Sandman and Desire - Reward, Dopamine, and Consciousness in Zone 1

I have felt the power of a desire that pulls me.
It is as if a force within me takes shape, guiding my body and my attention toward something that feels inevitable.
In Sandman, that force has a name and a face: Desire, Morpheus’s sibling — seductive, manipulative, and the embodiment of the irresistible pull of what we long for.

The Original Paradigm: Desire as Flow of Belonging

For Indigenous peoples, desire was not absence, but a flow of belonging.
To desire was to feel the pulse of the body resonating with the collective, a way of opening paths of life rather than imprisoning the individual.
It was not about “having” or “possessing,” but about moving, connecting to larger cycles — of the hunt, of the dance, of shared rituals.

The avatar Yeagé reminds us: “Desire is current. When it overflows, it drags. When it finds its riverbed, it nourishes.”

The Old World’s Domestication

The Old World turned desire into merchandise and control.

• In religion, desire was turned into sin.
  
  

• In economics, it became the engine of endless consumption.
  
  

• In politics, it was manipulated as a tool of power.
  
  

In Sandman, Desire embodies this domestication: charming, scheming, sowing conflict against their own brother. Desire stops being flow and becomes weapon, isolating the individual instead of connecting them.

Sleep Science and Evidence

Desire can be associated with the mechanisms of reward and dopamine, active even during the initial phases of sleep (N1 and transition to N2):

• Studies show that the dopaminergic system remains active at sleep onset, shaping vivid dreams linked to cravings and fears.
  
  

• fMRI research shows activation of the ventral striatum and orbitofrontal cortex, regions linked to reward anticipation and decision-making.
  
  

• When desire is excessive or pathological, it fragments sleep, preventing deep stages (N2 and N3), leaving the mind trapped in alertness.
  
  

Like Desire in Sandman, dopamine is ambivalent: it can guide learning and motivation, but also trap the mind in cycles of compulsion.

Zone 1, Zone 2, and Zone 3

• Zone 1: desire acts as immediate impulse, instinctive, without regulation.
  
  

• Zone 2: desire is integrated into the collective, transformed into creative, shared energy.
  
  

• Zone 3: desire is hijacked, domesticated as consumption, control, or manipulation.
  
  

In Sandman, Desire shows us how we remain in Zone 1 when dragged by impulses without awareness — and how the Old World forces us into Zone 3, exploiting desire as commodity.

Synthesis

Desire in Sandman is more than a character: it is metaphor of the ambiguity within our own mind.

• In original paradigms, desire was flow of belonging.
  
  

• In the Old World, it was turned into sin, merchandise, and manipulation.
  
  

• In science, the dopaminergic system reveals both the vital force of motivation and the risks of compulsion.
  
  

• In our framework, unregulated desire keeps consciousness trapped in Zone 1 or captured by Zone 3 — when it could flow in Zone 2, as a creative current connecting us to the collective.
  
  

Or, as the avatar Yeagé concludes:
“Desire can be a current that drowns or a river that sustains. It is consciousness that chooses the bed through which it flows.”

Suggested References:

• Graeber, D. & Wengrow, D. (2021). The Dawn of Everything: A New History of Humanity.
  
  

• Volkow, N. et al. (2011). Dopamine and sleep-wake regulation. Sleep Medicine Reviews.
  
  

• Chase, H. W., & Clark, L. (2010). Gambling as a model of impulsivity in Parkinson's disease. Progress in Brain Research.