The Digital Human

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Aleks Krotoski explores the digital world

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The Digital Human: Series 22: Dreams

Dreams

Series 22

BBC Radio 4 - The Digital Human, Series 22, Dreams

Aleks Krotoski discovers why people want to control their dreams.

Aleks Krotoski discovers why people want to control their dreams, and how technology can influence our sleeping subconscious.

Dreams have fascinated people since the dawn of humanity, seen as prophetic, used by the ancient Greeks to diagnose illness before physical symptoms appeared, and inspiring some of the world’s greatest inventions and works of art.

But dreams have a darker side. Often we meet our internalised anxieties in our sleeping subconscious. During the Pandemic there was a surge of people reporting having more dreams, especially vivid, nightmarish visions  - facing down swarms of insects, swept away by title waves, or being overwhelmed and oppressed by unstoppable forces. At the same time, there was a spike in online searches for ways to induce lucid dreaming, and how to take control of dreams.

Aleks Krotoski explores why we have this urge to take control of our dreams, how technology can influence us in our sleep, and finds out if it’s wise to really try to take control, when we’re still figuring out the purpose and mechanics of dreams and don’t yet know the consequences of tinkering with them.

The Digital Human: Series 22

Intelligent speech, the most insightful journalism, the wittiest comedy, the most fascinating features and the most compelling drama and readings anywhere in UK radio.

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The Digital Human

Series 22

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