Danzas Encefálicas

Abstract

The electro-encephalogram or EEG has been an essential tool in sleep research, allowing the study of brain activity during such state. This data-recording method makes it possible to identify various patterns of sleep, consisting of REM or Rapid eye movement stages — i.e. dreaming— and NREM or Non-rapid eye movement stages — i.e. sleeping. Charting each of these different states over a time axis results in a hypnogram, which can vary from sleep to sleep, and from human to human — However, many shared features or statistic expectations still arise from them. This inherent consistency might hence suggest one of many other possible questions to a composer: If sleeping and dreaming are natural phenomena with clear pattern behaviors, deep-rooted in our cognitive system, would using a hypnogram for musical mapping reveal something about the way we listen?