Deirdre Barrett
American author and psychologistWikipedia
15
MENTIONS
5
EPISODES
5
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Search complete. 15 mentions across 5 episodes found for "Deirdre Barrett".
Nov 7, 2026
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Do our dogs dream about their owners? The choice of this story would have to be, how do you relate with your dog in the way of creating such a connection? While they're locked away in resting mode, science shows dogs do dream about who loves them, who feeds them, and who walks them.
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Psychologist Deirdre Barrett says emotionally dogs are into their humans, which allows them to see us while their eyes are closed.
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Although you really can't prove it, the scientists believe a dog's dreams are more creative and stranger than reality.
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So why do dogs cry or whimper while sleeping? Research shows they're feeling fear or distress.
Liz RosenbergSOUNDBITE_SPEAKER
Bad dreams, like scary stories, work as fire drills for the developing brain.
Liz RosenbergSOUNDBITE_SPEAKER
Bad dreams may even provide evolutionary protection for the young by allowing children to practice bravery while they are safely at home and in bed, writes Deirdre Barrett, editor of the book Traumas and Dreams.
Liz RosenbergSOUNDBITE_SPEAKER
She notes that children are smaller and more vulnerable to many more threats than adults.
Liz RosenbergSOUNDBITE_SPEAKER
Nightmares reflect this vulnerability.
Allison AubreyHOST
And then I stumbled on this lovely little study from 1993.
Allison AubreyHOST
A psychologist named Deirdre Barrett, she was an instructor at Harvard Medical School, gave her students some simple instructions.
Allison AubreyHOST
Focus on a problem or a challenge before bed and then try to dream about it.
Allison AubreyHOST
It turns out about half of them said they actually did.
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This method has a name now, eye signal verification.
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Before going to sleep, the dreamer and the researcher agree on a code.
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During the night, if the dreamer becomes lucid, the code gets sent from inside the dream and the machine picks it up.
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It turns a private experience into a record that someone else can see.
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So the dream had a clock, a camera and a code.
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All it needed next was a method.
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And a young researcher at Stanford was about to build one.
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A young researcher at Stanford takes this and builds a method.
Damien DynanHOST
Tonight, Pandemic Dreams.
Damien DynanHOST
Deirdre Barrett joins me.
Damien DynanHOST
to explore the stuff that dreams are made of and the role that the pandemic, only a few short years back, played in our dreams at the time.
Damien DynanHOST
As we chat about some riveting vignettes, from the terrifying to the touching to the hilarious.
Damien DynanHOST
Now, since the COVID-19 pandemic swept around the world, people have reported unusually vivid and bizarre dreams.
Damien DynanHOST
The virus itself is the star of many, literally, or in one of its metaphoric guises.
Damien DynanHOST
As a dream researcher at Harvard Medical School, Deirdre Barrett was immediately curious to see what our dream lives would tell us about our deepest reactions to this unprecedented disaster.
Damien DynanHOST
Her latest book, entitled Pandemic Dreams, draws on her survey of over 9,000 dreams about the COVID-19 crisis.