The Dream Thinker

The Dream Thinker.


         “Dreams are a waste of time.  They never solve anything.  You might think they do, but when you assess them in the hard light of daytime, you can quickly see that any solutions are unworkable in real life. They are jumbled fantasies posing as reasoning.
         “Imagine you set your computer to work out a complex mathematical problem overnight, but then, in the morning, you saw that it had grabbed hundreds of random variables from your hard drive and used these within the logic.  The solution might be neat, clean, and precise, but the logic was flawed by random elements.
         “People have spent years, careers trying to interpret the brain’s selected elements. Do teeth mean family members?  Does a cigar mean a penis?  For examples. 
         “We chose the other path.”
         –George S. Appnal, from a Speech at the California Sleep Society, May 3, 2008. Co-presenter Dr. Gautam Iyer PhD of the Essen Sleep Center.

Appnal stared at the ceiling of his hotel room. He was running the marathon that morning, but he was more looking forward to the three hours of mental run time, during which he could work out his marital and business issues.

He was not planning to leave his wife; he loved her.  The distance between them, however, was growing and he could see the end more clearly than he could hold the image of them, grown old, on rocking chairs overlooking the ocean as they had both originally intended. She wasn’t having an affair, yet, but she was spending more and more time with other people, two of whom were male associates from the hospital where she worked, and this was the slippery slope George knew was the end of his marriage.

At this time, though, Appnal was staring at the ceiling recalling his dream.  He had been lost in the mall, though it was not a mall he could place, looking for a way to return an item of clothing that kept changing from pants to a sweater to something that only made sense in the dream, but would not be wearable in real life.

         “’What if?’ I asked myself, one morning staring at the ceiling.  ‘What if you could harness this sleeping brain power, not as dreams, but as a way to work out your personal and life’s problems?’ Coleridge composed Kubla Khan while he slept, but that was fiction and required opium.  I wanted to wake up with my own Kubla Khan, but I wanted it to be a workable solution to an everyday life problem.” 
         –George S. Appnal, Chung-Poon Loc and Joseph Simute, from “Using Dreams to Solve real World Problems” research article, PLoS ONE, January 14, 2006

Appnal resolved not to waste another evening dreaming.  He understood that this resolution would take him months if not years to accomplish, but once resolved, Appnal was not going to fail.  He needed to work out the issues with his second wife and there was not time enough in the day to shut out all other distractions and focus on this singular issue.  Therefore, it needed to be during the night, harnessing the power of his sleeping mind, when he could process real-world matters using valid variables.

There was ongoing research on problem solving during REM state at the Essen Sleep Study Center, in Hingham, Massachusetts, under the head of Dr. Gautam Iyer.  Iyer had yet to have any success.  Actually, Iyer’s studies showed that patients were 6% slower to solve the problems upon waking, when compared to the control group.
         “With all due respect to the valuable quantitative research done by Appnal and his team, we are not looking, perhaps yet, at a science or even a treatment. Currently, we are looking at a skill, a learned ability, not unlike memorizing the phone book or doing complex calculations without pen or paper.  The reason I say that this is, currently, a talent and not medicine, is that there is no ability, nor even a strategy or plans for the same, of treating, if I dare even use the word ‘treatment’ in this case, anyone other than Appnal himself.
         “…be remiss for me not to add that I do not believe that dreaming in itself is a sleep disorder that requires a cure.  Nor do I believe it is a waste of time as the Doctor Iyer also insists.  There is an abundance of corroborating evidence here.  My belief that dreaming needs no cure does not limit Appnal and Iyer’s efforts from being medicine or treatment, since plastic surgery can be considered as treatment, albeit unnecessary and in my personal, not professional opinion a counter treatment. What limits Iyer and Appnal’s work, in my opinion, is that they have had no other successes than Appnal himself.”
         – Dr. Carinna Gostopoli, PhD, Director, Sleep Disorders Clinic, Austin, Texas, January 4, 2008.

With Appnal’s insistence and needed funding, Iyer focused on the three test patients who showed improved puzzle solving skills upon waking.  They also focused on Appnal himself.  Only one of the three patients, Gregory Day, consistently outperformed his pre-therapy scores, though these would be measured in single or low double digit percentages. Appnal, himself, would wake with the solution already formed in his head.

Iyer focused on Appnal solely.  They added cognition-enhancing drugs.  The success rates improved dramatically. 

Day declined retesting, but the two other test patients agreed.  Neither showed improved scores when given the psychostimulants versus placebos.  Again, they focused exclusively on Appnal

         “To use Appnal’s own argument against him, Coleridge was already a poet when he dreamed Kubla Kahn. Also, Kubla Kahn is fantasy, not fact.”
         – Anonymous interview comment during the 22nd Anniversary Meeting of the Associated Professional Sleep Societies LLC.

Appnal was able to solve more and more complex puzzles while he was sleeping, including a series of unrelated word and math problems. 

Iyer further tested the limits of Appnal’s sleeping brain, determining that he could apply math skills learned in his past education, yet no longer available to his waking brain.

During just five minute’s sleep, Appnal could work out problems that would take him more than ninety minutes of waking effort.  The only limitation seemed to be previous knowledge.  Appnal was unable to solve problems with skills unlearned during any part of his life.

         “Iyer’s research on George Appnal is not news.  I again cite the GAT study entitled How Distractions Facilitate Creative Problem-Solving by Galinsky, Zhong and Dijkstererhuis: ‘Conscious thought is better at making linear, analytic decisions, but unconscious thought is especially effective at solving complex problems.’ I submit that the sleep preparation is the distraction required to stimulate creative problem-solving.
         “I also question that Appnal was technically asleep when the problems were solved.  Psychostimulants are known to cause insomnia.”
         – Banertels, G.S., transcript from Question and Answer session following a presentation entitled Problem-Solving Therapy for Minor Depressive Disorders at The State University of New York at Albany. February 27, 2008.

Iyer took the criticism to heart. Unbeknownst to Appnal, he restarted the clinical trials.  Iyer wanted to learn if people like Doctor Gostopoli were correct to believe that Appnal was an outlier and that the results were not repeatable with other subjects.

Appnal was undaunted.  In May of 2009, Appnal set about ‘solving’ the initial problem: the inevitable unwinding of his second marriage.  Prior to administering the psychostimulants, Appnal listened to recordings of three full marriage counseling sessions, as well as selected snippets from others.  Appnal had chosen from nearly sixty total sessions. 

His detailed notes on the reasoning behind these choices can be found in research notes supporting an uncompleted article titled, “Solving Real-world Relationship Problems during Sleep.”

When Appnal awoke, he knew that the solution would require pinpoint effort on both his and his wife’s part.  At the start of their next marriage counseling session, he outlined the solution.

From the Appnal/Appnal marriage counseling transcript on May 22, 2010…
         Dr. S_______ G_______: “An interesting idea, Mr. Appnal, and I am sure Mrs. Appnal appreciates the efforts you have put forth in order to improve your marriage, however–”
         Esmeralda Appnal: “Yes.  That’s exactly correct, George.  Very well done.”

Appnal next focused on his business issues.  While his company netted him a substantial income and required fewer than twelve hours per week attention on average, Appnal believed there was a missing element that could provide two to three times revenue without much additional effort on his part. 

It took a few sessions to get the variables right, but by the end of the second week of focus, he knew he had a workable and quite elegant strategy.  It required moving a few people to new positions, some additional training, and a new service offering, but the benefits well outweighed the cost.  He sent the updated business plan to his General Manager and, knowing it was sound, decided to focus on societal problems.

Appnal had recently seen a documentary on organic food disparity between minority and majority city dwellers and decided this would be a finite first problem to tackle.  Had it been a business issue, it would not be hard to solve, but societal problems always included extra layers of complexity. Finding the relevant variables took research (and money), but he soon felt he had enough to give his sleeping mind a fighting chance.

In the morning, he typed up the solution and sent copies to each of the four executive committee members at the Greater Boston Food Bank, as well as the Chairman of the board.  He also included checks for $5,000 in each envelope, in order to get their attention and show his own belief in the idea.

         “Some people dream impossible dreams, but a local businessman dreamed a very possible one. It has to do with fruit and veggie distribution to our city’s minority population. Coming up next: The Fruits of Sleep.”
         – NBC News promo, July 22, 2010

That December 31st, at precisely noon, Appnal discontinued his financial support of the Essen Sleep Center, which  effectively shut down the institution. 

Iyer’s tests were showing what was already known: sleep and cognition-enhancing drugs were an aid to memory recall, but did not provide sleep-based puzzle-solving abilities. 

Iyer now believed that their efforts were only effective on Appnal himself.  It was a dramatic success, but due more to Appnal’s unique brain structure than to any scientific advancements.

In the following months, Appnal became a global celebrity, lending his sleep-thinking powers to numerous not-for-profits and commercial enterprises. 

Iyer also became a celebrity, as well as Appnal’s unofficial spokesperson.  Though the two of them had not communicated since the day Appnal pulled his funding, there existed no ill will between them.

         “Computers cannot have ‘aha’ moments.  They can process information incredibly quickly, but they cannot bend their mind around new concepts or postulate irrational human reactions.  People can do both of these, but only Appnal, due to the therapy we developed together, can process information at computer-like speeds. So what would take most of us many, many waking years to calculate, Appnal can do, literally, in one night’s sleep.
         “More impressively, he wakes up rested.”
         –Dr. Gautam Iyer, from an appearance on The Daily Show with Jon Stewart, January 12, 2011.

On May 10th, 2011, Appnal was staring at the ceiling of a hotel room in Greece. He had been commissioned to help increase Greece’s resident faith in their economy.  He had lost weight, mostly body mass, and decided that he would get back into running shape, yet he wondered at the greater reason.  Appnal assumed that being in shape would add a few more years to his life, but to what end?  Could he make himself immortal by thinking it so?  He knew this was unlikely and that he would need years of genetics to be able to crack immortality. But, again, to what end?

Appnal decided to take on the most critical challenge.  If he was going to dedicate his life to solving mankind’s greatest dilemmas, he would need to better understand the reason behind mankind’s existence.  He knew, for this, he needed no more variables.  His entire life thus far was study enough.

At 10:15 that evening, Appnal took the standard dose of psychostimulants, as recorded on the chart he left behind.  For the first time, however, he also took a sleeping pill.  This was the ‘big’ question and Appnal knew he would need interrupted sleep to determine this answer.  At 10:42p.m., he fell asleep.

Appnal checked out of the hotel at 7:05 in the morning.  He had left his luggage in the hotel room, fully packed, with a note reading: Trash. Please Dispose Of.  Appnal took the direct flight to Boston at 9:45a.m.  He said nothing to his fellow passengers and declined all food and drink with a single shake of his head.

No one has seen George Appnal or his wife Esmeralda Appnal since.

From a press conference by Gautam Iyer, November 12, 2011…
         “A week ago I received a letter from George Appnal.  He asked that I read the following statement. I would be happy to take questions, especially those concerning the release of my book, but I do not know George’s whereabouts, nor more about his sleep-thoughts.  In fact, except for this letter, have not heard from him at all since December 31st, 2010.
         “This is the entirety of his statement.  It is only eight words long.
         “‘Life is a happy accident.  Avoid all distractions.’”


THE END.