge between conscious and unconscious life, a subtle reminder that our minds never truly power down. They drift, wander, and whisper in the dark, maintaining a quiet continuity of thought even when we believe we’ve let go.
As modern technology begins to decode these whispers, one thing becomes clear: sleep is not silence. It’s a softer kind of thinking — one that continues to shape our emotions, memories, and sense of self long after our eyes close.