RRC
REM Research Collective

A mechanistic model of the dreaming brain.

REM Research Collective is a student-led neuroscience research group building a stepwise, testable account of how the sleeping brain generates a dream, and publishing the work openly as it develops.

Read our researchOur mission
Mission

Why we exist

We started REM Research Collective to give curiosity-driven research a home, and to do the whole thing out in the open.

Read our mission
Progress

Where we stand

A running, dated log of what's finished, what's underway, and what's next. We post it as it happens, not just when it looks good.

  • Website Established

    Complete

    This site is live, so our mission, roadmap, and research all live in one public place.

  • Research Framework

    Complete

    We've settled how a project gets scoped, documented, and reviewed.

  • Team Formation

    Complete

    Core team is together, covering theory, anatomy, biochemistry, and computation.

  • Active Research

    In progress

    Our first project is underway, running on the framework above.

See the full log
Research

Featured research

What we're actively working on right now.

Sanchez-Raghavendra-Chen Activation-Synthesis Model

Active

A step-by-step model of how a dream gets generated, building on Hobson and McCarley's Activation-Synthesis theory. We argue that activation starting in the pons moves through a set order of thalamocortical and thalamo-limbic stages, rather than being random signals the brain only makes sense of afterward. To test whether that ordering actually holds, we lay out a triangulated EEG-fMRI study design.

Team
Cristobal Sanchez, Pranathi Raghavendra, Jin-Rou (Zoey) Chen, Millan Hamilton
Focus
Six-stage cascade model drafted · Triangulated EEG-fMRI design proposed · Collecting existing EEG-fMRI datasets for secondary analysis
Read the paper
View all research
Timeline

How we got here

  1. 2026

    REM Research Collective founded

    A few students started the collective to study dreaming seriously.

  2. 2026

    Research planning begins

    We set up our first frameworks, documentation standards, and review process.

  3. 2026

    Website launch

    This site went live so anyone can follow the mission, roadmap, and progress.

  4. Future

    First publication

    Getting findings from our first project ready to publish.

  5. Future

    Expanded collaborations

    Teaming up with other researchers and labs to take on more.

Updates

Latest updates

Website established

Put up this site so anyone can follow what we're working on and exactly where it stands.

Research framework finalized

Agreed on how a project gets scoped, written up, and reviewed before we call it real work.

Core team structure defined

Sorted out who owns what, and where we still need more hands.

Come work with us.

We're a small lab and we're growing. If rigorous, openly published dream research sounds like your kind of work, we'd love to hear from you.

Get in touch