Projects per year
Personal profile
Biography
My research focuses on spontaneous thoughts and experiences that are decoupled to varying degrees from ongoing tasks and environmental demands. In these states, behavioural responsiveness is reduced, attention is directed inward, and executive control is compromised, giving way to spontaneous and often associative trains of thought and imagery.
Spontaneous experiences are the predominant mode of consciousness during sleep, including dreams. They also abound in wakefulness in the form of mind wandering. I seek to understand the range of spontaneous conscious processes, including similarities and differences across sleep-wake states. I also seek to understand the waxing and waning of consciousness in sleep.
I use the analysis of spontaneous conscious processes to address foundational questions about the concepts of consciousness, wakefulness, and sleep including sleep stages; I also think it can help identify the minimal conditions for consciousness and self-experience. I am also interested in how spontaneous experience relates to cognitive agency and mental autonomy.
I address these issues through theoretical-conceptual work and collaborative interdisciplinary research that I conduct with collaborators at Monash and abroad. In my book Dreaming (MIT, 2015) I propose an empirically informed framework for dream experience. My current research on spontaneous experience in waking and sleep is funded by an ARC DECRA.
I aim to promote high-quality open access publications. With Thomas Metzinger, I edited Open MIND (also published by MIT in 2016). With Sascha Fink (Magdeburg) and Wanja Wiese (Mainz), I recently founded the journal Philosophy and the Mind Sciences. It is open access and free of charge for authors and readers.
Research area keywords
- sleep
- dreaming
- mind wandering
- self-consciousness
- spontaneous thought
Network
Projects
- 2 Active
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LAPSE: Is the ADHD brain a sleepy brain?
Windt, J., Silk, T. J., Andrillon, T., Tononi, G., Bellgrove, M. & Drummond, S.
National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) (Australia)
1/01/21 → 31/12/23
Project: Research
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Wandering Minds in Sleep and Wakefulness: Attention, Consciousness, Self
Australian Research Council (ARC)
30/06/17 → 28/06/22
Project: Research
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How deep is the rift between conscious states in sleep and wakefulness? Spontaneous experience over the sleep-wake cycle: Spontaneous experience in sleep/waking
Windt, J. M., 1 Feb 2021, In: Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences. 376, 1817, 18 p., 20190696.Research output: Contribution to journal › Review Article › Research › peer-review
Open AccessFile6 Citations (Scopus) -
Predicting lapses of attention with sleep-like slow waves
Andrillon, T., Burns, A., Mackay, T., Windt, J. & Tsuchiya, N., Dec 2021, In: Nature Communications. 12, 1, 12 p., 3657.Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › Research › peer-review
Open Access4 Citations (Scopus) -
Consciousness in sleep: how findings from sleep and dream research challenge our understanding of sleep, waking, and consciousness
Windt, J. M., Apr 2020, In: Philosophy Compass. 15, 4, 16 p., e12661.Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › Research › peer-review
Open AccessFile4 Citations (Scopus) -
Modulating dream experience: Noninvasive brain stimulation over the sensorimotor cortex reduces dream movement
Noreika, V., Windt, J. M., Kern, M., Valli, K., Salonen, T., Parkkola, R., Revonsuo, A., Karim, A. A., Ball, T. & Lenggenhager, B., 21 Apr 2020, In: Scientific Reports. 10, 1, 19 p., 6735.Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › Research › peer-review
Open AccessFile5 Citations (Scopus) -
Silence in Shamatha, Transcendental, and Stillness Meditation: An Evidence Synthesis Based on Expert Texts
Woods, T. J., Windt, J. M. & Carter, O., Jul 2020, In: Frontiers in Psychology. 11, 19 p., 1259.Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › Research › peer-review
Open Access2 Citations (Scopus)
Prizes
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Barbara Wengeler Prize 2012
Windt, Jennifer (Recipient), 2012
Prize: Prize (including medals and awards)
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Faculty of Arts Dean’s Award for Excellence in Research by Early Career Researchers
Windt, Jennifer (Recipient), 2017
Prize: Prize (including medals and awards)
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Vice-Chancellor's Award for Excellence in Research by Early Career Researchers
Windt, Jennifer (Recipient), 2017
Prize: Prize (including medals and awards)
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Experience of Ownership Workshop at the University of Adelaide
Jennifer Windt (Invited speaker)
2018Activity: Participating in or organising an event types › Contribution to conference
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Recent Work on Imagination at ANU in Canberra
Jennifer Windt (Invited speaker)
2017Activity: Participating in or organising an event types › Contribution to conference
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2017 Pacific Division Meeting of the American Philosophical Association in Seattle
Jennifer Windt (Invited speaker)
2017Activity: Participating in or organising an event types › Contribution to conference
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Workshop on Dreaming at University of Oslo
Jennifer Windt (Invited speaker)
2017Activity: Participating in or organising an event types › Contribution to workshop, seminar, course
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First meeting of the Asia-Pacific Consciousness Research Network (CoRN) at NYMU Taipei
Jennifer Windt (Invited speaker)
2017Activity: Participating in or organising an event types › Contribution to conference