Dream Catcher

The neuroscience of our night life.

by Patrick McNamara

The International Association for the Study of Dreams

If you are interested in dreams consider joining this organization

Published on February 4, 2012 by Patrick McNamara, Ph.D. in Dream Catcher

One way to promote the scientific study of dreams is to join and support an organization that does just that. Take for example the " International Association for the Study of Dreams (IASD)" Its website is http://www.asdreams.org

IASD is a non-profit, international, multidisciplinary organization dedicated to the pure and applied investigation of dreams and dreaming. IASD has about 700 members at present and conference attendance ranges 270-600 within recent history. Their conferences have become legendary both for the high scholarly quality of most of the presentations and for the fun attendees have.

The 29th Annual IASD Conference (JUNE 22-36, 2012) will feature three world-renowned keynote speakers, over 150 presenters from around the globe, a dream art exhibition, the costume Dream Ball, the annual Dream Telepathy Contest, and a sunset sail on the ‘sea of dreams' a special dessert cruise on the San Francisco Bay.

IASD also puts out a very informative newsletter called 'Dream-News'. This contains IASD conference information, links to new articles on the IASD Website, news on national affiliates from around the globe, scientific news and arts related content.

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The flagship scientific journal for IASD and for dream research more generally is "Dreaming" published by the American Psychological Association. Under the guidance of Editor Deirdre Barrett the journal has grown in quality and in scope. It always contains the most fascinating dream research as the people who contribute to it know something of the history of dream research and what the interesting questions are. You can of course always find papers on dreams in other journals but these are usually written by people with only a passing interest in dreams and thus they tend to try to reinvent the wheel or they opt for addressing rather trivial questions.

In any case the IASD is a good example of an organization that supports the scientific study of df dreams. We need more organizations like it. We will get more of these kinds of organizations if people interested in dreams join them and help grow them.

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Patrick McNamara, Ph.D., is Associate Professor of Neurology at Boston University School of Medicine and the author of numerous books and articles on the science of dreams.

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