Dream self-reflectiveness as a learned cognitive skill.
Sleep January 1, 1986 S Purcell, J Mullington, A Moffitt et al.
Dreaming can involve self-reflection, and this ability varies by sleep stage and can be trained. Greater self-reflectiveness occurred in REM dreams compared to stages 2 and 4 sleep, which did not differ. People who frequently recalled dreams showed more self-reflectiveness than low-frequency recallers. After three weeks of home dream collection, experimental groups trained with mnemonic techniques showed more self-reflective and lucid dreaming than a baseline group. The findings suggest dreaming exists along a continuum of self-reflective awareness, supporting the view that dreaming is a higher-order cognitive activity rather than a derivative process.