Selective Dreaming

I spent the last 6 days surrounded by neuron candy at the 2025 Cognitive Neuroscience Society Conference (CNS 2025). I’ll recap my main takeaways in the coming weeks, starting with lectures on sleep.

Researchers have long known that memories from the day are replayed during sleep to process and solidify information. However, recent studies are taking this a step further. By selectively cuing specific memory replays during sleep, we can control which memories are saved. This can also be used in reverse. By cueing recent positive memories in someone with deeper traumatic memories, we may be able to write over an original fear memory as it’s being recalled during sleep.

This has amazing implications for learning and mental health. I see a near future in which we can toy with our dreams to selectively boost our desired patterns of thought, whether that be reduced rumination on fearful events or increased reflection on neuron candy. While the manipulation of memories might feel dystopian, these practices are by no means modern. The ancient practices of yogic dreaming and lucid dreaming have been used for thousands of years to shape the mind during sleep for better overall mental hygeine.

This is not the only example of ancient mental trainings of the east making their revival in modern neuroscience. This convergence of modern external scientific inquiry and ancient internal spiritual inquiry is one of the most fascinating phenomena of our current era. When you toy with your memories using the power of associative smells or sounds, you’re actually engaging with the same biological system that has been tampered with for millenia by your ancestors. I encourage you to explore the limits just as they did. Dream on!

With love,

Michael