On Moving the Eyes to Flag Lucid Dreaming
Frontiers in Neuroscience April 15, 2020 DOI: 10.3389/fnins.2020.00361 (opens in new tab)
Study at a glance
AI-extracted from the abstract| Characteristics | Theoretical or philosophical paper Peer reviewed |
|---|---|
| Topics | Lucid dreaming Dreaming |
| Keywords | Scanning hypothesis Eye movement Dream imagery |
| Key points | Argues that recording lucid dreaming via pre-agreed eye movements (PAEM) faces unresolved issues, including inconsistent evidence for the scanning hypothesis and uncertainty about voluntary eye control during pure REM sleep, with alpha bursts suggesting some PAEM may occur during REM-to-waking transitions. |
Abstract
IntroductionLucid dreaming (LD) started to be scientifically investigated through instructingdreamers to move their eyes as soon as they become lucid (Hearn, 1978; Laberge et al.,1981). LD signaling through pre-agreed eye movements (PAEM) is possible becauseeye muscles are exempt from the muscular atonia that accompanies REM sleep(Aserinsky and Kleitman, 1953; Jouvet, 1962). In addition, it is hypothesized that eyemovements during REM sleep relate to dreaming imagery (Roffwarg et al., 1962);however, studies that compared the direction of eye movements with dream recallyielded inconsistent results (for review see Arnulf, 2011). Moreover, it is not yet clearwhether it is physiologically possible to move the eyes consciously and voluntarilyduring a pure REM sleep episode, as required for the PAEM. Consistently, it was foundthat frontal gamma activity (~40Hz) increases during LD, suggesting that LD is amixture of REM sleep and waking (Mota-Rolim et al., 2008; Voss et al., 2009).Besides, alpha bursts (~10Hz) were preliminary observed during some PAEM (Mota-Rolim, 2012), which suggests that, in these cases, the PAEM may be performed in atransition from REM sleep to waking. Finally, despite being the most used technique torecord LD, there is still no consensus regarding how to apply the PAEM in the lab. Inthis article, I will delve into the issues of recording LD through PAEM.