Team

Michelle Carr

Michelle is the principal investigator at the Dream Engineering Lab. She is Assistant Professor in the University of Montreal Department of Psychiatry and Addiction. She received her PhD in 2016 working with Dr. Tore Nielsen at the Dream and Nightmare Lab, and completed postdoctoral studies with Dr. Mark Blagrove at Swansea University and Dr. Wilfred Pigeon at the University of Rochester Medical Center. Her current endeavors include a dynamic collaboration with Dr. Pattie Maes at the MIT Media Lab focused on developing the science of dream engineering.

Tore Nielsen

Tore has led the Dream and Nightmare Laboratory at the University of Montreal for over thirty years. One of the first scientific laboratories dedicated explicitly to studying dreams, his work has been monumental in forwarding our knowledge about dreaming. He continues to run the Dream and Nightmare Laboratory while effectively serving as co-PI in the new Dream Engineering Laboratory.

Claudia Picard-Deland

Claudia, a postdoctoral researcher at the DxE Lab, earned her PhD from the University of Montreal in 2023, mentored by Tore Nielsen. Her research employs Targeted Memory Reactivation to examine how dream content affects learning and behavior, with a particular focus on the phenomena of flying and lucidity within dreams.

Remington Mallett

Remy is a postdoctoral researcher with the DxE Lab, holding a PhD from the University of Texas at Austin obtained in 2021. Following his doctoral work, he received additional training under Dr. Ken Paller at Northwestern University. His research applies computational methods to dream language and neural data to explore the connections between dreaming and waking cognition. Additional information is available on his personal website.

Tobi Matzek

Tobi is a PhD student in psychology - research and intervention- at the University of Montreal, specializing in adult clinical psychology. Their current research involves evaluating a multi-sensory stimulation technique for inducing lucid dreams during REM sleep and they are also working on creating the Montréal Archive of Flying Dreams. With an undergraduate degree in honors psychology from the University of Ottawa, their thesis explored PTSD symptom trajectories in violent crime victims.

Anthony Levasseur

Anthony is a PhD student in psychiatric sciences interested in reconciling, mainly through the emergent science of dream engineering, the relationship between the waking self and the subconscious, elusive, but highly potent, dreaming self. His research focuses on evaluating the impact of cinema on dream content and sleep, using Targeted Dream Incubation.

Raphaëlle Semin

Raphaëlle is a research coordinator at the DxE Lab, she holds a Master's dregree in Neurosciences from Aix-Marseille University and the University of Montreal. Her research focuses on lucid dreaming induction methods, with a particular interest in exploring the neural correlates of conscious states during sleep.

Maria Chamas

Maria is pursuing a Master’s degree in Neurosciences at the University of Montreal, focusing on characterizing sleep health and sleep patterns in deaf and hard-of-hearing individuals. Through her involvement in the DxE Lab, she explores her fascination for sleep medicine, neuro-imaging techniques and research on the intricate connections between sleep, dreams, health, and cognition. In addition to her thesis work, Maria is conducting a review on the links between nightmares, insomnia, and suicide. Her work aims to deepen our understanding of sleep’s role in enhancing physiological and psychological well-being.

Kennedy Robertson

Kennedy is a Master's student in psychology at the University of Montreal, with an academic background in behavioral sciences and philosophy from McGill University. Her research focuses on exploring the diverses experiences of consciousness during dreaming, with an emphasis on social and spiritual experiences in lucid dreaming.