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.
Comparable studies
Other theoretical and historical papers on lucid dreaming, most cited first.
| Study | Year | Design | Participants |
|---|---|---|---|
| Varieties of Lucid Dreaming Experience | 2000 | Theoretical or philosophical paper | |
| The Neurobiology of Consciousness: Lucid Dreaming Wakes Up | 2009 | Theoretical or philosophical paper | |
| What I make up when I wake up: anti-experience views and narrative fabrication of dreams | 2013 | Theoretical or philosophical paper | |
| New perspectives for the study of lucid dreaming: From brain stimulation to philosophical theories of self-consciousness | 2010 | Theoretical or philosophical paper | |
| Lucid dreaming: Evidence and methodology | 2000 | Theoretical or philosophical paper |
Citations in the library
Cited by 15
- The Dream of God: How Do Religion and Science See Lucid Dreaming and Other Conscious States During Sleep? Frontiers in Psychology 2020
- DREAM: A Dream EEG and Mentation database May 16, 2023
- Awake or Sleeping? Maybe Both… A Review of Sleep-Related Dissociative States. Journal of Clinical Medicine June 6, 2023
- Converging theories on dreaming: Between Freud, predictive processing, and psychedelic research Frontiers in Human Neuroscience February 16, 2023
- A dream EEG and mentation database. Nature Communications August 13, 2025
and 10 more in the library
Cites 24
- Lucid Dreaming: a State of Consciousness with Features of Both Waking and Non-Lucid Dreaming Sleep September 1, 2009
- Neural Correlates of Dream Lucidity Obtained from Contrasting Lucid versus Non-Lucid REM Sleep: A Combined EEG/fMRI Case Study Sleep June 29, 2012
- 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
- Assessing sleep consciousness within subjects using a serial awakening paradigm Frontiers in Psychology 2013
and 19 more in the library