Projects per year
Personal profile
Biography
My research focuses on spontaneous thoughts and experiences that are decoupled to varying degrees from ongoing tasks and/or 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.
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 founded the journal Philosophy and the Mind Sciences. It is open access and free of charge for authors and readers.
Expertise related to UN Sustainable Development Goals
In 2015, UN member states agreed to 17 global Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) to end poverty, protect the planet and ensure prosperity for all. This person’s work contributes towards the following SDG(s):
Research area keywords
- sleep
- dreaming
- mind wandering
- self-consciousness
- spontaneous thought
Collaborations and top research areas from the last five years
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The Dreamscape Project: Phenomenology and neurophysiology of dreams
Windt, J. (Primary Chief Investigator (PCI)), Tsuchiya, N. (Chief Investigator (CI)) & Andrillon, T. (Partner Investigator (PI))
Australian Research Council (ARC)
13/06/24 → 12/06/27
Project: Research
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Towards the neurophenomenology of dreaming: Developing and employing a novel interview-based research format for acquiring reports on lucid and nonlucid dream experience
Demsar, E. & Windt, J.
22/05/23 → 22/05/26
Project: Research
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Mind wandering and creative incubation: an online replication and extension
Decat, N. (Primary Chief Investigator (PCI)), Yokoyama, A. (Chief Investigator (CI)), Windt, J. (Chief Investigator (CI)), Tsuchiya, N. (Chief Investigator (CI)) & Andrillon, T. (Chief Investigator (CI))
5/06/23 → 30/09/24
Project: Research
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LAPSE: Is the ADHD brain a sleepy brain?
Windt, J. (Primary Chief Investigator (PCI)), Silk, T. J. (Chief Investigator (CI)), Andrillon, T. (Chief Investigator (CI)), Tononi, G. (Chief Investigator (CI)), Bellgrove, M. (Associate Investigator (AI)) & Drummond, S. (Associate Investigator (AI))
National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) (Australia)
1/01/21 → 31/12/24
Project: Research
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Wandering Minds in Sleep and Wakefulness: Attention, Consciousness, Self
Windt, J. (Primary Chief Investigator (PCI))
Australian Research Council (ARC)
30/06/17 → 28/06/23
Project: Research
Research output
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COVID-19 on mind: daily worry about the coronavirus is linked to negative affect experienced during mind-wandering and dreaming
Sikka, P., Tuominen, J., Nassar, A. E., Kirberg, M., Loukola, V., Revonsuo, A., Valli, K., Windt, J., Bekinschtein, T. A. & Noreika, V., 2024, In: Emotion. 24, 1, p. 177-195 19 p.Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › Research › peer-review
Open AccessFile3 Citations (Scopus) -
Evidence synthesis indicates contentless experiences in meditation are neither truly contentless nor identical
Woods, T. J., Windt, J. M. & Carter, O., 2024, In: Phenomenology and the Cognitive Sciences. 23, p. 253-304 52 p.Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › Research › peer-review
Open AccessFile6 Citations (Scopus) -
Examining the association between depersonalisation traits and the bodily self in waking and dreaming
Gwyther, M. P. D., Lenggenhager, B., Windt, J. M., Aspell, J. E. & Ciaunica, A., 2024, In: Scientific Reports. 14, 1, 15 p., 6107.Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › Research › peer-review
Open AccessFile -
Out-of-body experiences in relation to lucid dreaming and sleep paralysis: a theoretical review and conceptual model
Campillo-Ferrer, T., Alcaraz-Sánchez, A., Demšar, E., Wu, H.-P., Dresler, M., Windt, J. & Blanke, O., Aug 2024, In: Neuroscience and Biobehavioral Reviews. 163, 20 p., 105770.Research output: Contribution to journal › Review Article › Research › peer-review
Open AccessFile5 Citations (Scopus) -
The path to contentless experience in meditation: an evidence synthesis based on expert texts
Woods, T. J., Windt, J. M. & Carter, O., 2024, In: Phenomenology and the Cognitive Sciences. 23, p. 865-902 38 p.Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › Research › peer-review
Open AccessFile5 Citations (Scopus)
Prizes
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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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Monash University Faculty of Arts Dean’s Research Award
Hohwy, J. (Recipient), Hassed, C. (Recipient), Margolis, R. (Recipient), Chadha, M. (Recipient), Bayne, T. (Recipient), Chambers, R. (Recipient), Windt, J. (Recipient) & Kars, A. (Recipient), 2021
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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Meeting of the Pacific-Division of the American-Philosophical-Association (APA) 2017
Jennifer Windt (Invited speaker)
2017Activity: Participating in or organising an event types › Contribution to conference
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Minds Online Conference
Jennifer Windt (Invited speaker)
2017Activity: Participating in or organising an event types › Contribution to conference
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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
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Themes in Transformative Experience 2017
Jennifer Windt (Invited speaker)
2017Activity: Participating in or organising an event types › Contribution to conference