Lucid Dreaming: Not Just Awareness, but Agency.
Severin Ableidinger, Luigi De Gennaro, Sérgio Mota-Rolim, Serena Scarpelli, Courtney J Bolstad, Bjørn Bjorvatn, Colin A Espie, Yves Dauvilliers, Maria Korman, Anne-Marie Landtblom, Giuseppe Plazzi, Kentaro Matsui, Juliana Yordanova, Adrijana Koscec Bjelajac, Catia Reis, Frances Chung, Ilona Merikanto, Yun K Wing, Markku Partinen, Tainá Macêdo, Michael R Nadorff, Brigitte Holzinger
Journal of Sleep Research April 1, 2026 DOI: 10.1111/jsr.70181 (opens in new tab) via PubMed
Summary
AI-generated from the abstractDuring the COVID-19 pandemic, about 30% of people frequently knew they were dreaming (lucid dreaming), and roughly half of those (17%) could influence their dreams (lucid dreaming with agency). Female gender and anxiety symptoms were linked to less ability to influence dreams, while dream recall, nightmares, insomnia, dream enactment behavior, sleep vocalization, short and long COVID, and PTSD were linked to more ability. Older age, dream recall, nightmares, and anxiety were linked to lucid dreaming without agency, while short sleep, being an evening type, and short COVID were linked to less of it. The different patterns suggest lucid dreaming with and without agency may be distinct sleep states, and this is the first study showing COVID-19 and long COVID are associated with lucid dreaming.
Study at a glance
| Characteristics | Observational cross-sectional survey Peer reviewed |
|---|---|
| Sample size | 10,715 |
| Population | Adults from 16 countries on four continents |
| Topics | Lucid dreaming |
| Keywords | Covid‐19 Agency Dreams Long covid |
| Key finding | Lucid dreaming with and without agency show distinct associations with sleep and mental health problems and COVID-19, suggesting they may be separate sleep states. |
Abstract
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) to sleep and mental health problems and long COVID during the pandemic. We collected data in 16 countries on four continents from May to December 2021 on 10,715 subjects. Logistic regression was performed to predict LD-Ag and LD + Ag, with a sample of 8133 participants. We found that 30% of the participants frequently knew they were dreaming during the pandemic. About half of those (17%) reported that they could influence their dreams. Female gender and anxiety symptoms were negatively associated with LD + Ag. Dream recall, nightmares, insomnia, dream enactment behaviour (DEB), sleep vocalisation, short and long COVID and PTSD were positively associated with LD + Ag. Old age, dream recall, nightmares and anxiety symptoms were positively associated with LD-Ag, while short sleep length, being an evening type, and short COVID were negatively associated with LD-Ag. The different associations for LD-Ag and LD + Ag suggest that they may be distinct sleep states. This is also the first study to show that both COVID-19 and long COVID are associated with LD.