Allan Hobson (2002). Sleep and dream suppression following a lateral medullary infarct: a first-person account.

[Wise Young]

• Allan Hobson J (2002). Sleep and dream suppression following a lateral medullary infarct: a first-person account. Conscious Cogn 11:377-90. Summary: Consciousness can be studied only if subjective experience is documented and quantified, yet first-person accounts of the effects of brain injury on conscious experience are as rare as they are potentially useful. This report documents the alterations in waking, sleeping, and dreaming caused by a lateral medullary infarct. Total insomnia and the initial suppression of dreaming was followed by the gradual recovery of both functions. A visual hallucinosis during waking that was associated with the initial period of sleep and dream suppression is described in detail. Since the changes in sleep and their recovery are comparable to results of animal experiments, it can be concluded that damage to the medullary brain stem causes extreme but short-lived alterations in conscious state and that substantial recovery occurs even though the damage to the brain stem endures. Laboratory of Neurophysiology, Massachusetts Mental Health Center, Harvard Medical School, 74 Fenwood Road, Boston, MA 02115, USA. allan_hobson@hms.harvard.edu

[Faye]

Jason, who has had an infarct in the pons initially had sleep suppression too, but he recovered from that. However, now 6 years later, he still has not been able to dream anymore.

[Acid]

"yet first- person accounts of the effects of brain injury on conscious experience are as rare as they are potentially useful."

Guess as MBD and having had to do with other brain damaged, I more regard it as quite common that a bunch of us can say something about aspects to do with our self and with brain damages in context.


But that one with the medulla, or also the other with the pons injury I found interesting.

(The latter more than the prior.
As I have been assuming brain base long to do with central sleep and unconsciousness -- also waking up -- regulatory stuff.)

[Wise Young]

Yes, I found this report fascinating. Wise.