Targeted dream incubation (TDI) is a highly effective method for eliciting hypnagogic dreams related to specific topics through the presentation of verbal prompts and serial awakenings at sleep onset. In this pilot study, we tested whether TDI at sleep onset can effectively direct dream content in subsequent rapid eye movement (REM) sleep. We allowed participants a daytime nap opportunity...
Abstract Introduction Targeted Dream Incubation (TDI) is the process of giving an individual auditory cues (i.e., “think of a tree”) while they are falling asleep, with the goal of shaping dream content (into something such as a tree). Recent research has demonstrated TDI may be able to increase dream self-efficacy (DSE) and influence other mental health outcomes. Thus, our study explored how...
Both heightened nightmare (NM) distress, intense negative emotional reactions to nightmares, and low dream self-efficacy (DSE; the perceived ability to manage or influence dream experiences), are understudied contributors to posttraumatic functioning. Individuals with lower DSE shows increased suicide risk in trauma survivors and may increase emotional disturbances during sleep, while NM...
Dreams have long served as a bridge between human cognition and the sacred, offering spaces where the boundaries of self, culture, and spirituality are renegotiated. Across history, they have been regarded not only as private experiences but also as vehicles of prophecy, divine affirmation, and symbolic meaning that shape religious worldviews. Whether in theistic traditions, where dreams have...
Abstract Introduction Targeted Dream Incubation (TDI) is the process of utilizing verbal cues (such as, “while you try to fall asleep, try and think of a tree”) during pre-sleep stages in order to directly shape dream content. Preliminary results have demonstrated that TDI may be able to increase dreaming self-efficacy (DSE). Our study aimed to replicate and extend initial findings by examining...
Research has begun to identify self-efficacy as a crucial variable related to positive treatment outcomes. For treatments targeting nightmares, self-efficacy related to dreaming (DSE) has been proposed to be a key mechanism of change. Additionally, a robust amount of research exists that links nightmares to suicide, suggesting that mechanisms related to trauma-related nightmares may also be...
Abstract This preliminary study investigates the potential for a technique that enables purposeful guiding of dream content (Targeted Dream Incubation; TDI) to change the degree to which an individual feels in control of their dreams (Dream Self-Efficacy; DSE). DSE is a subset of a larger concept of self-efficacy relating to one’s belief in their own abilities and competencies. Examining DSE...
arXiv (Cornell University)February 13, 2025Pinyao Liu, Keon Ju M. Lee, Alexander Steinmaurer et al.
preprint
We present DreamLLM-3D, a composite multimodal AI system behind an immersive art installation for dream re-experiencing. It enables automated dream content analysis for immersive dream-reliving, by integrating a Large Language Model (LLM) with text-to-3D Generative AI. The LLM processes voiced dream reports to identify key dream entities (characters and objects), social interaction, and dream...
This study aimed to investigate relationships between lucid dreaming and sleep and mental health outcomes within a representative sample of the general population. We also sought to examine how nightmares interact with the relationship between lucid dreaming, sleep, and mental health outcomes. Participants (N = 1332) completed measures of lucid dream frequency, nightmare frequency, anxiety and...
Dreams have long captivated human curiosity, but empirical research in this area has faced significant methodological challenges. Recent interdisciplinary advances have now opened up new opportunities for studying dreams. This review synthesizes these advances into three methodological frameworks and describes how they overcome historical barriers in dream research. First, with observable...
Lucid dreaming occurs when one is aware of dreaming while asleep. While lucid dreaming can occur spontaneously, it remains rare. This multi-center study (Netherlands, Italy, Canada) tested a combined induction approach integrating senses-initiated lucid dreaming (SSILD) with targeted lucidity reactivation in a large sample of participants with varying lucid dreaming experience. Sixty...
People typically become aware that a dream was “just a dream” only after awakening. Alternatively, people can become aware that they are dreaming during the dream. These lucid dreams are thought to involve increased prefrontal cortex activity relative to non-lucid dreams, and they are associated with volitional control over dream content. Lucid dreams could be valuable for many purposes, such...
Nightmares are a critical component of multidimensional sleep health. Frequent nightmare recallers suffer reduced sleep length, depressed mood, and are more likely to be diagnosed with a psychiatric disorder in the future. Reliable population estimates of nightmare frequency are difficult to obtain and often restricted to rigid timepoints (e.g., once per year). Thus, there is a need for...
Memories of waking-life events are incorporated into dreams, but their incorporation is not uniform across a night of sleep. This study aimed to elucidate ways in which such memory sources vary by sleep stage and time of night. Twenty healthy participants (11 F; 24.1 ± 5.7 years) spent a night in the laboratory and were awakened for dream collection approximately 12 times spread across early,...
The phenomenon of dreaming about the laboratory when participating in a sleep study is common. The content of such dreams draws upon episodic memory fragments of the participant's lab experience, generally, experimenters, electrodes, the lab setting, and experimental tasks. However, as common as such dreams are, they have rarely been given a thorough quantitative or qualitative treatment. Here...
Traditionally, dreams have been seen as experiences that one cannot control, as something that happensto the dreamer (at times through involvement of supernatural powers), without the dreamer’s permission,volition or agency. This view was famously challenged in the advent of psychoanalysis: in his Interpretation ofDreams, Freud proposed that while we may not be consciously in control of our...
Dream lucidity, or being aware that one is dreaming while dreaming, is not an all-or-none phenomenon. Often, subjects report being some variant of “a little lucid” as opposed to completely or not at all. As recent neuroimaging work begins to elucidate the neural underpinnings of lucid experience, understanding subtle phenomenological variation within lucid dreams is essential. Here, we focus on...
Nightmares are highly dysphoric dreams that are well-remembered upon awakening. Frequent nightmares have been associated with psychopathology and emotional dysregulation, yet their neural mechanisms remain largely unknown. Our neurocognitive model posits that nightmares reflect dysfunction in a limbic-prefrontal circuit comprising medial prefrontal and anterior cingulate cortices, hippocampus,...
While material from waking life is often represented in dreams, it is less clear whether and how dreams impact waking life in return. Here, we assessed whether dream mood and content from home diaries predict subsequent waking mood using both subjective self-report and an objective automated word detection approach. Subjective ratings of dream and morning mood were highly correlated within...
Propensity to have nightmares has been theorised in terms of diathesis-stress models, with this propensity being seen as negative or even pathological. In contrast, a recent model proposes that nightmare propensity is due to Differential Susceptibility to stimuli, where high susceptibility can be beneficial in positive environments but detrimental in negative environments. This susceptibility...
Lucid dreaming is a unique phenomenon with potential applications for therapeutic interventions. Few studies have investigated the effects of lucidity on an individual's waking mood, which could have valuable implications for improving psychological wellbeing. The current experiment aims to investigate whether the experience of lucidity enhances positive waking mood, and whether lucidity is...
Lucid dreaming (being aware that one is dreaming) is typically a positive experience that may enhance positive mood even after waking. There is concern, however, that lucid dreaming may interfere with sleep quality. In the current experiment, participants practiced common lucid dream induction techniques over the course of a week, and kept a daily sleep and dream diary. The study objective was...
Previous experiments combining cognitive techniques and sleep disruption have been relatively successful in inducing at-home lucid dreams over training periods of 1-week or more.Here, we induce lucid dreams in a single laboratory nap session by pairing cognitive training with external stimulation.Participants came to the laboratory at 7:30 am or 11:00 am and during polysomnography setup were...
Aim: Rapid eye movement (REM) sleep, non-rapid eye movement (NREM) sleep, and sleep spindles are all implicated in the consolidation of procedural memories. Relative contributions of sleep stages and sleep spindles were previously shown to depend on individual differences in task processing. However, no studies to our knowledge have focused on individual differences in experience with Vipassana...
In general, dreams are a novel but realistic simulation of waking social life, with a mixture of characters, motivations, scenarios, and positive and negative emotions. We propose that the sharing of dreams has an empathic effect on the dreamer and on significant others who hear and engage with the telling of the dream. Study 1 tests three correlations that are predicted by the theory of dream...