Recall of a specific word list in lucid dreams – an explorative online study

Lucid dreamers can recall about 5 out of 7 previously memorized words while dreaming, though recall rates varied widely from none to all words. Four of the twelve participants could not complete the task within the dream, suggesting that the recall rate among those who did was relatively high. The study was conducted at home, and the authors recommend future sleep laboratory studies to control for confounding factors. They also propose investigating lucid dream rehearsal as a potential method for active learning during sleep.

Study at a glance

Abstract

The study of lucid dreams is a very sophisticated method to explore the ongoing dream from a first person perspective. The present study explores the ability of lucid dreamers to recall previously learned words in their dreams. For this field study 12 lucid dreamers finished the experimental protocol in a home setting. The results indicate that lucid dreamers are able to recall about 5 out of 7 previously memorised words in their dreams. The recall rate showed a high variation from none to all words. Taking into account that four of the participants couldn’t finish the task within the dream the recall rate in the lucid dream seems to be rather high. To control for confounding factors it is suggested to conduct in the future sleep laboratory studies. It also will be promising to study the impact of a lucid dream rehearsal in order to find out if this might be a new method for active learning during the night.