Inducing signal-verified lucid dreams in 40% of untrained novice lucid dreamers within two nights in a sleep laboratory setting.
Consciousness and cognition – August 01, 2020
Source: PubMed
Summary
Lucid dreams were successfully induced in 50% of naïve subjects using a simplified methodology. In a controlled sleep laboratory with 20 participants, after six hours of sleep, subjects were awakened during REM sleep and tasked cognitively before returning to sleep. Ten participants reported experiencing a lucid dream, with eight of them providing a clear eye signal verified by electrooculogram readings. This study effectively replicated previous findings on lucid dream induction while streamlining the original protocol for enhanced accessibility.
Abstract
Dreams in which the dreamer is aware of the dream state (lucid dreams, LD) are difficult to induce in naïve subjects in-laboratory. Recently, Stumbrys and Erlacher (2014) used a combination of existing induction techniques together with a self-developed experiment protocol and achieved comparatively high LD induction rates. In this study, we simplified their methodology slightly and repeated their experiment with twenty naïve subjects who spent one or two nights in our sleep laboratory. After about six hours of sleep, they were woken up during REM sleep and engaged in a series of cognitive tasks before going back to bed. Ten subjects reported a LD during the following period of sleep in one of the nights. Eight of these subjects gave a predefined eye signal, which was clearly visible in the electrooculogram during REM sleep. In summary, we replicated Stumbrys and Erlacher's results using a simplified version of their induction protocol.