...art reveals scientific discovery.

A fascination with dreams that helped to inspire an art exhibition at The Wordsworth Trust's contemporary gallery in Grasmere has resulted in a new scientific discovery.

Artist-in-residence Chris Bucklow embarked on an extraordinary journey into his subconscious as part of the preparation for his If This Be Not I exhibition currently on at the 3oW Gallery, in Grasmere.

Chris, who used Wordsworth's autobiographical poem The Prelude as a basis for the exhibition, underwent a series of psychoanalysis sessions in a bid to explore the development of his own creativity and why he became an artist.

He also used records he has kept of all his remembered dreams which he plotted in date order on a four feet wide drawing, around a triple portrait of himself at the ages of five, 25 and 45.

It was while entering the details of the dreams that he noticed they were clustered on a monthly rhythmical cycle.

Unsure if this was new to science, Chris wrote to neurosurgeon Mark Salms, of the University of Cape Town, a psychoanalyst who confirmed it was a newly-discovered phenomenon.

And fellow psychologist Martin Conway, of Durham University, suggested that because Chris would have dreamt every night yet remembered only certain dreams, it was likely that the clusters on his drawing were about cycles of the mind's awareness of dreams rather than cycles of dreaming.

This has left scientists intrigued by the possibility that regular fluctuations in brain rhythms may affect awareness.

If This Be Not I is on at the 3oW Gallery, Dove Cottage, Grasmere, until September 30. Open daily from 9.30am to 5.30pm. Entrance free.