The Science Behind “Inception”

Image courtesy of Wikipedia

I decided to work late on Monday when I saw the movie Inception.

Not only was the topic of interest to me (sleep: my specialty!) but I kept asking if the main concepts were possible. While some aspects were pure science fiction, several points in the movie did hint at a basis in actual sleep science and current technology. Let’s explore some of the major ones; for clarity I rated each aspect on a 1-5 scale from 1– Pure Science to 5– Pure Science Fiction.

Extraction

3–Some Science; lots of Fiction

In the movie, Leonardo DiCaprio is skilled in a technique called dream extraction, namely the process of delving into the target’s dreaming mind to find hidden secrets.

While learning specific (and secret) information from an ongoing dream is currently pure science fiction , there are some technologies that hint at the possibility of (someday) being able to “extract” brain content. The field of Brain Computer Interfaces might be one of these pioneers– researchers have created a full EEG headset that can “spell out” your thoughts into words and phrases, albeit very slowly (you need to think each individual letter for up to a minute).

Inception

3- Some Science; Lots of Fiction

Can we actually implant thoughts into some one’s mind while they’re asleep? This is the Inception concept of the title, and it’s portrayed as being much harder to achieve than Extraction. In reality, though, it’s a bit different.

The field of memory consolidation suggests that people can actually learn while sleeping – and the external environment can affect that learning. An experiment by Robert Stickgold went like this: while awake, you learn a fact and hear a sound; you’re then taught another fact and hear a different sound from the one before. When these same sounds are played while the learner is in deep sleep, the brain appeared to respond to these stimuli in a positive way. When awakened, the learner demonstrated the ability to better remember the new information than the baseline. The catch? Pretty tight control over both the sleep and wake environment is needed.

Send Me To Sleep Injection

2 – Strong Science with Some Embellishment

It’s easy to fall asleep in the Inception universe: tap a vein, drip an IV cocktail of chemicals into your arm, and you arrive in the dream world.

The closest real world parallel to a Send Me to Sleep Injection are sleep pharmaceuticals (Ambien, etc.), which can help people fall asleep and stay asleep (but function less like an on/off switch). They don’t magically drop you into REM sleep either; you normally have to cycle through other sleep phases first. Anesthetics are another parallel, though there’s debate about whether or not you’re actually asleep when you “go under.”

Dream Control

2 – Strong Science with Some Embellishment

Another concept is that of dream control:   if you know you’re dreaming, you can alter your surroundings and events.

In reality, this aspect of dreaming is called ‘lucid dreaming‘. During a lucid dream, you become aware that you are dreaming and can then influence the course of that dream (or nightmare). I have played with lucid dreaming myself but have always woken up shortly after taking control of the dream. There is real science and potential in lucid dreaming – expect future posts on the topic!

Shared Dreams

5 – Pure Science Fiction

Achieving control of your own dreams would be amazing – but what if you could share that dream with other real people? In Inception, the concept of shared dreaming is the pivot around which the whole movie turns. Unfortunately, this one is heavily tilted to science fiction. Although some people claim shared lucid dreaming experiences, a more plausible explanation is a similar living experience can sometimes manifest itself in the mind at night.

So go see the movie (it was awesome) – and think about your own sleep and dreams during the show!

Ben (ZQ: 75) is one of the co-founders of Zeo and company CTO.  He’s passionate about keeping Zeo at the forefront of wireless technology, and about giving users control over their data.

Tagged as: Depictions of Sleep, dreams, Sleep Science