By Susie Neilson

My mom keeps odd hours. Around 9：30 p.m. every night， she goes to bed； after that， she goes exploring. Once， in a dream， she ran through dewy grass， jumped into the moonlit sky， and cleared the roof of a barn. Once her dream self walked to a mall just to people-watch. Another time she dreamt she met a group of people shed never met before at a swimming pool shed never been to； a week later， she found herself at that pool， and—she swears—met those same people.

Suffice to say2 my moms sleeping hours are unusually rich and eventful. She likes to keep it that way. “I consider my dreaming life just as important as my waking life，” she told me when I was younger.

My mom， I have since realized， is perhaps the only person in my life who is not “wakecentric”—who views her sleeping state，particularly her dreams， as essential. Its a term I didnt even know until I read a paper on dream loss titled “Dreamless： The Silent Epidemic of REM3 Sleep Loss”. The author， University of Arizona psychologist Rubin Naiman， makes two primary arguments. One， modern humans are deprived of dreams. Two， this is not only sad from an existential perspective， its also a public health crisis， one brought on by a combination of lifestyle factors， substance use， sleep disorders， and， “indirectly， a dismissive attitude about the value and meaning of dreams.”

To understand where hes coming from， its first important to know that we still arent entirely sure what a dream really is—an ambiguity4 thats allowed different disciplines to focus on the elements that are most relevant to them. To sleep scientists， dreaming is the neurological process that happens when our minds enter rapid eye movement （REM） sleep； to psychologists， it can be a meaningful experience. Naiman believes the divide among professionals leads to a reductive， destructive interpretation of dreams. As for the laymen， he writes： “Today， too many of us view dreams the way we do stars—they emerge nightly and seem magnificent， but are far too distant to be of any relevance to our real lives.” Some people dont remember their dreams， or view them as a casual phenomenon that doesnt warrant5 much thought once daylight comes around. Only a few think of them as something like magic， devoting space in our waking brains to remembering and reliving them.

To Naiman， dreams are equal parts magic， science， and mystery. Mostly， he defines dreams by what happens in their absence： irritability， depression， weight gain， hallucinations.6 Erosion of reason， memory， and immune system functions. A loss of spirituality. In the paper， Naiman notes that weve known of these consequences since the 1960s： When researchers ran experiments depriving subjects of only REM sleep， they found that most of the negative side effects mirrored those of total sleep deprivation.

Alarm clocks are a common enemy of dreams， Naiman notes， because waking up to the trill of an alarm clock “shears off” our dreaming periods （“Imagine being abruptly ushered out of a movie theater whenever a film was nearing its conclusion，” he writes）.7 So are alcohol and cannabis8， which can disrupt REM sleep significantly， and even sleeping pills， which increase light sleep at the expense of the deeper， more high-quality stuff. Artificial light from digital screens， lightbulbs and city lights cut into REM， too. Finally， sleep disorders such as insomnia and sleep apnea have increased in recent years9—likely due to the same factors as sleep deprivation， he notes.

What Naiman doesnt say， but feels relevant， is that it is especially hard to safeguard our dream sleep because theres so little social or financial incentive to do so. For most of us， sleeping falls lower on the priority list than both work and play. And getting the recommended amount of sleep—seven to nine hours a night—isnt as trendy as so many other wellness-focused habits. This could be because sleep isnt inherently commodifiable10； it doesnt make businesses money the way that a spin class or a kale smoothie can. Spurred on by the constant reminders of other things we should be doing to better ourselves and increase our productivity， we habitually push sleep aside， delay it， demean11 it.

Naimans argument outlines the situation pretty clearly： Its us and our dreams against the modern world， with its light bulbs， its shrill alarm clocks， its pesky “wake-centric bias.”12 Its a fight to preserve a state that enriches our waking life much more than we give it credit for. And he implores13 us to join him， indicating the true weight of the stakes by opening his paper with a well-placed quote from a Rolling Stones song.

“Lose your dreams，” the song goes， “and you will lose your mind.”

我媽媽的作息時間和常人不同。每天晚上9點半，她就上床睡覺。然后，就是她在夢中探秘的時間。有一次她夢見自己在掛著露珠的草地上奔跑，跳上了月光照耀下的天空，還清理了一間谷倉的屋頂。另外一次，夢里的她走進一家購物中心，靜看人來人往。還有一次，她夢見自己在從未去過的一個游泳池，遇見一群陌生人。而一周后，她竟然真的去了夢中的那個游泳池，而且，她發(fā)誓說，真的碰到了那些夢中人。

我只想說，我媽媽的夢中生活是不同尋常地豐富多彩，而她也享受其間。在我小時候，她對我說：“我覺得我的夢中生活和清醒時的同樣重要?！?/p>

后來我意識到，我媽媽大概是我生命中唯一一個不“以醒著的時間為中心”的人，她將自己的睡眠狀態(tài)，尤其是睡覺時做夢，視為生活的必需。對于“以醒著的時間為中心”這個術(shù)語，我之前是聞所未聞，直到我讀了一篇關于睡夢缺失的文章，題為《無夢狀態(tài)：悄然流行的快波睡眠缺失》。作者魯賓·奈曼是亞利桑那大學的心理學家，他在文中提出了兩個論點。第一，現(xiàn)代人被剝奪了夢。第二，從存在主義角度來說，這是一件悲哀的事情。同時，它也是一個公共健康危機，是由生活方式、物質(zhì)使用、睡眠紊亂和“間接地對夢的價值和意義不屑一顧的態(tài)度”綜合造成的。

要了解他何以得出這一結(jié)論，首先要知道我們對于夢到底是什么并不完全確定。正是這種模糊性讓不同的學科得以利用夢的定義里與自己學科最相關的部分。對于睡眠科學家來說，做夢是一個神經(jīng)活動過程，當我們進入快波睡眠時，就會做夢；對于心理學家來說，做夢是一個有意義的經(jīng)歷。奈曼認為專業(yè)人士之間的分歧導致了對夢的解析越來越少并具有破壞性。對于門外漢，他寫道：“如今，太多人對夢的態(tài)度就像對待星星一樣，認為它們在夜間閃現(xiàn)，看起來棒極了，但卻遙遠到與我們的現(xiàn)實生活毫無關聯(lián)。”一些人不記得自己做的夢，或者把夢當做偶然現(xiàn)象，不值得在白天花時間思考。只有少數(shù)一些人認為夢有奇異魔力，從夢中醒來后會試圖回憶、重溫舊夢。

對奈曼來說，夢是魔幻、科學和神秘的總和，這三者同等重要。基本上來說，他用一旦缺乏則會產(chǎn)生的癥狀來定義夢：易怒、抑郁、體重增加、幻覺，以及理性減退、記憶力衰退、免疫功能下降，和靈性丟失。奈曼在文章中指出，自20世紀60年代以來，我們就知道了這些后果：當研究人員在實驗中只剝奪受驗者的快波睡眠時，他們發(fā)現(xiàn)大多數(shù)的負面反應都和全部睡眠被剝奪時一樣。

奈曼認為，鬧鐘是夢的常見大敵之一，因為鬧鐘的尖叫聲會把我們硬生生地從睡夢中拽出來。（他寫道：“想象一下，這就像在一部電影接近尾聲的時候，突然被人請出電影院的感覺”。）同樣，酒精和大麻也會極大地干擾快波睡眠。即便是安眠藥，也只能以犧牲更高質(zhì)量的深度睡眠為代價，增加淺睡眠而已。電子屏幕、燈泡和城市的燈光產(chǎn)生的人造光源也會干擾快波睡眠。他還指出，近年來，諸如失眠和睡眠呼吸暫停的睡眠紊亂有上升趨勢，可能和睡眠剝奪出于同種原因。

奈曼并未在文中指出，但感覺相關的一點是，我們很難保證有夢睡眠是因為缺少社會和經(jīng)濟利益的刺激。對于我們大多數(shù)人來說，在重要事務排序里，睡覺比工作和玩耍都靠后。遵守七至九個小時的建議睡眠時間不如其他健康習慣時髦，這大概是由于睡眠本身無法商品化，不能像動感單車課或制作羽衣甘藍奶昔一樣盈利。我們馬不停蹄地干著讓自己更好、獲得更多經(jīng)濟效益的事情，而習慣性地將睡眠擱置一邊，推遲睡眠時間，絲毫也不重視它。

奈曼提出的論點清晰地概括了現(xiàn)狀：燈泡、刺耳的鬧鐘和討厭的“以醒著的時間為中心”的偏見都是現(xiàn)代社會的一部分，而我們和我們的夢卻與之水火不容。這是一場保衛(wèi)睡眠的戰(zhàn)爭，睡眠對我們清醒時間的豐富，遠遠超出了我們對它的認知。他請求我們加入他的隊伍，為了表明這一利害關系的重要性，他在文章開頭適時地引用了滾石樂隊的一句歌詞：

“失去夢，”歌詞寫道，“你就會失去理智?！?/p>

1. epidemic：（疾病的）流行，（壞事的）盛行。

2. suffice （it） to say： 無須多說。

3. REM： 快速動眼期（rapid eye movement），亦稱快波睡眠，是睡眠的一個階段，眼球在此階段時會呈現(xiàn)不由自主的快速移動。它是全部睡眠中最淺的階段，人們能記得自己做過夢。

4. ambiguity： 模棱兩可，不明確。

5. warrant： 使有必要。

7. trill： 顫聲，短促尖聲；shear off：切掉，剪斷；usher： 引導。

8. cannabis： 大麻，大麻制品。

9. insomnia： 失眠，失眠癥；apnea：窒息，呼吸暫停。

10. commodifiable： 可以商品化的，來自動詞commodify（商品化）。

11. demean： 貶低，貶損。

12. shrill： 刺耳的，尖聲的；pesky： 惱人的，討厭的。

13. implore： 懇求。