The relationship between the dreamed body and the physical body remains an open question in sleep and dream research. This study examined whether somatosensory stimulation applied during REM sleep modulates the corresponding dream content under controlled conditions. Using a within-subject design, we compared three stimulation modalities-electrical muscular, galvanic vestibular, and haptic...
Abstract During wakefulness, we are used to perceive the environment through our senses, act on it and take these inputs to update our experiences and build the perceptions. When the inputs are not longer accurate or structured, people would sometimes have hallucinatory experiences. Whether such experiences are associated with distinct patterns of thought, and how they relate to large-scale...
Lucid dream control (LDC), the ability to deliberately influence dream experiences during a lucid dream, is central to many theoretical, experimental, and lucid dream clinical applications. Despite its importance, standardized instruments for assessing LDC remain limited, typically treating it as a single, broad construct. This study aimed to develop and provide a preliminary evaluation of the...
Lucid dream control (LDC), the ability to deliberately influence dream experiences during a lucid dream, is central to many theoretical, experimental, and lucid dream clinical applications. Despite its importance, standardized instruments for assessing LDC remain limited, typically treating it as a single, broad construct. This study aimed to develop and validate the Lucid Dream Control...
Abstract Study Objectives Sensory stimulation during rapid eye movement (REM) sleep has been proposed as a method to induce lucidity, yet most approaches rely on distal sensory modalities such as light and sound. We explored whether bodily stimulation targeting the muscle and vestibular systems differentially influences dream incorporation and lucid awareness during REM sleep. Methods 28...
Abstract During lucid dreaming, the dreamer is aware that they are dreaming. In past years, numerous studies have explored the characteristics of lucid dreams, which link lucid dreams to vivid visual perception, positive emotions, and wake-like metacognition and executive functions. To determine brain network activity associated with the conscious experience during lucid dreaming, we analyzed...
Abstract Lucid dream (LD) induction using external sensory stimulation has most commonly relied on distal cues such as lights or auditory signals, with mixed success rates. In this study, we investigated whether more direct bodily stimulation targeting the muscle and vestibular systems could influence LD induction. We compared electrical muscle stimulation (EMS) and galvanic vestibular...
Abstract Lucid dreaming (LD), during which the dreamer is aware that they are dreaming, is frequently induced in laboratory settings by delivering sensory cues during rapid eye movement (REM) sleep. These cues should be incorporated into ongoing dreams and can trigger reflective awareness. This approach relies on the continuity between waking experiences and dream content. In sleep...
Lucid dreaming refers to a dream state in which the dreamers are aware that they are dreaming and may be able to intentionally influence the dream content. Previous studies have shown that lucid dreaming provides a useful model for investigating cognitive processes during dreaming and may also have potential therapeutic applications. However, reliable methods for inducing lucid dreams are still...
STUDY OBJECTIVES: Sensory stimulation during rapid eye movement (REM) sleep has been proposed as a method to induce lucidity, yet most approaches rely on distal sensory modalities such as light and sound. We explored whether bodily stimulation targeting the muscle and vestibular systems differentially influences dream incorporation and lucid awareness during REM sleep. METHODS: 28 participants...
Lucid dreaming (LD), during which the dreamer becomes aware of the dream state, offers a unique opportunity for a variety of applications, including motor practice, personal well-being, and nightmare therapy. However, these applications largely depend on the dreamer's ability to control their dreams. While LD research has traditionally focused on induction techniques to increase dream...
Lucid dreaming (LD) is a state of conscious awareness of the ongoing oneiric state, predominantly linked to REM sleep. Progress in understanding its neurobiological basis has been hindered by small sample sizes, diverse EEG setups, and artifacts like saccadic eye movements. To address these challenges in characterizing the electrophysiological correlates of LD, we introduced an adaptive...
Lucid dreaming (LD), during which the dreamer becomes aware of the dream state, offers a unique opportunity for a variety of applications, including motor practice, personal well-being, and nightmare therapy. However, these applications largely depend on a dreamer's ability to control their dreams. While LD research has traditionally focused on induction techniques to increase dream frequency,...
bioRxivDecember 9, 2024E. Peters, Jakob Pöhlmann, Xin-Lin Wang et al.
preprint
The connection between the dreamed body and the real physical body remains a subject of ongoing investigation. This study explored how the dreamed body responds to somatosensory stimulation of the physical body, aiming to shed light on the sensory processes that shape our dreaming experiences. We employed a novel within-subject design to compare the incorporation of three different types of...
Nightmares, defined as extremely dysphoric dreams, can cause significant distress in everyday life if they occur frequently. Their aetiology is based on a disposition-stress model. As elite athletes often experience high stress levels, the present study investigated factors that might be associated with nightmare frequency in a large cohort of 2297 Swiss elite athletes (1066 women, 1231 men)...
Introduction Lucid dreaming opens the possibility to rehearse sport skills within a dream while sleeping (Peters et al. 2023; Stumbrys et al. 2016). But so far, no induction techniques have been developed to induce reliable lucid dreams. One potential technique is to apply external stimulation while a person is sleeping in order to send a hint into the dream which might enhance lucidity in the...
AbstractThis study aimed to investigate the efficacy of using hypnotic enhancement of auditory suggestion to induce lucid dreams in inexperienced individuals. Lucid dreaming, a state in which the dreamer becomes aware of their dream state, provides opportunities for personal exploration, sports, and clinical applications. However, the rarity of lucid dreams poses a challenge to scientific...
Improving motor performance without physical movements might seem counterintuitive, however, decades of research on mental practice have demonstrated its feasibility. The phenomenon of lucid dreaming – i.e. becoming aware of the current dream state during ongoing sleep – bears some resemblance to mental practice: behaviors such as motor tasks can be intentionally simulated with mental imagery....
Lucid dreaming offers the chance to investigate dreams from within a dream and by real-time dialogue between experimenters and dreamers during REM sleep. This state of consciousness opens a new experimental venue for dream research. However, laboratory study in this field is limited due to the rarity of lucid dreamers. In a previous study, we were able to induce in 50% of the participants a...
In a lucid dream the dreamer is aware of the dream state and can carry out actions deliberately. Lucid dream practice (LDP) is the rehearsal of movements during lucid dreams and constitutes a specific form of mental practice. Previous studies demonstrated that LDP can enhance physical performance. To gain deeper insight into LDP on a qualitative level, sixteen semi-structured interviews were...
Anecdotal evidence that lucid dreaming might contribute to mental and physical health has been widely reported in the literature. Empirical research, though, is scarce. A brief questionnaire eliciting self-perceived benefits of lucid dreaming on mental and physical health had been completed by 386 participants who had lucid dream experiences. About 90% of the participants reported some benefit...
The reliable induction of lucid dreams is a challenge in lucid dream research. In a previous study by our research group we were able to induce in about 50% of the participants a lucid dream in a single sleep laboratory night by combining a wake-up-back-to-bed sleep protocol and a mnemonic technique. In the present study, we extended our previous procedure by additional presentation of an odor...
In addition to a large variety of somatic symptoms, fever also affects cognition, sleep, and mood. In an online survey with 164 participants, 100 fever dream reports were submitted. Fever dreams were more bizarre and more negatively toned and included more references to health and temperature perception compared to "normal" most recent dreams - findings that are in line with the continuity...
Lucid dreaming offers many opportunities to study consciousness processes. However, laboratory research in this area is limited because frequent lucid dreamers are rare. Several studies demonstrated that different methods of induction could increase the number of lucid dreams. In four field studies, a combination of a wake-up-back-to-bed (WBTB) sleep protocol and a mnemonic technique (MILD)...
Abstract Conscious experience varies considerably, not only between wakefulness and sleep but also within sleep. Consciousness during sleep can be rich and vivid in its perceptual content but is typically poor in self-reflective consciousness/meta-consciousness. A notable exception is lucid dreaming: the phenomenon of becoming aware that one is dreaming while continuing to dream during ongoing...