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.
Dreaming
June 1, 2006
Brigitte Holzinger, Stephen LaBerge, Lynne Levitan
69 citations
In lucid dreams, where dreamers are aware they are dreaming, brain activity in the beta-1 frequency band (13–19 Hz) is higher in both parietal regions compared to nonlucid REM sleep. The ratio of frontal to parietal beta-1 activity shifts from 1 to 1.16 in nonlucid dreams to 1 to 1.77 in lucid dreams. The greatest increase tends to occur in the left parietal lobe (P3), an area linked to semantic understanding and self-awareness. Seven men and four women experienced in lucid dreaming were recorded over two nights, with lucidity confirmed by dream reports and eye-movement signals in response to light stimuli.
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.
Dreaming
September 1, 1995
Stephen LaBerge, Lynne Levitan
49 citations
The text provided does not contain enough information to produce a summary.
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.
January 1, 1988
Stephen LaBerge
27 citations
The text discusses the concept of lucid dreaming through a historical lens, examining its intersections with psychoanalysis, psychology, medicine, and traditional medicine. It also explores how lucid dreaming appears in literature, particularly in magical realism and the works of Gabriel García Márquez.
American Psychological Association eBooks
October 27, 2004
Stephen LaBerge, Jayne Gackenbach
25 citations
No Summary
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.
American Psychological Association eBooks
July 29, 2013
Stephen LaBerge
11 citations
No Summary
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.
bioRxiv Preprint Server
April 9, 2024
Çağatay Demirel, Jarrod Gott, Kristoffer Appel et al.
2 citations
preprint
Lucid dreaming, a state of conscious awareness during REM sleep, is associated with specific brain activity patterns. Compared to non-lucid REM sleep, EEG sensor-level differences were few. However, source-level analysis revealed increased gamma1 power (30-36 Hz) in left-hemispheric temporal areas during lucid dreaming, potentially reflecting verbal insight processes, and in right temporo-occipital regions including the precuneus around the onset of lucid eye signaling, linked to self-referential thinking. Beta power (12-30 Hz) decreased in right central and parietal areas including the temporo-parietal junction, possibly related to conscious reality assessment. Alpha-band (8-12 Hz) functional connectivity increased, contrasting with psychedelic states and highlighting enhanced self-awareness.