Inner Cosmos with David Eagleman Ep150 "Can We Engineer Dreams?" with Adam Haar Horowitz
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Apr 20, 2026 
Adam Haar Horowitz, neuroscientist and dream engineer who studies real-time dream interaction and therapeutic dream tools. He explores why dreams are bizarre, when cinematic REM dreams occur, and how hypnagogia fuels creativity. He discusses nightmare therapies, targeted dream incubation and lucid-communication experiments, plus apps and methods to influence, recall, and track dreams.
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Change Nightmares With Imagery Rehearsal Therapy
- Use imagery rehearsal therapy: rewrite a trauma nightmare (e.g., change night to day) and vividly rehearse the new version before sleep.
- Repeated rehearsal across days can restore agency, reduce distress, and often eliminate the nightmare.
Anesthesia Produced Joyous Dreams And Eased PTSD
- Some PTSD patients report joyous dreams after propofol anesthesia during unrelated surgery.
- Stanford clinicians found single anesthesia sessions sometimes eliminated traumatic nightmares and PTSD reports months later.
Incubate Dreams With Sleep Onset Cues
- Try targeted dream incubation by cueing a simple target (e.g., 'remember to think of a tree') at sleep onset and briefly waking to report dreams five times.
- MIT and multiple labs replicated ~92% success getting participants to dream of the cued target.