Journal of Sleep Research
April 1, 2026
Severin Ableidinger, Luigi De Gennaro, Sérgio Mota-Rolim et al.
During lucid dreaming (LD), dreamers are aware that they are dreaming and may be able to influence the oneiric content. There has been recent debate about the relative importance of the ability to influence the dream and having agency over the pure awareness of dreaming. To underline this, we examined the associations of lucid dreams without agency (LD-Ag) and lucid dreams with agency (LD + Ag)...
Journal of Sleep Research
February 1, 2026
Courtney J Bolstad, Bjørn Bjorvatn, Ngan Yin Chan et al.
The present study aimed to describe the prevalence rates of frequent (i.e., at least weekly) dream recall and nightmares with consideration for differences in age, gender and sleep duration in 16 countries using equivalent assessment methods. The study sample included 15,854 participants (69.9% women) aged 18-99 years (M = 42.39, SD = 16.43) collected by the International COVID-19 Sleep Study...
Journal of Psychopharmacology
December 4, 2025
Natan Silva-Costa, Jéssica Andrade Pessoa, Kátia Cristina Andrade et al.
Background: Psychedelics induce profound changes in perception and thinking; however, little is known about the neural mechanisms and prediction of these effects. Aims: Investigating ayahuasca-induced experiences, mind-wandering, and electroencephalogram (EEG) oscillations, beyond the prediction of subjective experiences by baseline EEG. Methods: In a randomised, double-blind,...
The Journal of neuroscience : the official journal of the Society for Neuroscience
May 14, 2025
Çağatay Demirel, Jarrod Gott, Kristoffer Appel et al.
8 citations
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...
Journal of Sleep Research
October 1, 2024
Courtney J Bolstad, Brigitte Holzinger, Serena Scarpelli et al.
The association between nightmare frequency (NMF) and suicidal ideation (SI) is well known, yet the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on this relation is inconsistent. This study aimed to investigate changes in NMF, SI, and their association during the COVID-19 pandemic. Data were collected in 16 countries using a harmonised questionnaire. The sample included 9328 individuals (4848 women; age...
Brain Sciences
April 25, 2024
Abel A Oldoni, André D Bacchi, Fúlvio R Mendes et al.
4 citations
Lucid dreaming (LD) is a physiological state of consciousness that occurs when dreamers become aware that they are dreaming, and may also control the oneiric content. In the general population, LD is spontaneously rare; thus, there is great interest in its induction. Here, we aim to review the literature on neuropsychopharmacological induction of LD. First, we describe the circadian and...
Journal of Clinical Medicine
June 6, 2023
Maria Eduarda Sodré, Isabel Wießner, Muna Irfan et al.
15 citations
Recent studies have begun to understand sleep not only as a whole-brain process but also as a complex local phenomenon controlled by specific neurotransmitters that act in different neural networks, which is called "local sleep". Moreover, the basic states of human consciousness-wakefulness, sleep onset (N1), light sleep (N2), deep sleep (N3), and rapid eye movement (REM) sleep-can concurrently...
May 16, 2023
William Wong, Kátia C. Andrade, Thomas Andrillon et al.
21 citations
preprint
Magneto/electroencephalography (M/EEG) studies of dreaming are an essential paradigm in the investigation of neurocognitive processes of human consciousness during sleep, but they are limited by the number of observations that can be collected per study. Dream research also involves substantial methodological and conceptual variability, which poses problems for the integration of results. To...
Nature and Science of Sleep
August 1, 2022
Brigitte Holzinger, Franziska Nierwetberg, Frances Chung et al.
16 citations
Purpose: The COVID-19 pandemic affects mental health and sleep, resulting in frequent nightmares. Therefore, identifying factors associated with nightmare frequency is important, as it can indicate mental health issues. The study aimed to investigate increases in nightmare frequency comparing the pre-pandemic and pandemic period, and identify its risk factors. Further, the mediating role of...
PLoS One
2022
P Kelly, Tainá Macêdo, T Felipe et al.
3 citations
The COVID-19 pandemic changed people's lives all over the world. While anxiety and stress decreased sleep quality for most people, an increase in total sleep time was also observed in certain cohorts. Dream recall frequency also increased, especially for nightmares. However, to date, there are no consistent reports focusing on pandemic-related changes in lucid dreaming, a state during which...
Nature and Science of Sleep
2022
Serena Scarpelli, Michael R Nadorff, Bjørn Bjorvatn et al.
A growing number of studies have demonstrated that the coronavirus disease-19 (COVID-19) pandemic has severely affected sleep and dream activity in healthy people. To date, no investigation has examined dream activity specifically in COVID-19 patients. As part of the International COVID-19 Sleep Study (ICOSS), we compared 544 COVID-19 participants with 544 matched-controls. A within-subjects...
Nature and Science of Sleep
2021
Eirin Fränkl, Serena Scarpelli, Michael R Nadorff et al.
Many have reported odd dreams during the pandemic. Given that dreams are associated with mental health, understanding these changes could provide crucial information about wellbeing during the pandemic. This study explored associations between COVID-19 and dream recall frequency (DRF), and related social, health, and mental health factors. We conducted a cross-sectional web survey of 19,355...
PLoS One
July 23, 2020
Joshua M. Martin, Danyal Wainstein Andriano, Natália Bezerra Mota et al.
41 citations
Dream reports collected after rapid eye movement sleep (REM) awakenings are, on average, longer, more vivid, bizarre, emotional and story-like compared to those collected after non-REM. However, a comparison of the word-to-word structural organization of dream reports is lacking, and traditional measures that distinguish REM and non-REM dreaming may be confounded by report length. This problem...
Frontiers in Psychology
2020
Sérgio Mota-Rolim, Kelly Bulkeley, Stephany Campanelli et al.
31 citations
Lucid dreaming (LD) began to be scientifically studied in the last century, but various religions have highlighted the importance of LD in their doctrines for a much longer period. Hindus' manuscripts dating back over 2,000 years ago, for example, divide consciousness in waking, dreaming (including LD), and deep sleep. In the Buddhist tradition, Tibetan monks have been practicing the "Dream...
Frontiers in Neuroscience
May 8, 2019
Sérgio Mota-Rolim, Achilleas Pavlou, George Nascimento et al.
25 citations
One of the main current challenges in lucid dreaming (LD) research is to develop a simple and reliable way to induce it (Stumbrys et al., 2012). This is because, for most people, LD is very pleasurable but also very rare (LaBerge and Rheingold, 1990; Mota-Rolim et al., 2013). Along with its recreational nature, LD also has potential clinical applications, such as the treatment of recurrent...
Neuroscience & Biobehavioral Reviews
March 14, 2019
Benjamin Baird, Sérgio Mota-Rolim, Martin Dresler
196 citations
Lucid dreaming refers to the phenomenon of becoming aware of the fact that one is dreaming during ongoing sleep. Despite having been physiologically validated for decades, the neurobiology of lucid dreaming is still incompletely characterized. Here we review the neuroscientific literature on lucid dreaming, including electroencephalographic, neuroimaging, brain lesion, pharmacological and brain...
Psychological Medicine
June 15, 2018
Fernanda Palhano-Fontes, Dayanna Barreto, Heloisa Onias et al.
827 citations
Abstract Background Recent open-label trials show that psychedelics, such as ayahuasca, hold promise as fast-onset antidepressants in treatment-resistant depression. Methods To test the antidepressant effects of ayahuasca, we conducted a parallel-arm, double-blind randomized placebo-controlled trial in 29 patients with treatment-resistant depression. Patients received a single dose of either...
bioRxiv (Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory)
January 27, 2017
Fernanda Palhano-Fontes, Dayanna Barreto, Heloisa Onias et al.
22 citations
preprint
Abstract Recent open label trials show that psychedelics, such as ayahuasca, hold promise as fast-onset antidepressants in treatment-resistant depression. In order to further test the antidepressant effects of ayahuasca, we conducted a parallel-arm, double-blind randomized placebo-controlled trial in 29 patients with treatment-resistant depression. Patients received a single dose of either...
Frontiers in Psychology
March 8, 2016
Natália B. Mota, Adara Resende, Sérgio Mota-Rolim et al.
38 citations
Dreaming and psychosis share important features, such as intrinsic sense perceptions independent of external stimulation, and a general lack of criticism that is associated with reduced frontal cerebral activity. Awareness of dreaming while a dream is happening defines lucid dreaming (LD), a state in which the prefrontal cortex is more active than during regular dreaming. For this reason, LD...
Medical Hypotheses
July 6, 2013
Sérgio Mota-Rolim, John Fontenele Araújo
50 citations
Several lines of evidence converge to the idea that rapid eye movement sleep (REMS) is a good model to foster our understanding of psychosis. Both REMS and psychosis course with internally generated perceptions and lack of rational judgment, which is attributed to a hyperlimbic activity along with hypofrontality. Interestingly, some individuals can become aware of dreaming during REMS, a...
Frontiers in Human Neuroscience
2013
Sérgio Mota-Rolim, Zé H. Targino, Bryan C. Souza et al.
42 citations
During sleep, humans experience the offline images and sensations that we call dreams, which are typically emotional and lacking in rational judgment of their bizarreness. However, during lucid dreaming (LD), subjects know that they are dreaming, and may control oneiric content. Dreaming and LD features have been studied in North Americans, Europeans and Asians, but not among Brazilians, the...