Welcome to Quantum Magazine's podcast.

Each episode, we bring you stories about developments in science and mathematics.

I'm Susan Vallett.

Your brain does a lot when you're asleep, and now scientists are looking at that background electrical activity

to learn more about how the brain works and what

it means for sleep, aging, and more.

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At a sleep research symposium in January of last year,

Jana Lindner presented findings on the brain.

They hinted at a way to look at people's brain activity

for signs of the boundary between wakefulness and unconsciousness.

For patients who are comatose or under anesthesia,

it can be all important that physicians make that distinction correctly.

But doing so is trickier than it might sound.

That's because when someone is in the dreaming state of rapid eye movement or REM sleep,

their brain produces the same familiar, smoothly oscillating brain waves as when they are awake.

Lindner argued that the answer isn't in the regular brain waves, but rather in an aspect of

...