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)
Study at a glance
AI-extracted from the abstract| Characteristics | Observational cross-sectional survey Peer reviewed |
|---|---|
| Sample size | 10,715 |
| Population | Adults from 16 countries on four continents |
| Topics | Lucid dreaming Dreaming |
| Keywords | Covid‐19 Agency Dreams Long covid Nightmares |
| Key findings | 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.
Comparable studies
Other cross-sectional and survey studies on lucid dreaming, most cited first.
| Study | Year | Design | Participants |
|---|---|---|---|
| The Phenomenology of Lucid Dreaming: An Online Survey Respondents to an online survey about lucid dreams | 2014 | Online survey | n = 684 |
| Frequency of Lucid Dreaming in a Representative German Sample Representative sample of German adults | 2011 | Cross-sectional survey | n = 919 |
| Lucid dreaming: an age‐dependent brain dissociation Students aged 6-19 years | 2012 | Survey | |
| Terror and bliss? Commonalities and distinctions between sleep paralysis, lucid dreaming, and their associations with waking life experiences Adults aged 18–82 years | 2016 | Cross-sectional survey | n = 1,928 |
| Increased Lucid Dreaming Frequency in Narcolepsy Patients diagnosed with narcolepsy and healthy control subjects | 2015 | Cross-sectional study | n = 979 |
Citations in the library
Cites 32
- Lucid Dreaming Verified by Volitional Communication during Rem Sleep Perceptual and Motor Skills June 1, 1981
- The cognitive neuroscience of lucid dreaming Neuroscience & Biobehavioral Reviews March 14, 2019
- Lucid dreaming incidence: A quality effects meta-analysis of 50 years of research Consciousness and Cognition June 20, 2016
- Frequency of Lucid Dreaming in a Representative German Sample Perceptual and Motor Skills February 1, 2011
- My Dream, My Rules: Can Lucid Dreaming Treat Nightmares? Frontiers in Psychology 2019
and 27 more in the library