The "Portrait" series presents the people and organizations that are part of Percumedia's client community.
For this second presentation, let's discover psychologist Antonio Zadra, professor and researcher at the University of Montreal, as well as director of the Zadra Dream Lab where the mysteries of sleep and dreams are studied.
Antonio Zadra grew up in Sept-Îles where he completed his primary and secondary education. At 17, he moved to Montreal to pursue college and university studies. After considering medical studies, a significant dream captured his attention and, after extensive reading about sleep and dreams, he opted for psychology.
After obtaining a Master's in experimental psychology and a PhD in clinical psychology from McGill University, he conducted postdoctoral research in Dr. Tore Nielsen's dream and nightmare lab at the Sacré-Cœur Hospital of Montreal.
Parasomnias and Dream Disorders
Antonio Zadra is currently a professor in the psychology department at the University of Montreal. He is particularly interested in certain sleep disorders: parasomnias, which are unwanted behaviors occurring during sleep (sleepwalking, night terrors, etc.). Furthermore, he studies dream disorders: all that is unpleasant in dreams, including nightmares, whether linked or not to a trauma.
With his research team, he conducts two types of complementary work. The first focuses on the study of dream content, primarily carried out through questionnaires and dream journals kept by participants over periods ranging from a few weeks to several months.
The second type of Antonio Zadra's research is more technical and primarily takes place at the Advanced Sleep Research Center at the Sacré-Cœur Hospital of Montreal. These studies rely on electroencephalography and brain imaging to analyze sleep.
What Are the Purposes of These Studies?
The applications or uses of these research are divided into two areas. The first type aims to better understand why people have nightmares, how often, and at what point in their lives. The application will be to better assess and treat these sleep disorders.
The second type of application is broader. Here, Professor Zadra aims to understand more comprehensively the interactions between genetic and environmental factors in sleep disorders, such as sleepwalking or night terrors, to intervene more globally.
Thus, in the case of sleepwalking, the frequency or intensity of episodes can be reduced through psychological or pharmacological treatments, or simply by changing the lifestyle of certain patients.
What About Dream Interpretation?
It is a long and rich history, begun well before the works of Freud, for example. People have always been intrigued by their dreams and have wanted to know why and how these images appear during sleep. That is why certain techniques have been developed to understand these dreams.
From a scientific or empirical standpoint, there is very little clear evidence to support these techniques. However, this does not mean that the content of dreams is devoid of psychological meaning. Nonetheless, there is no universal method for understanding the significance of certain images in dreams. Dream interpretation dictionaries are entertaining, but they have no scientific or theoretical basis to support the definitions presented.
What Can We Understand from Our Dreams Then?
By paying attention to a series of dreams rather than just one, patterns may appear: the places where dreams occur, the characters that appear in them, and the nature of the interactions between them. By examining these patterns, connections can be discovered with relational situations experienced in the waking state.
It is increasingly clear that the interpersonal dimension of an individual is largely reflected in their dreams, while intertwining with elements seen or imagined in a more or less distant past, giving dreams their peculiar or strange aspect.
What Is Healthy Sleep?
Unfortunately, our society is collectively sleep-deprived. The fact that the majority of people use an alarm clock to get up shows that our sleep time must be interrupted.
After oil and its derivatives, caffeine is the second most important substance in terms of transactions globally. Such extensive and widespread consumption of caffeine indicates that people are tired and need a stimulant in their daily activities.
All of this is harmful because it is now known that sleep is far from a passive state or a waste of time. Sleep contributes to the consolidation of learning, the regulation of our emotions, and even our hormones. It is related to our appetite, insulin regulation, prevention of diabetes and cardiovascular diseases. It is therefore not trivial that evolution has made all mammals sleep. In the long term, lack of sleep leads to obvious consequences.
Importance of Popularization
Since our research is funded by public funds from our own taxes, it is important to give back to the community, not only by informing people about the discoveries made but also by popularizing what is discovered and known, as well as what remains to be studied.
Especially in the field of sleep and dreams, people have beliefs and opinions without being aware of all the research conducted in this area. These studies can help demystify certain characteristics of our dreams and help us understand them.
It is therefore crucial, just as in other scientific fields, to know what science says about dreams and sleep in general.
What to Watch for in the Near Future
In the coming year, our research will continue, particularly on the brain activity of sleepwalkers. Even when they sleep, some parts of their brain are active while others are simultaneously in sleep, even before sleepwalking episodes.
We are also conducting an exciting study on erotic dreams with a sample of about ten thousand dream narratives. The research reveals interesting differences according to gender, marital status, age, etc. Research that will surely interest the media...
Want to learn more? Visit antoniozadra.com.