Frequent Lucid Dreaming Is Associated with Meditation Practice Styles, Meta-Awareness, and Trait Mindfulness.
Elena Gerhardt, Benjamin Baird
Brain Sciences May 14, 2024 DOI: 10.3390/brainsci14050496 (opens in new tab)
Study at a glance
AI-extracted from the abstract| Characteristics | Observational cross-sectional survey Peer reviewed |
|---|---|
| Sample size | 635 |
| Population | Online survey respondents |
| Topics | Lucid dreaming Meditation Dreaming |
| Keywords | Dream control Nocturnal adventures Meditation practices Specific meditation styles Trait mindfulness Meta-awareness Cultivating awareness |
| Citations | 3 |
| Key findings | Daily frequent meditators experience more lucid dreams than non-frequent meditators, and open monitoring meditation styles are positively associated with lucid dreaming. |
Abstract
Lucid dreaming involves becoming aware that one’s current experience is a dream, which has similarities with the notion of mindfulness—becoming aware of moment-to-moment changes in experience. Additionally, meta-awareness, the ability to explicitly notice the current content of one’s own mental state, has also been proposed to play an important role both in lucid dreaming and mindfulness meditation practices. However, research has shown conflicting strengths of associations between mindfulness, meditation, and lucid dreaming frequency, and the link between lucid dreaming and meta-awareness has not yet been empirically studied. This study evaluated the associations between lucid dreaming frequency and different meditation practice styles, mindfulness traits, and individual differences in meta-awareness through an online survey (n = 635). The results suggest that daily frequent meditators experience more lucid dreams than non-frequent meditators. However, weekly frequent meditators did not have a higher lucid dreaming frequency. A positive association was observed between open monitoring styles of meditation and lucid dreaming. The findings also indicate that meta-awareness is higher for meditators and weekly lucid dreamers. Furthermore, frequent lucid dreaming was commonly associated with a non-reactive stance and experiencing transcendence. Overall, the findings suggest a positive relationship between specific meditation practices and lucid dreaming as well as the importance of meta-awareness as a cognitive process linking meditation, mindfulness, and lucid dreaming.
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 4
- Electrophysiological Correlates of Lucid Dreaming: Sensor and Source Level Signatures. Journal of Neuroscience May 14, 2025
- Virtual reality as a metacognitive training tool for lucid dreaming Frontiers in Psychology September 28, 2026
- A narrative review on the neurobiology of lucid dreaming: mechanisms and therapeutic potential. Annals of Medicine and Surgery January 21, 2026
- Distinguishing out-of-body experiences from lucid dreaming: a phenomenological analysis. Frontiers in Psychology September 15, 2025
Cites 29
- Using Self-Report Assessment Methods to Explore Facets of Mindfulness Assessment January 27, 2006
- Mindfulness: A proposed operational definition. Clinical Psychology Science and Practice 2004
- The toronto mindfulness scale: Development and validation Journal of Clinical Psychology 2006
- Investigating the phenomenological matrix of mindfulness-related practices from a neurocognitive perspective. American Psychologist October 1, 2015
- Effects of Meditation Experience on Functional Connectivity of Distributed Brain Networks Frontiers in Human Neuroscience 2012
and 24 more in the library