The American Journal of Psychology
April 21, 2014
Tadas Stumbrys, Daniel Erlacher, Miriam Johnson et al.
104 citations
Lucid dreamers are aware they are dreaming. An online survey of 684 respondents, 571 of whom were lucid dreamers (83.5%), found that lucid dreams most often begin spontaneously in adolescence and last about 14 minutes on average. Dreamers are typically active, planning actions like flying, talking with dream characters, or having sex, but often fail to remember or execute these intentions due to awakening or obstacles in the dream. The frequency of lucid dreaming was the strongest predictor of dream phenomenology, with some differences linked to age, gender, and whether the dreamer was natural or self-trained.
Consciousness and Cognition
September 8, 2013
Tadas Stumbrys, Daniel Erlacher, Michael Schredl
88 citations
Applying transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) over the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex during REM sleep increased dream lucidity in frequent lucid dreamers, though the effects were not strong. Nineteen participants spent three nights in a sleep laboratory; on the second and third nights they randomly received either 1 mA tDCS for 10 minutes or sham stimulation during each REM period starting with the second one. Self-ratings showed increased lucidity only in frequent lucid dreamers. The results provide preliminary support for the involvement of the DLPFC in lucid dreaming, but further research controlling for indirect effects and including other brain regions is needed.
Journal of Sports Sciences
April 7, 2015
Tadas Stumbrys, Daniel Erlacher, Michael Schredl
60 citations
Rehearsing a finger-tapping sequence during a lucid dream improves next-morning performance as much as physical or mental practice while awake. In an online experiment with 68 participants split into four groups, those who practiced in a lucid dream, physically, or mentally all significantly improved from evening pre-test to morning post-test, while the no-practice control group did not. Subjective sleep quality was unaffected by nighttime practice. The results confirm earlier work showing that motor practice in lucid dreams can enhance subsequent performance, with effects comparable to waking practice.
heiDOK (Heidelberg University)
January 1, 2010
Tadas Stumbrys, Michael Daniels
53 citations
Lucid dreams—where the dreamer knows they are dreaming—may aid creative problem solving more than logical tasks, and dream characters can offer plausible creative advice. In a pilot study, nine lucid dreamers and nine non-lucid dreamers attempted either a logical puzzle or a metaphor creation over ten nights. The results suggest lucid dreams are better suited for creative tasks, and dream characters may serve as a source of creative input. The study also identified methodological issues for future research.
Frontiers in Psychology
January 1, 2014
Daniel Erlacher, Melanie Schädlich, Tadas Stumbrys et al.
48 citations
Actions in lucid dreams take longer than the same actions in wakefulness, but only for motor tasks. Counting, a non-motor task, showed no time difference. In a sleep-laboratory experiment, lucid dreamers performed counting, walking, and a gymnastics routine while marking time intervals with eye movements. Walking and gymnastics required significantly more time in dreams than in waking, but the relative duration of each task remained proportional—no task was disproportionately longer. A more complex motor task did not increase the time delay. The findings suggest prolonged dream durations may stem from absent muscular feedback or slower neural processing during REM sleep.
Imagination Cognition and Personality
February 21, 2012
Daniel Erlacher, Tadas Stumbrys, Michael Schredl
36 citations
About 57% of German athletes have experienced a lucid dream at least once, 24% have one or more per month, and 9% of lucid dreamers have used the dream state to practice sport skills. Most of those athletes felt that such practice improved their waking performance. The prevalence of lucid dreaming among professional athletes is similar to the general population, but the proportion of lucid dreams relative to all dreams is nearly twice as high (14.5% vs. 7.5%). The findings suggest lucid dreaming offers a unique form of mental rehearsal for sports.
Imagination Cognition and Personality
December 20, 2016
Tadas Stumbrys, Daniel Erlacher
28 citations
In lucid dreams, where the dreamer knows they are dreaming, full control over the dream body is possible in about two thirds of cases, while control of the dream environment and maintaining dream awareness are possible in less than half of cases. An online survey of 528 respondents, 386 of whom had lucid dream experience, found that higher lucid dream frequency, dispositional mindfulness while awake, and younger age predict greater dream control. Cultivating mindfulness may help lucid dreamers develop more control, but further longitudinal research is needed.
Frontiers in Psychology
January 1, 2020
Daniel Erlacher, Tadas Stumbrys
24 citations
A combination of the wake-up-back-to-bed (WBTB) sleep protocol and the mnemonic technique MILD can effectively induce lucid dreams in people who are not selected for lucid dreaming ability. In a sleep laboratory experiment, participants were awakened after 6 hours, kept awake for 30 or 60 minutes to practice MILD or a control task, then returned to bed. Across three MILD conditions, 36% to 54% reported lucid dreams, and 14% to 27% produced PSG-verified eye signals. In contrast, only 9% reported lucid dreams after reading, and none occurred after playing a video game. The findings suggest that WBTB plus MILD is an effective induction method for laboratory research.
BORIS
October 9, 2020
Daniel Erlacher, Michael Schredl, Tadas Stumbrys
12 citations
About 90% of 386 participants who had lucid dream experiences reported some benefit of lucid dreams on their waking life, including mental and physical health. This benefit was linked to higher lucid dream frequency, trait mindfulness, and spirituality. The authors suggest these results should encourage development of a manualized lucid dream therapy and testing its effects in a randomized waiting-list pre-post design, while qualitative research could explore how lucid dreaming contributes to well-being over time.
Neurosci Biobehav Rev
January 14, 2025
Sofia Tzioridou, Teresa Campillo-Ferrer, Jorge Cañas-Martín et al.
5 citations
Lucid dreaming, where the dreamer becomes aware of being in a dream and often gains control over it, can occur spontaneously or be induced by behavioral, cognitive, or technological methods. This review examines evidence linking lucid dreaming to conditions such as nightmare disorder, depression, anxiety, psychosis, and dissociative states, and discusses possible neurobiological bases for these associations. It also explores contemplative sleep practices like Dream/Sleep Yoga and Yoga Nidrâ that train lucid states during sleep. Potential drawbacks of lucid dreaming interventions are outlined, along with impacts on individuals without clinical conditions, contributing to understanding its therapeutic possibilities and implications.
Frontiers in Psychology
January 1, 2024
Garret Yount, Sitara Taddeo, Tadas Stumbrys et al.
1 citation
Salivary alpha-amylase (sAA), a marker of autonomic nervous system activity, was measured in 20 participants with PTSD symptoms who attended a six-day workshop teaching dreamwork and lucidity techniques. Participants collected saliva immediately upon waking and 30 minutes later; healing lucid dreams were those where the dreamer attained lucidity and intended a healing experience. Among four participants with usable samples who experienced healing lucid dreams, statistical tests were not significant due to low power, though nonsignificant positive associations appeared between more healing lucid dreams and increased waking sAA slope. The results did not show a consistent effect, and larger samples with stricter saliva collection controls are needed.
The International Journal of Transpersonal Studies
October 31, 2022
Tadas Stumbrys
People who have lucid dreams—dreams in which they know they are dreaming—may experience spiritual growth, especially when those dreams include mystical qualities. In an online survey of 471 respondents, 95% of whom had experienced lucid dreams and 65% were frequent lucid dreamers, spiritual transcendence was positively linked to both how often people had lucid dreams and how mystical those dreams felt. The findings suggest that recurrent lucid dreams and mystical experiences within them could foster spiritual development, possibly making lucid dreaming a viable spiritual practice, particularly in secular contexts. Because the research is correlational, causality cannot be inferred, and further longitudinal studies are needed.
October 16, 2013
Tadas Stumbrys, Daniel Erlacher, M. Schredl
Eight-point scales for measuring how often people have lucid dreams and nightmares are reliable. When 93 sport students completed the scales twice, four weeks apart, the lucid dream frequency scale showed a test-retest reliability of r = 0.89 and the nightmare frequency scale a reliability of r = 0.75. Both scales are dependable tools for assessing individual differences in these dream experiences.
Consciousness and Cognition
September 1, 2012
Tadas Stumbrys, Daniel Erlacher, Melanie Schädlich et al.
Lucid dreaming, where the dreamer is aware of dreaming and can often influence the dream, is a learnable skill. A systematic review of 35 studies (11 in sleep laboratories, 24 in the field) evaluated techniques for inducing lucid dreams. Most studies (26) tested cognitive techniques, 11 used external stimulation, and one applied a drug. The overall methodological quality of the studies was low. No induction technique was verified to reliably and consistently induce lucid dreams, though some appeared promising. The review presents a taxonomy of methods and discusses methodological issues and future research directions.