Investigating consciousness in the sleep laboratory – an interdisciplinary perspective on lucid dreaming
Kristoffer Appel, Gordon Pipa, Martin Dresler
April 3, 2018 DOI: 10.1080/03080188.2017.1380468 (opens in new tab)
Study at a glance
AI-extracted from the abstract| Characteristics | Review |
|---|---|
| Topics | Dreaming Lucid dreaming |
| Key findings | Argues that lucid dreaming provides a unique window into metacognitive processes and enables new research approaches across neuroscience, psychotherapy, philosophy, art, and sports sciences. Reviews induction methods from psychology, electrical engineering, and pharmacology, and describes laboratory-based study techniques. |
Abstract
During dreaming, we experience a wake-like hallucinatory reality, however with restricted reflective abilities: in the face of a bizarre dream environment, we do not realize that we are actually dreaming. In contrast, during the rare phenomenon of lucid dreaming, the dreamer gains insight into the current state of mind while staying asleep. This metacognitive insight often enables the dreamer to control own dream actions and the course of the dream narrative. Lucid dreaming allows for radically new methodological and theoretical approaches and has led to new insights in diverse scientific disciplines beyond classical sleep and dream research, including neuroscience, psychotherapy, philosophy, art, and sports sciences. Here, we review past research and the current knowledge on lucid dreaming. We present insights into the scientific work in a sleep laboratory and describe how lucid dreams can be induced through methodologies from diverse academic backgrounds including psychology, electrical engineering and pharmacology.
Comparable studies
Other narrative reviews on lucid dreaming, most cited first.
| Study | Year | Design | Participants |
|---|---|---|---|
| The cognitive neuroscience of lucid dreaming | 2019 | Review | |
| My Dream, My Rules: Can Lucid Dreaming Treat Nightmares? | 2019 | Review | |
| What about dreams? State of the art and open questions | 2022 | Review | |
| The Dream of God: How Do Religion and Science See Lucid Dreaming and Other Conscious States During Sleep? | 2020 | Review | |
| Insight and Dissociation in Lucid Dreaming and Psychosis | 2018 | Review |
Citations in the library
Cited by 18
- Real-time dialogue between experimenters and dreamers during REM sleep. Current Biology April 12, 2021
- Combining presleep cognitive training and REM-sleep stimulation in a laboratory morning nap for lucid dream induction. Psychology of Consciousness Theory Research and Practice April 13, 2020
- Portable Devices to Induce Lucid Dreams—Are They Reliable? Frontiers in Neuroscience May 8, 2019
- Partial memory reinstatement while (lucid) dreaming to change the dream environment. Consciousness and Cognition August 1, 2020
- Inducing signal-verified lucid dreams in 40% of untrained novice lucid dreamers within two nights in a sleep laboratory setting. Consciousness and Cognition August 1, 2020
and 13 more in the library
Cites 37
- 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
- Lucid Dreaming Treatment for Nightmares: A Pilot Study Psychotherapy and Psychosomatics 2006
- Consciousness, dreams and virtual realities Philosophical Psychology 1995
and 32 more in the library