Any Experts on Dreams/Deep Sleep

It depends on how deeply she is sleeping. If she is not too soundly sleeping-the dream moves her from REM to a different sleep stage-she could hear him. I dream my alarm clock is a monster snarling all the time

google sleep and dreams and sleep talking and walking. I know from my own experience that I have dreamed what I was hearing so I would think that would work. But as emmy says, I don't know if it matters if the person is snoozing or in deep sleep.

Depending on the part of sleep you are in, I think it is possible.

As for not waking a sleep talker-I talk in my sleep and have full conversations without remembering them (both with my college roommate and husband) I sit up, open my eyes and talk without actually being awake. You have to try really hard to wake me up. So you can talk away to me and it won't disturb me at all. In fact once when my cousin was spending the night- we both talked in our sleep having a conversation but neither was awake. my mother heard us and thought we were up late.

Definitely possible. I've had dreams that have incorporated external sounds. One I still remember after many years featured Ravel's Bolero, and it was still playing on the radio when I woke up.

My husband acts out things in his sleep sometimes, and it can be dangerous. I've learnt I have to speak to him until he wakes up, not interact with him physically. Feh.

LoneRider said:

My question is, if my male lead wakes up to this and tries reassuring (she doesn't wake up just yet) by saying 'he can't hurt you anymore', could she somehow wind up dreaming of his words? I may use this scene as an inroad for the fact that my male lead has fallen in love with her as well.

BTW I also have heard it is unwise to disturb a sleep talker, my uncle told me this as my aunt occasionally talks in her sleep in the process of dreams and he says he just let's her ramble on and goes back to bed.

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I can't speak to this as an expert on deep sleep and dreams; I can only speak to it as someone who talks in her sleep and pays attention to her dreams.

Yes, stimuli from the real world can be incorporated into dreams. I've noticed this happens particularly just before waking. I've dreamt that I was singing Bette Davis Eyes because it was playing on my radio when the alarm went off. And the only problem I've ever experienced on being awakened while sleep talking is that I make absolutely zero sense and my husband won't let me live it down. (I was insistent that the robot was poking me. This happened over fifteen years ago, and he still brings it up to this day.)

Sat Nam! (literally "Truth Name"--a Sikh greeting)

Just one thing: Deep sleep is dreamless sleep. Probably your MC wouldn't be talking then, and wouldn't turn the guy's words into dreams. But REM sleep (dream sleep), sure.

Blessings,

Siri Kirpal

I'm certainly no expert on dream states, but my wife and I have worked out a mutually beneficial protocol whenever one of us perceives that the other is in the throes of a bad dream or nightmare. One will simply hold the dreamer's hand. That reassuring contact can do wonders to mitigate the dream - even to the point of taking subconscious control of the imagined events disturbing the sleeper's repose.

It may not work as well for many (admittedly, we've perfected our technique over time, so practice may make perfect), but there is something to the comforting and loving contact of one's life partner that can supersede considerable levels of stress, conscious or otherwise.

If your characters are close enough, I don't see why this wouldn't suit your needs. Best of luck!

I am not an expert, but from personal experience I know that it is certainly possible for external stimulus to influence what one experiences in a dream. It happened to me at least once that I can recall, but, rather than being sound, the stimulus was pain.

REM sleep isn't the only sleep state in which you can dream. You can also dream in stage one sleep.

Keep in mind that an extreme amount of drivel have been written about dreams. I'm specifically thinking Freud and Jung.

In the mid-90'ies we saw somewhat of a revolution in brain imaging technology. The field of neurology has exploded with new data. We're far away from seeing the end of this. This means that it can pay off to go digging for new studies in the field.

My interest in neurology is purely on a hobby level. But this was my two cents.

Buffysquirrel said:

REM sleep isn't the only sleep state in which you can dream. You can also dream in stage one sleep.

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Very true. Although those dreams are usually harder to remember, when I do remember them, they have an entirely different flavor than REM dreams.

I used to have a stereo with an alarm clock feature that could be set to start playing the CD on deck at a given hour. If I had a nickel for every dream that incorporated the Rush song "Force 10," either as itself or in terms of elements thereof, I could offer to buy you lunch on the proceeds.

Though I have my quibbles with some of what he's written*, it's not a bad idea to read anything by Stephen LaBerge that you can get your hands on. He's done lots of sleep studies with emphasis on lucid dreaming (dreams in which the dreamer knows they're dreaming), and I'm pretty sure he's touched on the topic of dreams which incorporate waking life stimuli. Also, if you're interested in non-REM dreams, he's studied and written about those, too.

*specifically when he asserts what you can't do in a dream, which I think is a patently ridiculous sort of assertion to make -- dreams are limited only by the imagination, which in turn can be limited by internalizing others' harebrained suggestions about what one can or can't do, which means SHUT UP, LaBerge.

LoneRider said:

Assuming she was in an REM sleep state would she be able to figure out his talking to her to reassure her that her abusive ex-boyfriend couldn't hurt her anymore wasn't part of her dream?

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Sure, why not? Maybe she knows she's dreaming and with that awareness comes some awareness of her waking surroundings -- I've done that; realizing I'm dreaming often almost wakes me up, and in that moment I will often get the view from my bed superimposed over the dream. (Fun fact! Not everybody's eyes are 100% closed while they're asleep and dreaming! This is great for freaking friends out at sleepovers!). Or maybe she remembers the dream later and the memory of what was going on around her as she sleeps -- which might well be present especially if she's a light sleeper -- comes to her at the same time. Or she just puts two and two together, remembering/realizing that he was beside her while she slept (I don't know if you have him there when she wakes) while remembering the dream she had.

Not a dream expert, but plenty of anecdotal experience with sleep talking. My dad does it all the time--and whenever he's napping in a public room, he's fair game. For some reason he tends to dream frequently about Yogi Bear cartoons--so the rest of the family has great fun asking him to narrate those dreams. He'll answer questions, get a big smile on his face when something funny happens in the dream, but he's still sound asleep. He scared me once when I was little--got up from a nap, went in the kitchen and made lunch for us, sat down and ate and then went back to bed. But the whole time he was up, he was rambling nonsense. Turns out he'd been asleep the whole time!

So yes, I would totally buy your scenario.

LoneRider said:

Assuming she was in an REM sleep state would she be able to figure out his talking to her to reassure her that her abusive ex-boyfriend couldn't hurt her anymore wasn't part of her dream?

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Maybe it could be more interesting if she isn't quite sure if it was a dream or if he really said it. I've been woken from sleep by the phone, taken the call then gone back to sleep and later had to ring the person to check they really did call and I didn't dream it, because I truly couldn't be sure.

Heck, I've had things happen that I'm still not sure whether they were dreams or not. Generally, the brain can make the distinction, but in semi-arousal even it can get confused.