By Susie Neilson

My mom keeps odd hours. Around 9：30 p.m. every night， she goes to bed； after that， she goes exploring. Once， in a dream， she ran through dewy grass， jumped into the moonlit sky， and cleared the roof of a barn. Once her dream self walked to a mall just to people-watch. Another time she dreamt she met a group of people shed never met before at a swimming pool shed never been to； a week later， she found herself at that pool， and—she swears—met those same people.

Suffice to say2 my moms sleeping hours are unusually rich and eventful. She likes to keep it that way. “I consider my dreaming life just as important as my waking life，” she told me when I was younger.

My mom， I have since realized， is perhaps the only person in my life who is not “wakecentric”—who views her sleeping state，particularly her dreams， as essential. Its a term I didnt even know until I read a paper on dream loss titled “Dreamless： The Silent Epidemic of REM3 Sleep Loss”. The author， University of Arizona psychologist Rubin Naiman， makes two primary arguments. One， modern humans are deprived of dreams. Two， this is not only sad from an existential perspective， its also a public health crisis， one brought on by a combination of lifestyle factors， substance use， sleep disorders， and， “indirectly， a dismissive attitude about the value and meaning of dreams.”

To understand where hes coming from， its first important to know that we still arent entirely sure what a dream really is—an ambiguity4 thats allowed different disciplines to focus on the elements that are most relevant to them. To sleep scientists， dreaming is the neurological process that happens when our minds enter rapid eye movement （REM） sleep； to psychologists， it can be a meaningful experience. Naiman believes the divide among professionals leads to a reductive， destructive interpretation of dreams. As for the laymen， he writes： “Today， too many of us view dreams the way we do stars—they emerge nightly and seem magnificent， but are far too distant to be of any relevance to our real lives.” Some people dont remember their dreams， or view them as a casual phenomenon that doesnt warrant5 much thought once daylight comes around. Only a few think of them as something like magic， devoting space in our waking brains to remembering and reliving them.

To Naiman， dreams are equal parts magic， science， and mystery. Mostly， he defines dreams by what happens in their absence： irritability， depression， weight gain， hallucinations.6 Erosion of reason， memory， and immune system functions. A loss of spirituality. In the paper， Naiman notes that weve known of these consequences since the 1960s： When researchers ran experiments depriving subjects of only REM sleep， they found that most of the negative side effects mirrored those of total sleep deprivation.

Alarm clocks are a common enemy of dreams， Naiman notes， because waking up to the trill of an alarm clock “shears off” our dreaming periods （“Imagine being abruptly ushered out of a movie theater whenever a film was nearing its conclusion，” he writes）.7 So are alcohol and cannabis8， which can disrupt REM sleep significantly， and even sleeping pills， which increase light sleep at the expense of the deeper， more high-quality stuff. Artificial light from digital screens， lightbulbs and city lights cut into REM， too. Finally， sleep disorders such as insomnia and sleep apnea have increased in recent years9—likely due to the same factors as sleep deprivation， he notes.

What Naiman doesnt say， but feels relevant， is that it is especially hard to safeguard our dream sleep because theres so little social or financial incentive to do so. For most of us， sleeping falls lower on the priority list than both work and play. And getting the recommended amount of sleep—seven to nine hours a night—isnt as trendy as so many other wellness-focused habits. This could be because sleep isnt inherently commodifiable10； it doesnt make businesses money the way that a spin class or a kale smoothie can. Spurred on by the constant reminders of other things we should be doing to better ourselves and increase our productivity， we habitually push sleep aside， delay it， demean11 it.

Naimans argument outlines the situation pretty clearly： Its us and our dreams against the modern world， with its light bulbs， its shrill alarm clocks， its pesky “wake-centric bias.”12 Its a fight to preserve a state that enriches our waking life much more than we give it credit for. And he implores13 us to join him， indicating the true weight of the stakes by opening his paper with a well-placed quote from a Rolling Stones song.

“Lose your dreams，” the song goes， “and you will lose your mind.”

我妈妈的作息时间和常人不同。每天晚上9点半，她就上床睡觉。然后，就是她在梦中探秘的时间。有一次她梦见自己在挂着露珠的草地上奔跑，跳上了月光照耀下的天空，还清理了一间谷仓的屋顶。另外一次，梦里的她走进一家购物中心，静看人来人往。还有一次，她梦见自己在从未去过的一个游泳池，遇见一群陌生人。而一周后，她竟然真的去了梦中的那个游泳池，而且，她发誓说，真的碰到了那些梦中人。

我只想说，我妈妈的梦中生活是不同寻常地丰富多彩，而她也享受其间。在我小时候，她对我说：“我觉得我的梦中生活和清醒时的同样重要。”

后来我意识到，我妈妈大概是我生命中唯一一个不“以醒着的时间为中心”的人，她将自己的睡眠状态，尤其是睡觉时做梦，视为生活的必需。对于“以醒着的时间为中心”这个术语，我之前是闻所未闻，直到我读了一篇关于睡梦缺失的文章，题为《无梦状态：悄然流行的快波睡眠缺失》。作者鲁宾·奈曼是亚利桑那大学的心理学家，他在文中提出了两个论点。第一，現代人被剥夺了梦。第二，从存在主义角度来说，这是一件悲哀的事情。同时，它也是一个公共健康危机，是由生活方式、物质使用、睡眠紊乱和“间接地对梦的价值和意义不屑一顾的态度”综合造成的。

要了解他何以得出这一结论，首先要知道我们对于梦到底是什么并不完全确定。正是这种模糊性让不同的学科得以利用梦的定义里与自己学科最相关的部分。对于睡眠科学家来说，做梦是一个神经活动过程，当我们进入快波睡眠时，就会做梦；对于心理学家来说，做梦是一个有意义的经历。奈曼认为专业人士之间的分歧导致了对梦的解析越来越少并具有破坏性。对于门外汉，他写道：“如今，太多人对梦的态度就像对待星星一样，认为它们在夜间闪现，看起来棒极了，但却遥远到与我们的现实生活毫无关联。”一些人不记得自己做的梦，或者把梦当做偶然现象，不值得在白天花时间思考。只有少数一些人认为梦有奇异魔力，从梦中醒来后会试图回忆、重温旧梦。

对奈曼来说，梦是魔幻、科学和神秘的总和，这三者同等重要。基本上来说，他用一旦缺乏则会产生的症状来定义梦：易怒、抑郁、体重增加、幻觉，以及理性减退、记忆力衰退、免疫功能下降，和灵性丢失。奈曼在文章中指出，自20世纪60年代以来，我们就知道了这些后果：当研究人员在实验中只剥夺受验者的快波睡眠时，他们发现大多数的负面反应都和全部睡眠被剥夺时一样。

奈曼认为，闹钟是梦的常见大敌之一，因为闹钟的尖叫声会把我们硬生生地从睡梦中拽出来。（他写道：“想象一下，這就像在一部电影接近尾声的时候，突然被人请出电影院的感觉”。）同样，酒精和大麻也会极大地干扰快波睡眠。即便是安眠药，也只能以牺牲更高质量的深度睡眠为代价，增加浅睡眠而已。电子屏幕、灯泡和城市的灯光产生的人造光源也会干扰快波睡眠。他还指出，近年来，诸如失眠和睡眠呼吸暂停的睡眠紊乱有上升趋势，可能和睡眠剥夺出于同种原因。

奈曼并未在文中指出，但感觉相关的一点是，我们很难保证有梦睡眠是因为缺少社会和经济利益的刺激。对于我们大多数人来说，在重要事务排序里，睡觉比工作和玩耍都靠后。遵守七至九个小时的建议睡眠时间不如其他健康习惯时髦，这大概是由于睡眠本身无法商品化，不能像动感单车课或制作羽衣甘蓝奶昔一样盈利。我们马不停蹄地干着让自己更好、获得更多经济效益的事情，而习惯性地将睡眠搁置一边，推迟睡眠时间，丝毫也不重视它。

奈曼提出的论点清晰地概括了现状：灯泡、刺耳的闹钟和讨厌的“以醒着的时间为中心”的偏见都是现代社会的一部分，而我们和我们的梦却与之水火不容。这是一场保卫睡眠的战争，睡眠对我们清醒时间的丰富，远远超出了我们对它的认知。他请求我们加入他的队伍，为了表明这一利害关系的重要性，他在文章开头适时地引用了滚石乐队的一句歌词：

“失去梦，”歌词写道，“你就会失去理智。”

1. epidemic：（疾病的）流行，（坏事的）盛行。

2. suffice （it） to say： 无须多说。

3. REM： 快速动眼期（rapid eye movement），亦称快波睡眠，是睡眠的一个阶段，眼球在此阶段时会呈现不由自主的快速移动。它是全部睡眠中最浅的阶段，人们能记得自己做过梦。

4. ambiguity： 模棱两可，不明确。

5. warrant： 使有必要。

7. trill： 颤声，短促尖声；shear off：切掉，剪断；usher： 引导。

8. cannabis： 大麻，大麻制品。

9. insomnia： 失眠，失眠症；apnea：窒息，呼吸暂停。

10. commodifiable： 可以商品化的，来自动词commodify（商品化）。

11. demean： 贬低，贬损。

12. shrill： 刺耳的，尖声的；pesky： 恼人的，讨厌的。

13. implore： 恳求。