'Inception': 9 Surprising Sleep Facts From the Movie (PHOTOS)

"Am I a man dreaming I'm a butterfly, or a butterfly dreaming I'm a man?" Chuang Tzu asked 2,300 years ago. In Christopher Nolan's stylish sleep thriller "Inception" he answers we're both -- butterfly and man.

Yet the science behind Inception is more surreal than the film, whose lovingly layered plot still underplays the wonderfully weird wildness of dreams. So, dream thief Mr. Cobb, what about your job is science fiction and what's science?

(Spoiler alert: plot elements are revealed)

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Is Time Altered In Our Dreams?

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Does time speed up in dreams so that 10 minutes "outside" becomes an hour during the dream? Yes, but not like in the movie, where time geometrically and precisely expands with the dream's depth. We can do far more. In real dreams infinite time may occur within seconds of "outside" time.

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Does time speed up in dreams so that 10 minutes "outside" becomes an hour during the dream? Yes, but not like in the movie, where time geometrically and precisely expands with the dream's depth. We can do far more. In real dreams infinite time may occur within seconds of "outside" time.

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BrunoChopps said on 21 Wednesday 2010 pm31 11:17 pm: I don't care about the facts, they don't change my opinion that this is the greatest movie in many years. I confess that I "suffer" from cinephilia, but this movie is amazing on so many levels. No pun intended. Its 10 out of 10. Two thumbs up. "Avatar" sucked, yet it'll still end up make more in the box office than "Inception". People have crap taste in movies, music and the arts in general.

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But I could be wrong. We may need to wait for Neo to return in a fourth Matrix film, and tell us whether Inception is a movie or just another computer simulation playing inside our consciousness.

Or we can sleep on it.

 

Follow Matthew Edlund, M.D. on Twitter: www.twitter.com/therestdoctor