Science Buddies: "Ask an Expert"

I have to write this huge thesis type of project and I thought that perfect theme for it is SLEEP & DREAMING.
In this project I'm planning to focus on lucid dreaming.
I will also have to focus a lot on the biological side of sleep and dreaming, what impact do dreams have on human brain, maybe I will talk a bit about what influence do hormones have to sleep, the electrical activity of the brain while human is sleeping, how dreams are formed and etc.
The problem is that I can not think of any experiments, hypothesis, tests , statistical analysis , diagrams, inventions, which I can make.
So I wanted to ask if you know any experiments or perhaps any other work I could do in a laboratory?

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Hi Cornelia,

It would be cool to look at the power spectral profiles of individuals during sleep and segment the raw signal based on REM v. non-REM phase, which you could do with electro-oculagram. You would also be able to collect genetic and other demographic information to see if changes in the EEG power spectrum correlates with any variables such as age, gender, etc. The EEG power spectrum measures the frequency and power of EEG signal, which represents electrophisiological activity of neuronal populations. This means how excited the neurons are and how much they talk to each other. Keep in mind that there are multiple ways to quantitatively characterize EEG power spectral profiles (Ex: 1/f slope, peak frequency, amplitude, distribution ratio), and they provide different pieces of information about the bigger picture.

best,

Rifqi