The cognitive neuroscience of lucid dreaming
Neuroscience & Biobehavioral Reviews March 14, 2019 Benjamin Baird, Sérgio Mota‐rolim, Martin Dresler 196 citations
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Benjamin Baird
Department of Psychiatry, Center for Sleep and Consciousness, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, WI, USA.
9 papers in the library · 455 citations · publishing 2018-2025
Papers
Frequent lucid dreaming associated with increased functional connectivity between frontopolar cortex and temporoparietal association areas
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.
Pre-sleep treatment with galantamine stimulates lucid dreaming: A double-blind, placebo-controlled, crossover study
PLoS ONE August 8, 2018 Stephen LaBerge, Kristen Lamarca, Benjamin Baird 59 citations
Taking galantamine, a drug that boosts the brain chemical acetylcholine, significantly increases the chance of having a lucid dream—a dream where the dreamer knows they are dreaming. In a study of 121 people interested in lucid dreaming, 14% reported a lucid dream after a placebo, compared to 27% after a 4 mg dose and 42% after an 8 mg dose. The drug also improved dream recall, sensory vividness, and complexity. Lucid dreams themselves were more vivid, clear, controlled, and emotionally positive than non-lucid dreams. Combining galantamine taken in the last third of the night with a brief awakening and a focused mental technique is one of the most effective ways to induce lucid dreams.
Lucid dreaming occurs in activated rapid eye movement sleep, not a mixture of sleep and wakefulness.
Sleep April 11, 2022 Benjamin Baird, Giulio Tononi, Stephen LaBerge 41 citations
Lucid dreaming is not a hybrid state mixing sleep and wakefulness, as previously claimed based on increased 40 Hz brain activity. The apparent rise in frontolateral 40 Hz power during lucid REM sleep is actually an artifact caused by saccadic spike potentials from heightened eye movement density. In a reanalysis of 14 signal-verified lucid dreams from six participants, lucid REM sleep showed higher REM density than baseline REM sleep, but no difference in 40 Hz power after removing the spike potential artifact. Lucid REM also showed small reductions in low-frequency and beta band power and increased signal complexity, all within normal REM sleep variation. Lucid dreams involve higher physiological activation, including subcortical and cortical measures.
Increased lucid dream frequency in long-term meditators but not following MBSR training.
Psychology of consciousness (Washington, D.C.) March 1, 2019 Benjamin Baird, Brady A Riedner, Melanie Boly et al. 41 citations
Lucid dreaming occurs more often in long-term meditators than in people who do not meditate. Among non-meditators, lucid dream frequency is linked to the ability to put experience into words, while among meditators it is linked to observing and decentering aspects of mindfulness. However, an 8-week mindfulness course did not increase lucid dream frequency. The findings suggest a continuity between awareness during waking and sleeping states and connect meditation training with meta-awareness, but the precise nature of the link remains unclear.
Episodic thought distinguishes spontaneous cognition in waking from REM and NREM sleep.
Consciousness and cognition January 1, 2022 Benjamin Baird, Mariel Kalkach Aparicio, Tariq Alauddin et al. 17 citations
Spontaneous episodic thoughts about the past and future are common during waking but rarely occur during N2 or REM sleep. Analysis of thought reports from 138 participants who underwent experience-sampling while awake and serial awakenings during sleep shows that waking spontaneous thought frequently includes autobiographical planning with a strong bias toward the future. In contrast, dreaming sleep states rarely feature such mental time travel. This suggests that human consciousness differs substantially across the sleep-wake cycle in how it typically engages with episodic past and future events.
Two-Way Communication in Lucid REM Sleep Dreaming.
Trends in cognitive sciences June 1, 2021 Benjamin Baird, Stephen LaBerge, Giulio Tononi 13 citations
Lucid dreamers can use eye movements to report on their dream content in real time during REM sleep, challenging the long-held belief that dreamers are completely isolated from the outside world. Sensory input is not entirely suppressed during sleep. A recent study by Konkoly et al. demonstrates that experimenters can question lucid dreamers during ongoing dreams and explores the feasibility of more extended two-way communication during lucid REM sleep dreaming.
A dream EEG and mentation database.
Nature communications August 13, 2025 William Wong, Rubén Herzog, Kátia Cristine Andrade et al. 10 citations
A new open database, the DREAM database, combines standardized sleep magneto/electroencephalography (M/EEG) recordings with dream reports from 505 participants across 20 datasets, totaling 2,643 awakenings. Each awakening includes at least 20 seconds of high-resolution sleep EEG (≥100 Hz, ≥2 electrodes) and a classification of the sleeper's reported experience. Analyses showed that reports of conscious experiences during sleep can be predicted from objective EEG features in both REM and NREM sleep. The database aims to overcome limitations of small sample sizes and methodological variability in dream research, enabling larger-scale investigations of the neurocognitive basis of dreaming.
Graph Theoretical Analysis of Cortical Networks based on Conscious Experience.
Annual International Conference of the IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society. IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society. Annual International Conference July 1, 2019 Minji Lee, Benjamin Baird, Olivia Gosseries et al. 4 citations
Cortical networks show differences in functional integration and segregation across states of consciousness, but not in overall connectivity. In the beta frequency band, functional integration during wakefulness exceeded that during NREM sleep. In the theta band, functional segregation (transitivity and clustering coefficient) was stronger in NREM sleep without conscious experience than in wakefulness or REM sleep, while the opposite pattern appeared in the beta band. No significant differences in the weighted phase lag index were found among wakefulness, REM sleep with conscious experience, NREM sleep with conscious experience, and NREM sleep without conscious experience. These findings may relate to cortical bistability and contribute to understanding neural correlates of consciousness.