Riemann Dieter, Nissen Christoph, Geoffroy Pierre A, Feige Bernd, Ellis Jason
Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, Freiburg University Medical Center, Medical Faculty, Freiburg, Germany.
Department of Psychiatry, Geneva University Hospital, Geneva, Switzerland.
J Sleep Res. 2025 Oct;34(5):e70183. doi: 10.1111/jsr.70183. Epub 2025 Aug 21.
Sleep and dreams are frequent themes in science fiction (Sci-Fi) literature and films, often used to explore questions about consciousness, reality, technology and the human experience. Sci-Fi authors and filmmakers utilise the enigmatic nature of sleep and dreams to blur the boundaries between reality and imagination, raising philosophical questions or extrapolating the effects of futuristic technologies on human life. In this article, we want to highlight some areas that have been recurring themes relating to sleep and dreams in Sci-Fi. These will include the concepts of so-called hypno-paedagogics, space hibernation, brain machine interfaces, electrostimulation, genetic engineering and the impact of substances (viruses, bacteria, drugs, toxins) on sleep and dreams. We will then confront Sci-Fi concepts with what is known from contemporary sleep science and judge what might be feasible, or not, in the future. A question we also want to address is how the relationship between sleep science and sleep Sci-Fi can be conceptualised: whether novel concepts have been instigated by Sci-Fi and taken up by sleep science or whether Sci-Fi merely reflects state of the art topics of sleep science, with just adding a touch of fiction.
睡眠和梦境是科幻文学与电影中常见的主题，常被用于探讨有关意识、现实、科技及人类体验的问题。科幻作家和电影制作人利用睡眠和梦境的神秘本质来模糊现实与想象之间的界限，引发哲学问题，或者推断未来技术对人类生活的影响。在本文中，我们想重点介绍科幻作品中与睡眠和梦境相关的一些反复出现的主题领域。这些将包括所谓的催眠教学法、太空冬眠、脑机接口、电刺激、基因工程以及物质（病毒、细菌、药物、毒素）对睡眠和梦境的影响。然后，我们将把科幻概念与当代睡眠科学的已知内容进行对比，并判断未来哪些可能可行，哪些不可行。我们还想探讨的一个问题是，睡眠科学与科幻睡眠之间的关系该如何概念化：是科幻作品催生了新概念并被睡眠科学所采用，还是科幻作品仅仅反映了睡眠科学的前沿话题，只是增添了一点虚构元素。
