– English Lyrics

Lyrics & Translation

[English]

thanks to skillshare for supporting this

episode of scishow psych the first

thousand people to click on the link in

the description can get a one month free

trial of skillshare so you can start

exploring your creativity today

[Music]

we spend a huge chunk of our time

sleeping but it is not wasted time our

brains need that rest as much as our

bodies our brains can use that restful

time to subconsciously mull over

problems so today we're going to take

you on a quick tour though not through

the world of dreams but what our brains

are doing behind the curtain well that's

actually the best case scenario because

sleep doesn't always go as planned first

up if you have heard the term sleep

paralysis or experienced sleep paralysis

you may not have enjoyed it but science

generally considers it a feature of

sleep not a bug here's what happens when

our bodies don't paralyze during sleep

in the award-winning movie sleepwalk

with me based on the one man show of the

same name comedian mike berbiglia

describes the hilarious and often

startling things his body does when he

is sleeping verbiglia has rem sleep

behavior disorder or rbd a sleep

disorder that causes people to

physically act out their dreams and

while that might sound like goofy at

first think about the last dream you had

when you were running from homework

monsters or throwing punches at

voldemort maybe you wouldn't want to act

those out in real life thankfully rbd

can be treated but in some cases it also

tells a deeper story about what's

happening in someone's brain rbd affects

roughly one percent of the population

although that number is slightly higher

in older people and it's often

associated with a huge range of things

we're talking everything from

pre-existing neurodegenerative diseases

like parkinson's to narcolepsy to tumors

to certain antidepressants but

ultimately it happens because something

interferes with the brain during sleep

typically about 90 minutes after you

fall asleep you begin the rem sleep

stage rem stands for rapid eye movement

because it's when your eyes move back

and forth under your closed eyelids but

it's also the stage when you experience

most of your dreams during this time

your brain activity rises to near-waking

levels and your breathing and heart rate

speed up but typically your body isn't

able to move that's because during rem

structures in the brain stem prevent the

body from acting out dreams by relaxing

muscles and suppressing motor activity

specifically clusters of neurons from a

structure called the pons activate

neurons in another structure called the

medulla then the medulla sends signals

to motor neurons in the spinal column to

keep the muscles relaxed and put motor

activity on pause in rbd that's where

the trouble lies an issue in the palms

results in a failure to turn off those

motor neurons so someone can move as

much as they want during a dream now to

be clear a little movement during sleep

is totally normal what these brain stem

areas do is stop big movements like

kicking and arm swinging without this

kind of inhibition a person might knock

a lamp off their nightstand or bruise

themselves by kicking their footboard

but for those who share a bed this

disorder can have more serious

consequences like in 1986 when rbd was

formally identified researchers

described men who would dream they were

defending their wives from an attacker

only to wake up to find that they were

actually attacking their wives which

understandably is pretty alarming it's

the kind of thing that you do want to

treat and the very good news is that rbd

is treatable and there are two

medications research has shown to be

effective the first choice for many

doctors is clonazepam a medication

traditionally prescribed for seizures it

does come with a number of side effects

including drowsiness dizziness and

incontinence but for some that is better

than the alternative the other

medication is melatonin the same hormone

our brains secrete to make us sleepy at

night it has minimal side effects but it

only seems to work for some patients

unfortunately it's not clear right now

why these medications work but

they do seem to that being said even

though rbd is treatable it's still

something doctors tend to keep a close

eye on because sometimes this condition

can signal that something bigger is

changing in the brain earlier in this

episode i mentioned that rbd is often

associated with pre-existing

neurodegenerative diseases like

parkinson's and that's true but

researchers have also noticed another

connection here they found that many

otherwise healthy people with rbd

actually go on to develop

neurodegenerative diseases later in life

for example a 2009 study followed 93

patients who had been diagnosed with rbd

at a hospital sleep lab people who had

no other signs of neurodegenerative

disease researchers followed the health

of these patients for several years and

monitored who got diagnosed with what

and when then based on those results

they estimated the risk of developing

neurodegenerative diseases within 12

years after getting an rbd diagnosis and

that risk was a whopping 52 percent

basically a one in two chance and other

studies have found similar results

additionally papers have identified rbd

and an average of 24 of existing

parkinson's cases 88 of cases of

multiple systems atrophy and 76 of lewy

body dementia cases as for why well

these conditions are all types of alpha

synucleinopathies those are diseases

caused by buildup of the protein alpha

synuclein in where else the brainstem

the same region of the brain that causes

rbd symptoms researchers aren't exactly

sure how all of this is connected and

it's something they're still looking

into but there does seem to be a link

here between alpha synuclein and the

brainstem and rbd hopefully as we figure

it out we'll learn more about how these

diseases develop and progress for now

though rbd can at least be the canary in

the coal mine letting people know

something could be up a decade or more

before they show symptoms of full

neurodegenerative disease again not

everyone with rbd will go on to develop

these conditions but for those who do

treatments for these diseases are more

effective when they're administered

early and that counts for a lot rem

sleep behavior disorder is a reminder

that our brains are big connected

systems so the more we learn about

specific conditions the better equipped

we are to understand all kinds of other

things after all research into this rare

sleep disorder could have a lot to teach

us about some of the most common brain

diseases

so it's definitely good that we are not

acting out what our brain is cooking up

during rem sleep but during rem sleep

your brain is doing more than just

keeping your body still it's also

releasing chemicals that strengthen its

connections so that you remember things

better here's how that works

it seems like some people can regale you

with every last detail of the dream they

had last night while others can't

remember whether or not they even had a

dream no matter which camp you fall in

everybody does have dreams it's just

that some people are better at

remembering them than others and whether

or not you remember those surreal

unconscious experiences has a lot to do

with the activity in your brain and with

how well you sleep scientists still

aren't totally clear on why we dream in

the first place but they have a decent

idea of what our brains are up to when

we do we dream the most when we're in a

stage of sleep called rem rem stands for

rapid eye movement and it's a stage of

deep sleep that gets its name from the

way our eyes move back and forth while

we're in it we typically have a few rem

cycles through the night beginning

around 90 minutes after we fall asleep

and each cycle can last between a minute

and an hour even though you're sleeping

deeply during your rem cycles your brain

actually acts a lot like it does when

you're awake for instance while you're

awake there's lots of blood flowing to

the cerebral cortex the thin layer that

surrounds the largest part of your brain

which plays a role in making decisions

and thinking creatively blood is also

flowing to the limbic system a set of

structures that control your emotional

response to the things you experience

during rem sleep those same parts of the

brain are active even your heart rate

and blood pressure are similar to what

they are when you're awake so you're

having lively emotional experiences a

lot like the ones you'd have when you're

awake the main difference is that while

you're asleep your brain kindly

paralyzes you so that you don't act your

experiences out they can still feel very

real though so during rem almost

everyone is having dreams and often

vivid ones but not everyone remembers

them in part that's because some people

just have more brain activity during rem

sleep the more blood you have flowing to

the cerebral cortex the more active that

part of the brain will be more brain

activity creates more vivid dreams and

more vivid dreams tend to be more

memorable but another big reason you

either remember your dreams or don't has

to do with your levels of a hormone

called norepinephrine whether you're

awake or asleep norepinephrine helps you

remember things whenever you have an

emotionally stimulating experience your

brain releases this hormone as it rushes

through your brain it binds to the nerve

cells that help us learn new information

creating pathways between them later on

electric signals in your brain can

travel back down those pathways to help

you recall the experience you were

having when they form norepinephrine is

always present at some level while

you're awake when you fall asleep though

your norepinephrine levels drop that's

true for everyone and it's especially

true during rem cycles but from then on

the amount of norepinephrine in your

brain has a lot to do with how well you

sleep if you knock right out and don't

wake up till morning your norepinephrine

levels probably rarely rise to the point

where you start creating memories but if

you're a light sleeper you likely get a

little rise in norepinephrine every time

you stir awake and that norepinephrine

helps your brain cells create

connections that make you more likely to

form a memory of the dream you were

having so being able to remember your

dreams isn't exactly the superpower it

might seem like the truth is you

probably just don't sleep very soundly

and if you've never been great at

remembering your dreams that's not a bad

thing but if you're really curious about

the places your subconscious mind

wanders while you sleep there are things

you can do to get better at remembering

for instance right when you wake up you

can keep your eyes closed and attempt to

think back on what you've dreamt as you

gradually become more conscious since

you're slowly entering awake mode you'll

be more likely to retain the memory

that's because when you wake up abruptly

your levels of cortisol the body's

stress hormone tend to take over and

focus you on the day ahead which gets in

the way of your brain forming memories

so when you wake up more slowly you have

a better shot and then you can also do

this trick you can just drink a lot of

water before bed if you keep having to

go to the bathroom you will get the

benefit of the norepinephrine rise each

time you drag your foggy brained self

out of bed and if you do manage to

remember something from a dream you

might want to write it down before you

fall back asleep but even if you never

remember anything you can be pretty sure

that your subconscious self is still

having lively adventures while you sleep

norepinephrine is highly involved in rem

sleep and it's produced in the same part

of the brain that i mentioned when i

described rbd so all this stuff is

related to an extent but now that you

know how we remember things better after

we sleep here's brit with why

dreaming is just really weird when you

think about it when you're asleep your

brain makes up these elaborate scenarios

where you're leading a herd of talking

apples or writing robot llamas through

the jungle or something and most of the

time you have no idea it isn't real then

when you wake up you forget most of the

dream and move on with your life like

that's not strange at all there's a lot

of research into the science of dreaming

and sleep in general but dreams can be

especially important in psychology i

mean don't go reaching for those dream

interpretation books or anything but

your dreams might mean more than you

think even though everybody probably

does it scientists still aren't sure

exactly how we dream it's often

associated with rapid eye movement or

rem sleep a phase of sleep where your

brain looks as active as when you're

awake but there's evidence that we dream

in non-rem sleep too so we're still

figuring out some of the biology

involved but psychologists do have a few

theories about how our brains use dreams

and sorry sigmund freud but they aren't

all freaky sex messages in fact a lot of

our dreams are pretty boring and

according to one theory that's because

your brain uses dreams for learning and

memory consolidation in a process called

cognitive level memory reactivation the

idea is that while you dream your brain

reactivates the neurons it used to learn

information while you were awake these

kinds of dreams usually happen during

non-rem sleep in the beginning of the

night for example in a 2010 study

published in current biology

participants practiced completing a

virtual maze then either took a

90-minute nap or stayed awake during the

next round of testing those who took a

nap finished faster on average than

those who didn't but the real mvps were

the group who took a nap and dreamed

about something related to the task they

improved up to 10 times more than the

others this doesn't necessarily mean

that dreaming itself gives you a better

memory the dreams just might be a side

effect of what your brain is doing

reactivating neurons to solidify

information and encode it into long-term

memory but it might explain the more

boring dreams we have it doesn't really

explain why some of our dreams are just

flat out weird though and that's where

the contemporary theory of dreaming

comes in the idea is that your dreams

are mainly controlled by what emotions

you're feeling not what you've learned

lately if you're experiencing one really

strong emotion you'll probably have

simpler dreams like if you're feeling

overwhelmed you might dream you're being

sucked up by a tornado but if you're

feeling multiple emotions your dreams

can get more complicated and random this

theory may also help explain the

relationships psychologists have seen

between dreaming and trauma especially

in those with post-traumatic stress

disorder or ptsd frequent disruptive

nightmares are actually one of the

potential criteria for diagnosing

someone with ptsd with up to 96 of

patients reporting nightmares related to

the trauma they experience according to

the contemporary theory of dreaming

people with ptsd have nightmares because

dreaming can help us resolve traumatic

emotions by processing them in our sleep

the memories might feel less painful

when we're awake that's what the brain

is trying to do at least it's not always

successful which is why ptsd often

doesn't just go away on its own there's

also another theory the threat

simulation theory of dreaming which says

that nightmares could be your brain

preparing you for danger in the real

world according to threat simulation

theory dreams were selected for during

evolution to help us survive as opposed

to being controlled by emotions so if

you dream you're being chased by an

angry saber-toothed tiger your brain

might just be preparing you in case

you're attacked in real life the idea

matches what psychologists have seen in

studies like in a 2005 study of almost

200 children where researchers found

evidence that being exposed to danger

like violence or abuse primes our brain

to dream about dangerous scenarios even

more possibly to prepare against future

threats and based on what we know about

dreaming and trauma it makes sense that

your brain would do this i mean dreaming

is kind of like a simulator where you

can't hurt yourself the threat

simulation theory alone can't really

explain all of our dreams though and

it's possible that your brain uses

dreaming in a lot of different ways

there are also plenty of scientists who

think dreams don't have a specific

purpose at all they're just what happens

when neurons randomly fire while you

sleep so it's hard to know exactly why

you dreamed that you forgot to study for

a final and showed up without pants or

tried to ride a horse down the highway

but your brain might be trying to help

you process emotions or prepare for some

kind of threat

so your dreams could help you process

real memories or prepare for real world

dangers which suggests that there are a

lot of problems that you can use your

dreams to work through and if your

interest is piqued by the idea of

getting things done while you sleep you

might enjoy skillshare's master class in

productivity skillshare is a

subscription learning community as a

skillshare member you gain access to

classes with a variety of subject ranges

including animation marketing health and

wellness web development and more and

skillshare is supporting this episode of

scishow psych their class called

mastering productivity create a custom

system that works outlines new helpful

tools like creating a calendar

organizing your files and taking notes

these lessons are taught by youtuber

thomas frank whose classes can come in

handy for hobbyists professionals and

especially college students looking to

achieve their goals you can join the

classes in communities that are just

right for you with support from fellow

creatives to accomplish real growth and

the first thousand people to click on

the link in the description or use the

code scishow psych will get a one month

free trial of premium membership so you

can learn stuff with skillshare while

you are awake but if you've never

learned algebra before you probably will

not be able to work through that problem

in your dreams as much as you might wish

you could here is the experimental nail

in that coffin

we've probably all done this at some

point in our lives it's the night before

a big exam and

you haven't started studying yet you'll

just have to cram as much information as

possible into your brain in one night

and hope you remember it tomorrow

wouldn't it be nice if you could just go

to sleep have a recording of everything

you need to know playing in the

background and wake up ready for the

test unfortunately for those of us who

are chronic procrastinators that doesn't

work you can't learn new information

while you sleep but it turns out that

you can boost your recall of what you

studied while you were awake the idea

that you can learn totally new

information while you sleep has been

debunked for a long time way back in

1955 researchers showed pretty

conclusively that it doesn't work

earlier studies had suggested that

people could learn new things just by

hearing them in their sleep but there

were problems with the methods used in

those studies so the team wanted to look

into it more closely using an eeg which

measures brain activity to monitor how

deeply asleep the subjects were they

found that people were only able to

remember the information played to them

if they heard it when they were in the

lighter stages of sleep the

really really light stages so light in

fact that the participants were actually

mostly awake 62 years later that study's

conclusions still stand there's no good

evidence that you can learn totally new

information in your sleep but scientists

have found that there might be a way to

boost part of the learning process that

happens during sleep sleep plays a vital

role in how you create and store

memories while you're awake you learn

all sorts of new stuff taking in facts

and experiences just from going about

your everyday life that's when your

brain encodes memories making new

connections between neurons so you can

remember it all later then when you go

to sleep your brain goes through the

consolidation phase of memory formation

scientists aren't totally sure how that

works but they think your brain turns

all that stuff you just learned into

solid long-term memories by reactivating

them and strengthening those new

connections and recent research has

found that there are ways to kind of

hack that process in a 2007 study for

example a group of neuroscientists had

people learn the locations of a bunch of

different objects while it smelled like

roses then made it smell like roses

again while they were asleep when they

woke up the subjects were better at

remembering where the objects were

compared to when they did the same task

without any smells the researchers

proposed that when the subjects smelled

roses while they slept that boosted the

memory consolidation process because

their brains associated the smell with

the memories of the object locations

basically the smell acted as a cue to

their brains to reactivate those

memories strengthening the connections

between the neurons that stored them and

stronger connections meant they had an

easier time recalling the memories when

they woke up that 2007 study was small

but later studies that tested the idea

found similar results and other research

has found that this works with more than

just odor cues you can do it with sound

too for example in a study published in

the journal of neuroscience in 2013 60

people were asked to place 72 images in

different locations on a computer screen

each time they placed an item a

corresponding sound was played so for

example if they were placing down a

picture of a cat they'd hear a meow they

were told that remembering each of these

items later on would earn them a certain

number of points half of the items had

super high point values and half were

super low but to get the most points

possible they had to remember where they

placed absolutely everything and with 72

items that wouldn't be easy after they'd

made their placements the subjects took

a 90-minute nap just about enough for

one full cycle of sleep while the people

in the experimental group were sleeping

they were played 18 of the sounds

associated with low value items the

people in the control group just slept

with white noise playing instead once

they were wide awake and trying to

remember the locations of as many items

as they could for those sweet sweet

science points the subjects mostly

remembered the ones with high point

values but the people in the

experimental group also tended to

remember the low value items the ones

they'd been reminded of while they slept

the researchers concluded that just like

in the studies on odor cues the sounds

cued the subject's brains to reactivate

the memories associated with them that

strengthened those memories so they were

better at recalling them later and again

like with odor cues other studies have

also found that sound cues can boost

your recall for example in a 2014 study

that involves 68 subjects a group of

researchers found that playing sound

cues while people were asleep helped

them learn a new language they had

people learn 120 new words and their

translations then played some of those

new words back to them while they slept

the team found that people were able to

remember about 10 percent more of the

cued words than the words they hadn't

heard while they were asleep but in a

follow-up study published the next year

the same group of researchers found that

if they played the new words and their

translations the memory boost went away

so it wasn't hearing the information

while they slept that helped to remember

it it was the sound they associated with

the memory when they heard the word and

its translation it became more than a

simple sound cue and the second word

interfered with the memory consolidation

process so the next time you're cramming

for a test you might want to try

connecting the new information with

certain sounds or smells then letting

yourself hear or smell those things

again when you go to sleep you still

might not do as well as you would have

if you've just studied properly but

hacking your memory could help you get a

few more questions right

good luck

but what if you already know algebra and

then you go to sleep well that's

actually a different story here's how

scientists got people to solve math

problems in their dreams

every night people journey to an

alternate reality filled with

hallucinations and bizarre storylines

it's called dreaming and scientists

don't know why we do it i mean it's hard

to study dreams because it's not like

you can communicate back and forth with

someone while they're asleep or at least

you couldn't until now in research

published in early 2021 scientists

figured out how to communicate with

people while they're dreaming they even

got sleeping people to solve math

problems and relay the answers and their

techniques could give us fascinating

insights into why we dream and what

happens in our minds when we sleep now

it wasn't easy to get to this point in

the past most dreaming research has

involved asking people about their

dreams after they wake up and as you

might guess that's not really reliable

in other papers scientists have

attempted to interact with sleeping

people but the results of that haven't

been very exciting either for instance

some studies have tried to influence

people's memory or behaviors by

presenting them with sounds spoken words

or smells while they slept and they did

have some success in influencing

people's ability to recall information

or learn simple tasks when they woke up

but those experiments still only

involved one-way communication the

participants weren't expected to

communicate back while they were

sleeping that's what makes the 2021

study remarkable for the first time

scientists achieved two-way

communication with dreaming participants

the key to their success was that they

focus on people experiencing lucid

dreaming during a lucid dream people

know their dreaming and have some

control over the narrative so these

researchers hypothesize that if a person

has control over their consciousness

like this they might be able to answer

questions about the dream world while

they're in it the problem is that lucid

dreaming is fairly rare only 23 percent

of people experience it once or more per

month and even if you're prone to them

you can't just summon a lucid dream

whenever you want at most you can train

your brain to increase the likelihood of

having them and researchers have

developed a few strategies for this for

instance in what's known as the reality

testing method you ask yourself

throughout the day whether or not you're

dreaming the idea is that by doing this

you'll build up a habit and become more

likely to automatically ask yourself the

same question when you're half asleep so

you may catch yourself dreaming and

become lucid unfortunately this and

other strategies aren't especially

reliable which is partly why there

hasn't been a ton of research on lucid

dreaming but in the 2021 study

researchers were able to pull it off

four laboratories from around the world

recruited 36 participants who had

previously experienced lucid dreaming

the scientists knew that people

typically have lucid dreams during the

stage of deep sleep known as rem sleep

when their bodies are paralyzed but

their eyes can move so they train

participants to communicate using eye

movements while they were awake they

taught them to signal they were having a

lucid dream by moving their eyes left

then right three times they also trained

them to use eye movements to indicate

yes no and a series of numbers then the

participants went to sleep in a lab and

attempted to bring on a lucid dream

while they dreamt the researchers asked

them questions like what is oneplus 2 or

do you like chocolate the four labs use

various methods to communicate these

questions some used spoken words or

beeping noises while others used tactile

stimuli or light that flashed morse code

and sometimes the participants were able

to interact with the researchers by

incorporating those questions into the

storyline of their lucid dreams for

example one participant was looking at a

cloudy sky in their dream and when the

researcher flashed a light the dreamer

transformed the sensation into sunlight

flashing through the clouds another

participant approached a house in their

dream and when the researcher gave her a

math problem she transformed the address

on the house into the math equation then

the dreamers relayed the answers by

moving their eyes in those predetermined

left-right patterns to indicate yes no

or the specific number not all the

participants were able to achieve lucid

dreaming or communication during the

study because again having a lucid dream

isn't that easy but six of them

correctly answered a total of 29 verbal

and math questions during their dreams

so it's a small start but this

experiment shows that contrary to

popular belief it is possible to

communicate with dreaming people plus it

shows that people are capable of pretty

complex thinking while they're asleep

like solving math problems in morse code

based on this the researchers think

people could be trained to use lucid

dreams to solve problems that require

creativity or to practice musical or

athletic skills but more than that this

technique also gives scientists a new

way to investigate questions like why we

dream and what influences the storylines

of our dreams and that could open up a

whole new world of study and a whole new

way to understand our brains

maybe all this time you could have been

taking your math tests in the middle of

a lucid dream or more likely you are

learning things while you're awake and

that is still really cool because when

you're awake you can do things like

check out our videos on our main channel

for example one called the science of

dreaming thanks so much for watching i

hope you learned some stuff

[Music]

you

Key Vocabulary

Vocabulary	Meanings
sleep /sliːp/ A1	noun - a natural state of rest for the body and mind verb - to rest with your eyes closed and your mind unconscious
dream /driːm/ A2	noun - a series of images and stories in your mind while sleeping verb - to have a dream
brain /breɪn/ A2	noun - the organ inside the head that controls thought and feeling
rapid /ˈræpɪd/ B1	adjective - happening quickly
movement /ˈmuːvmənt/ A2	noun - the act of moving or the way something moves
paralysis /pəˈræləsɪs/ B2	noun - the loss of the ability to move parts of the body
disorder /dɪˈsɔːrdər/ B1	noun - a state of confusion or lack of order
behavior /bɪˈheɪvjər/ B1	noun - the way someone behaves
neuron /ˈnjʊrɒn/ B2	noun - a nerve cell in the brain or nerves
muscle /ˈmʌsl/ A2	noun - a piece of body tissue that is able to stretch and contract
activity /ækˈtɪvəti/ A2	noun - something that you do
heart /hɑːrt/ A1	noun - the organ in your chest that pumps blood
rate /reɪt/ B1	noun - the speed at which something happens
blood /blʌd/ A2	noun - the red liquid in your body
memory /ˈmeməri/ A2	noun - the ability to remember things
hormone /ˈhɔːrməʊn/ B2	noun - a chemical substance in the body that regulates growth and health
vivid /ˈvɪvɪd/ B1	adjective - very clear and strong
emotion /ɪˈməʊʃn/ B1	noun - a strong feeling such as love or anger
nightmare /ˈnaɪtmer/ B1	noun - a frightening dream
trauma /ˈtrɔːmə/ B2	noun - a serious mental or emotional shock

Key Grammar Structures

• we spend a huge chunk of our time sleeping but it is not wasted time

  ➔ Present Simple Tense

  ➔ The sentence uses the "Present Simple" tense to describe general facts and habits, like "spend" and "is" indicating unchanging truths.

• if you have heard the term sleep paralysis or experienced sleep paralysis you may not have enjoyed it

  ➔ Present Perfect Tense

  ➔ This uses the "Present Perfect" tense to talk about past experiences or actions relevant to the present, with "have heard" and "have enjoyed" connecting past to now.

• science generally considers it a feature of sleep not a bug

  ➔ Passive Voice

  ➔ The "Passive Voice" is used here, where "it" is the subject and "considers" shows the action done to it by science, focusing on the object rather than the doer.

• during rem sleep structures in the brain stem prevent the body from acting out dreams

  ➔ Present Continuous Tense

  ➔ The sentence employs "Present Continuous" with "prevent" to indicate ongoing processes during sleep, adding dynamism to factual descriptions.

• but in some cases it also tells a deeper story about what's happening in someone's brain

  ➔ Relative Clause

  ➔ A "Relative Clause" like "what's happening" provides extra information about the subject, starting with a relative pronoun to explain the deeper story.

• researchers have also noticed another connection here they found that many otherwise healthy people with rbd actually go on to develop neurodegenerative diseases later in life

  ➔ Reported Speech

  ➔ This demonstrates "Reported Speech", summarizing what researchers "found" without quoting directly, shifting tenses like from present to past.

• wouldn't it be nice if you could just go to sleep have a recording of everything you need to know playing in the background and wake up ready for the test

  ➔ Conditional Sentences (Second Conditional)

  ➔ This is a "Second Conditional" sentence, using "would" in the main clause and "if" for an unreal present situation, expressing hypothetical wishes.

• the dreams just might be a side effect of what your brain is doing reactivating neurons to solidify information

  ➔ Cleft Sentences

  ➔ A "Cleft Sentence" splits focus using "just might be" to emphasize "a side effect", highlighting important information in the structure.

• if you're feeling multiple emotions your dreams can get more complicated and random

  ➔ Mixed Conditional

  ➔ This "Mixed Conditional" blends present and future with "if" for a general condition and "can" indicating possibility, showing hypothetical links.

• wouldn't it be nice if you could just go to sleep have a recording of everything you need to know playing in the background and wake up ready for the test

  ➔ Subjunctive Mood

  ➔ The "Subjunctive Mood" appears in hypothetical situations like "wouldn't it be nice if", expressing wishes or unreal scenarios without "that".