Neuroscience and biobehavioral reviews • August 1, 2026 • Clarita Bonamino, Clara Hausen, Matthew D Sacchet
Consciousness can persist, transform, and dissolve across wakefulness, sleep, and advanced meditation. An interdisciplinary perspective reveals converging phenomena that challenge binary accounts of consciousness and highlight its graded, dynamic, and trainable nature. The interface of advanced meditation, sleep, and consciousness science constitutes a promising frontier for understanding the structure, dynamics, and limits of conscious experience. Advanced meditation offers cultivable means for modulating these dimensions, while sleep provides recurring biological states in which awareness, experiential content, embodiment, and sensory input coupling systematically dissociate. Evidence from these domains highlights states such as deep absorption meditation, cessations, lucid dreaming, sleep-wake transitions, and clear light sleep that challenge binary distinctions between consciousness and unconsciousness. An integrated, mixed-methods perspective enables a more nuanced examination of graded and minimal forms of conscious experience.
Frontiers in Sleep • June 24, 2026 • Adam Haar Horowitz, Karen Konkoly, Michelle Carr et al.
A pilot study tested whether targeted dream incubation (TDI) at sleep onset can direct dream content into subsequent REM sleep. Eleven participants received verbal prompts about a tree and were awakened serially at sleep onset, then during a daytime nap. All 11 successfully incubated the target theme at sleep onset. Of the eight who entered REM sleep, four (50%) incorporated the tree into their first REM dream, and five (63%) did so in later REM dreams. Results suggest TDI may influence REM dream content, offering a method to explore how dream generation and function may be continuous or differ across sleep stages.
Quality in Sport • June 20, 2026 • Arkadiusz Adam Psiuk
Motor learning in sports benefits from both physical practice and sleep-dependent memory consolidation. Waking motor imagery engages brain networks similar to actual movement, while slow-wave sleep and REM sleep support procedural memory through neural replay. Lucid dreaming—awareness during sleep—may allow mental rehearsal that partially reactivates prefrontal regions and shows physiological correlates of dreamed movement. Preliminary evidence suggests lucid dream practice can improve waking performance comparably to waking mental practice. It offers a low-physical-load tool for rehabilitation, tapering, and pre-competition stress management, though low lucid dream frequency, variable induction reliability, and few controlled trials in elite athletes call for cautious use.
Journal of the Society for Psychical Research • June 12, 2026 • Sabine Rabourdin, Damien Roy, Claude Berghmans
Out-of-body experiences (OBEs) are phenomena where consciousness seems separate from the physical body, reported for centuries in spiritual traditions and now studied in neuroscience, psychology, and anthropology. This literature review presents scientific research and explanatory approaches to OBEs, which typically occur during altered states like sleep, meditation, hypnosis, psychotropic substance use, lucid dreams, sleep paralysis, or intense stress. Common descriptions include floating sensations, panoramic vision, altered body perception, and feeling of free movement. Despite advances, OBEs remain difficult to study rigorously, with no consensus on their origin and ununified results across disciplines. The discussion calls for a more precise classification grid and suggests advanced methodologies could provide new insights.
Religions • February 24, 2026 • Youngsun Yang
Liminal states of consciousness such as lucid dreaming and out-of-body experiences (OBEs) are not merely odd psychological events but were deliberately cultivated in Indian religious and philosophical traditions as 'architectures of liminality' to investigate self, consciousness, and reality. A comparative analysis of Vedāntic, Yogic, Buddhist, and Jain systems reveals a spectrum of interpretations: from Buddhism's mind-only projection model in dream yoga to Jainism's subtle-material interaction model in karmic ontology, and from modern neuroscience's embodied cognition to classical Indian disembodied consciousness theories. Understanding these states requires integrating first-person reports with their soteriological, ritual, and metaphysical contexts, challenging reductionist approaches in consciousness studies.
Consciousness and Cognition • February 11, 2026 • Teresa Campillo-ferrer, Antonella Iadarola, Ramona Cordani et al.
Unusual bodily experiences (UBEs)—illusory perceptions such as floating, body distortions, or out-of-body sensations—can occur during meditation and sleep. In a controlled sleep laboratory, 20 of 35 healthy participants reported 36 UBEs, primarily during meditation (wakefulness) but also during arousals, REM sleep, and non-REM sleep. Electroencephalography (EEG) analyses revealed that UBEs emerge during intermediate states of consciousness that combine features of wakefulness and sleep. Specifically, UBEs were associated with EEG reactivation: increased high-frequency activity (beta and gamma) and decreased low-frequency activity (delta and theta), especially around temporal regions. These findings offer new insights into the neural correlates of self-consciousness and body perception across sleep and wakefulness.
June 20, 2025 • Daniel Morris, Blaise Elliott, Susana G. Torres‐platas et al.
preprint
Combining virtual reality (VR) with lucid dreaming—where a person knows they are dreaming—can create more profound experiences than VR alone. In this study, four frequent lucid dreamers experienced a VR simulation called Ripple, which previously reduced self-other boundaries and enhanced feelings of interconnectedness. Afterward, during REM sleep, sounds from Ripple were played quietly. Three participants had lucid dreams about Ripple, and all four reported dreams containing elements of the VR experience. Lucid dreams were validated in real time via physiological signals. The findings confirm that people can have lucid dreams that recapitulate prior VR experiences, suggesting a synergistic benefit for immersive exploration.
Explore (New York, N.Y.) • June 4, 2025 • Jenny Moix, Samantha Baldaccini, Marta Isern
Out-of-body experiences (OBEs) can occur spontaneously, be self-induced, or triggered by methods such as sleep paralysis or lucid dreaming. A scoping review of 87 publications from 1987 to 2024 found that reactions to OBEs vary widely, with some people fearing recurrence and others welcoming them. OBEs are highly idiosyncratic and often feel intensely real. Explanatory hypotheses include psychological, physiological, and non-local consciousness perspectives. The phenomenon is complex and requires further study to normalize and expand the current conception of consciousness.
Journal of sleep research • June 1, 2025 • Jennifer M Mundt, Kristi E Pruiksma, Karen R Konkoly et al. • 7 citations
A small trial tested cognitive behavioral therapy for nightmares (CBT-N), adapted for people with narcolepsy, with or without targeted lucidity reactivation (TLR) to enhance lucid dreaming. Six adults who had frequent nightmares (at least 3 per week) received seven treatment sessions. Nightmare frequency dropped from an average of 8.38 per week to 2.25 per week, a large improvement. Nightmare severity and symptoms such as sleep paralysis, hallucinations, and dream enactment also improved. The three participants who received TLR all recalled dreams related to their rescripted nightmare. Participants reported reduced shame and anxiety about sleep and nightmares. The findings offer preliminary evidence that CBT-N and TLR may help manage narcolepsy-related nightmares.
The Journal of neuroscience : the official journal of the Society for Neuroscience • May 14, 2025 • Çağatay Demirel, Jarrod Gott, Kristoffer Appel et al. • 8 citations
Lucid dreaming, where a person becomes aware they are dreaming, is linked to REM sleep. To overcome previous research limitations, a new preprocessing pipeline was applied to pooled EEG data from multiple labs. Sensor-level differences between lucid and nonlucid REM sleep were minimal, but source-level analysis revealed reduced beta power (12-30 Hz) in right central and parietal areas, including the temporoparietal junction, during lucid dreaming. Alpha-band (8-12 Hz) connectivity increased compared to nonlucid REM sleep. During eye signaling of lucidity, gamma1 power (30-36 Hz) increased in right temporo-occipital regions, including the precuneus, and interhemispheric gamma1 connectivity rose. These patterns suggest shifts in network communication underlying changes in perception, self-awareness, and cognitive control.
Current biology : CB • April 12, 2021 • Karen R Konkoly, Kristoffer Appel, Emma Chabani et al. • 126 citations
People who are asleep and having a lucid dream—aware that they are dreaming—can perceive questions from an experimenter and answer them in real time using eye movements and facial muscle contractions. In a study of 36 individuals during REM sleep, including frequent lucid dreamers, a novice, and a patient with narcolepsy, participants performed perceptual analysis of new information, held information in working memory, computed simple answers, and gave volitional replies. Correct answers occurred on 29 occasions across 6 individuals, documented by four independent laboratories. This two-way communication channel allows real-time interrogation of dream cognition and characteristics.
Scientific Reports • December 6, 2018 • Benjamin Baird, Anna Castelnovo, Olivia Gosseries et al. • 74 citations
People who have frequent lucid dreams—three or more per week—show stronger functional connections between the left anterior prefrontal cortex and several brain regions, including the angular gyrus, middle temporal gyrus, and inferior frontal gyrus, compared to people who rarely or never lucid dream. These connections involve areas that are normally less active during sleep. No differences in brain structure were found. The findings suggest that frequent lucid dreaming is linked to how certain brain networks communicate, not to structural differences.
SLEEP • February 27, 2015 • Pauline Dodet, Mario Chávez, Smaranda Leu‐semenescu et al. • 115 citations
People with narcolepsy are far more likely to experience lucid dreaming—being aware that they are dreaming while still asleep—than healthy individuals. In a case-control study, 77.4% of 53 narcolepsy patients reported having lucid dreams, compared to 49.1% of 53 controls, averaging 7.6 lucid dreams per month versus 0.3. During monitored naps, 7 of 12 narcoleptic frequent lucid dreamers (but none of 5 controls) successfully signaled from a lucid REM sleep state. Brain wave analysis showed lower delta, theta, and alpha power and reduced frontal coherence during lucid versus non-lucid REM sleep, along with longer REM duration. The findings suggest narcolepsy provides a useful model for studying lucid dreaming.
Journal of Neuroscience • January 21, 2015 • Elisa Filevich, Martin Dresler, Timothy R. Brick et al. • 89 citations
People who frequently have lucid dreams—dreams in which they know they are dreaming—show structural and functional differences in a brain region linked to self-reflection and thought monitoring. The frontopolar cortex (BA9/10) contained more gray matter in high-lucidity dreamers compared with low-lucidity dreamers, and this same area showed stronger activity during a thought-monitoring task in the high-lucidity group. The findings suggest that lucid dreaming and metacognitive abilities share common neural systems, offering insight into how higher-order consciousness can arise during sleep.
The American Journal of Psychology • April 21, 2014 • 104 citations
Lucid dreamers are aware they are dreaming. An online survey of 684 respondents, 571 of whom were lucid dreamers (83.5%), found that lucid dreams most often begin spontaneously in adolescence and last about 14 minutes on average. Dreamers are typically active, planning actions like flying, talking with dream characters, or having sex, but often fail to remember or execute these intentions due to awakening or obstacles in the dream. The frequency of lucid dreaming was the strongest predictor of dream phenomenology, with some differences linked to age, gender, and whether the dreamer was natural or self-trained.
SLEEP • June 29, 2012 • 271 citations
Lucid dreaming—being aware that one is dreaming—is associated with reactivation of brain areas that are normally deactivated during REM sleep. In one experienced lucid dreamer who had two episodes of verified lucid REM sleep long enough for fMRI analysis, the bilateral precuneus, cuneus, parietal lobules, and prefrontal and occipito-temporal cortices showed strong activation compared with non-lucid REM sleep. This pattern may explain the return of reflective cognitive abilities that characterize lucid dreaming.
Journal of Sleep Research • May 29, 2012 • 76 citations
Lucid dreaming is common in young children, with its incidence dropping around age 16. A survey of students aged 6-19 found that those in higher-level schools reported more lucid dreams than those in lower-level schools. The authors propose a link between the natural occurrence of lucid dreaming and brain maturation, considering methodological issues.
Perceptual and Motor Skills • February 1, 2011 • Michael Schredl, Daniel Erlacher • 81 citations
About half (51%) of a representative sample of 919 German adults reported having had at least one lucid dream—a dream in which the person knows they are dreaming. Women recalled lucid dreams significantly more often than men, and lucid dream recall decreased with age. These differences may be explained by overall dream recall frequency, which correlated moderately (r = .57) with lucid dream frequency. Education, marital status, and income showed no relationship with how often people had lucid dreams. The high prevalence suggests that laboratory research on lucid dreams could further understanding of sleep, dreaming, and consciousness.
The Sport Psychologist • June 1, 2010 • 76 citations
Practicing a motor task during a lucid dream can improve subsequent waking performance. In a pilot study, 40 participants were assigned to a lucid dream practice group, a physical practice group, or a control group. The task was tossing coins into a cup. Seven of the 20 volunteers in the lucid dream group successfully practiced the task in a lucid dream and showed a performance improvement from 3.7 to 5.3 successful tosses out of 20, while the other 13 in that group showed no improvement (from 3.4 to 2.9). The physical practice group improved the most, followed by the successful lucid dream group; both improved significantly more than the nondreaming and control groups. The design cannot distinguish whether specific motor learning or unspecific motivation caused the improvement.
Psychotherapy and Psychosomatics • February 18, 2010 • Antonio Zadra, Robert O. Pihl • 120 citations
Lucid dreaming, where a person becomes aware they are dreaming while still asleep, can help treat recurrent nightmares. In five cases, treatments combining relaxation, guided imagery, and lucid dream induction, or induction alone, eliminated nightmares in four people and reduced their intensity and frequency in the fifth over a one-year follow-up. These results align with earlier reports and suggest that training in lucid dreaming has therapeutic value, though it remains unclear whether the benefit comes from lucidity itself or the ability to change the dream.
SLEEP • September 1, 2009 • Ursula Voss, R. Holzmann, Inka Tuin et al. • 443 citations
Lucid dreaming combines hallucinatory dream activity with wake-like reflective awareness and control. Electrophysiological recordings from six trained student volunteers show that lucid dreaming shares REM-like power in delta and theta frequency bands but exhibits higher-than-REM activity in the gamma band, peaking around 40 Hz, especially in frontal and frontolateral regions. Overall brain coherence during lucid dreaming resembles waking levels and is significantly higher than in REM sleep across the analyzed spectrum; waking shows high alpha coherence, while lucid dreaming shows increased delta and theta coherence, largest in frontolateral and frontal areas. These findings suggest lucid dreaming is a hybrid state of consciousness with measurable physiological differences from both waking and REM sleep.
Psychotherapy and Psychosomatics • January 1, 2006 • 155 citations
A pilot study tested lucid dreaming treatment (LDT) for chronic nightmares. Twenty-three nightmare sufferers were randomly assigned to an individual LDT session, a group LDT session, or a waiting list. Twelve weeks later, nightmare frequency decreased in both treatment groups. Sleep quality and posttraumatic stress disorder symptom severity showed no significant changes. Becoming lucid during nightmares was not necessary for the reduction in nightmare frequency. The key therapeutic component—exposure, mastery, or lucidity—remains unclear.
Advances in consciousness research • February 15, 2000 • Stephen LaBerge, Donald J. Degracia • 77 citations
Lucid dreaming, like all conscious experience, varies greatly between individuals due to a combination of anatomical, physiological, and psychological factors. Anatomical limits include breath and sensory system development; physiological factors include sleep and REM sleep needs, along with inborn activation and damping tendencies; psychological variation arises from recent and long-term experiences, habits of interacting with the environment, and assumptions about how the world works. The quoted passages do not support any conclusions about the nature of eroticism in lucid dreaming, only that the experience itself is subject to individual variation.
Perceptual and Motor Skills • June 1, 1981 • 237 citations
Lucid dreaming—dreaming while aware that one is dreaming—was verified in five selected subjects who signaled that they knew they were dreaming while continuing to dream during unambiguous REM sleep. The signals were specific dream actions with observable physical counterparts, performed according to pre-sleep agreement. This signaling ability allows proficient lucid dreamers to conduct dream experiments, marking the exact timing of dream events to enable precise psychophysiological correlations and systematic hypothesis testing.