Lucid dreams induced via multisensory stimulation
Lucid dreams, when a person is aware they're dreaming and can often control them, could be induced in people who rarely experience them
Lucid dreams, where individuals are aware they are dreaming and can sometimes control the dream's content, have fascinated scientist Tobi Matzek from the University of Montreal. In a recent study, Matzek and their team discovered that lucid dreams can be induced in some people through cognitive and multisensory stimulation.
The researchers recruited 60 healthy adult participants who had experienced lucid dreams before. These individuals were divided into three groups and underwent two morning sessions of 2.5 hours each in labs located in Italy, Canada, or the Netherlands. Before each nap, the participants received half an hour of lucidity training, which involved lying in bed with their eyes closed while an EEG headband delivered red-light flashes, played a short melody, and administered soft vibrations on their forehead.
Simultaneously, a soundtrack guided them to focus on these sensations and become aware of any differences between the feelings during this experience and normal wakefulness.
During one of the two naps, the sensory stimulations were repeated when the participants entered the rapid eye movement (REM) stage of sleep, the phase of sleep associated with the most vivid dreams. The participants were taught to move their eyes from left to right to signal a lucid dream had begun and was ongoing. Approximately half of the participants signaled the start of a lucid dream during the REM stage, as confirmed by the EEG readings. Following waking, these individuals reported having had a lucid dream.
Matzek's team found that the training led to a relatively high rate of lucid dreaming, even in people who had rarely experienced lucid dreams before. Kristoffer Appel, a researcher at the Institute of Sleep and Dream Technologies in Germany, called the results "remarkable," suggesting that lucidity is more trainable on short notice than previously believed.
Lucid dreams have been associated with various potential benefits, such as boosting creativity, problem-solving, and treating nightmares in individuals with post-traumatic stress disorder.
Written by urgent.news from New Scientist's reporting — not their text. Machine-written — may contain errors; check the original before relying on it.
