Title: “Sweet Dreams are made of Geomagnetic Activity”
Publication Tite: NewScientist
Date: 01 April 2009
1.
Darren Lipnicki performed a study on himself,
looking for Earth’s geomagnetic activity’s effect on his dreams.
2.
Lipnicki sponsored his own study. He said himself,
“I always wanted to do science with them (his dreams)”.
3.
He definitely had an interest in the study, but
it’s not apparent that he wanted a particular result. Then again, perhaps he
wanted to see that geomagnetic activity did have an effect so that he could
gain recognition. However, previous studies have already drawn a correlation
between low geomagnetic activity and increase in melatonin production in the
human body. The hormone causes deeper, more effective REM sleep. So Lipnicki
was likely looking for any result to confirm or disprove his theory that low
geomagnetic activity causes crazier dreams.
4.
Lipnicki kept a dream journal for seven years,
recording each dream on a scale of 1 to 5; 1 being completely normal and 5
being incredibly bizarre. The events of a 3-rated dream was considered possible, but very unlikely. Each day
he also recorded the geomagnetic activity in Perth, Australia (where he resides).
After isolating the days of extreme highs and lows of geomagnetic activity, he
saw that on days of low geomagnetic activity his dreams were significantly more
bizarre. Conversely, high geomagnetic activity seemed to cause his dreams to
be more realistic.
5.
The results are communicated quite clearly,
although we are not given the actual raw data. We also aren’t given any numbers
for how “high” and “low” geomagnetic activity were calculated.
6.
There are no graphs at all. Just a written relay
of Lipnicki’s study.
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