The Monte Verità voices · 06
The science of dreams
Francesca Siclari, neurologist, Professor at the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam and head of the Sleep & Dreams Group at the Netherlands Institute for Neuroscience, studies dreams and consciousness: what happens in the brain when we sleep - and when we are halfway.
The video
A third state of being
In her talk at the forum, Siclari describes sleep as a third state: we are conscious, we have experiences, but with a different way of thinking and without the external environment. Neither wakefulness nor absence.
It is a different state of being, a third state.
Measuring sleeping consciousness
Professor at the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, Siclari heads the Sleep & Dreams Group at the Netherlands Institute for Neuroscience: with high-density EEG, the consciousness of sleep becomes measurable.
The threshold that concerns the road
Understanding how consciousness switches off and on again helps read the grey zones between wakefulness and sleep: the same zones where driving becomes vulnerable.
The source
- Event
- World Sleep Forum, Monte Verità - Ascona, Switzerland
- Recorded
- November 2025
- Original language
- Italian
- Rights
- Authorised interview: release signed and verified. Published by Drive Awake.
Published on 03.09.2026
Threads in the network
The forum in five minutes → Consciousness with open eyes → The Threshold → Interview: Carlos H. Schenck (Minnesota) →The series
Eight international voices recorded at Monte Verità, all of them online. The series lives voice by voice, directly on driveawake.ch.
The Monte Verità voices → Go to The Threshold →