Skip to content

Self-perceived effects of lucid dreaming on mental and physical health

Daniel Erlacher, Michael Schredl, Tadas Stumbrys

BORIS October 9, 2020 DOI: 10.11588/ijodr.2020.2.75952 (opens in new tab)

Relevant Not relevant

Study at a glance

AI-extracted from the abstract
Characteristics Cross-sectional survey Randomized Qualitative Peer reviewed
Sample size 386
Population Participants who had lucid dream experiences
Topics Lucid dreaming Meditation Dreaming
Keywords Mental health Physical health Trait Test biology Clinical psychology Psychotherapist
Citations 12
Key findings About 90% of participants reported some benefit of lucid dreams on their waking life, including mental and physical health, and this benefit was related to higher lucid dream frequency, trait mindfulness, and spirituality.

Abstract

Anecdotal evidence that lucid dreaming might contribute to mental and physical health has been widely reported in the literature. Empirical research, though, is scarce. A brief questionnaire eliciting self-perceived benefits of lucid dreaming on mental and physical health had been completed by 386 participants who had lucid dream experiences. About 90% of the participants reported some benefit of lucid dreams on their waking life including mental and physical health. This benefit was related to higher lucid dream frequency, trait mindfulness, and spirituality. These promising results should encourage researchers to develop a manualized lucid dream therapy and test its effect on physical and mental health in a randomized waiting-list pre-post design. Qualitative research can answer questions regarding the specific mechanisms, i.e., how does lucid dreaming contribute to well-being in waking life in the long run.

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

Cited by 10

and 5 more in the library

Related reading

Explore topics

Lucid dreaming Meditation Dreaming