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Solar Activity May Affect Bizarre Dreaming April 3, 2009
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Are fluctuations in the Earth's magnetic field due to the solar wind bringing you bizarre dreams?
An Australian researcher says he has found that nightmares and other bizarre dreams may actually have their origins somewhere in outer space rather than being triggered by watching horror films.

Writing in the journal Medical Hypotheses, psychologist Darren Lipnicki says he found a correlation between the bizarreness of his dreams and the level of local geomagnetic activity triggered by the solar wind.

New Scientist reports that other studies have linked low geomagnetic activity to an increase in the production of melatonin, a hormone that helps set the body’s circadian clock.

Between 1990 and 1997, Lipnicki kept track of his dreams and assigned a value to how bizarre he felt they were.

He then looked up the daily geomagnetic activity at his home in Perth, Australia.

Comparing the two sets of figures, Lipnicki uncovered a statistical correlation between dream bizarreness and geomagnetic activity, with freakier dreams occurring on days with the least geomagnetic activity.

He suggests a large controlled study might find the same results in other people.

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