Frequent Lucid Dreaming Is Associated with Meditation Practice Styles, Meta-Awareness, and Trait Mindfulness.

Lucid dreaming—becoming aware that one is dreaming—shares features with mindfulness, the moment-to-moment awareness of experience, and with meta-awareness, the ability to notice the current content of one's own mental state. An online survey of 635 people found that daily frequent meditators report more lucid dreams than non-frequent meditators, but weekly frequent meditators do not. Open monitoring styles of meditation are positively associated with lucid dreaming. Meta-awareness is higher among meditators and weekly lucid dreamers. Frequent lucid dreaming is also linked to a non-reactive stance and experiences of transcendence. The findings indicate a positive relationship between specific meditation practices and lucid dreaming, and highlight meta-awareness as a cognitive process connecting meditation, mindfulness, and lucid dreaming.

Study at a glance

Abstract

Lucid dreaming involves becoming aware that one’s current experience is a dream, which has similarities with the notion of mindfulness—becoming aware of moment-to-moment changes in experience. Additionally, meta-awareness, the ability to explicitly notice the current content of one’s own mental state, has also been proposed to play an important role both in lucid dreaming and mindfulness meditation practices. However, research has shown conflicting strengths of associations between mindfulness, meditation, and lucid dreaming frequency, and the link between lucid dreaming and meta-awareness has not yet been empirically studied. This study evaluated the associations between lucid dreaming frequency and different meditation practice styles, mindfulness traits, and individual differences in meta-awareness through an online survey (n = 635). The results suggest that daily frequent meditators experience more lucid dreams than non-frequent meditators. However, weekly frequent meditators did not have a higher lucid dreaming frequency. A positive association was observed between open monitoring styles of meditation and lucid dreaming. The findings also indicate that meta-awareness is higher for meditators and weekly lucid dreamers. Furthermore, frequent lucid dreaming was commonly associated with a non-reactive stance and experiencing transcendence. Overall, the findings suggest a positive relationship between specific meditation practices and lucid dreaming as well as the importance of meta-awareness as a cognitive process linking meditation, mindfulness, and lucid dreaming.