The Incredible Past, Present, and Potential Future of Lucid Dreaming

            For many, lucid dreaming sounds straight out of a science fiction movie. People are quick to believe lucid dreaming is much more than just allowing oneself to do unworldly things in a dream. When one investigates the depths and possibilities of lucid dreaming, great findings and possibilities seem to appear. Shockingly and excitingly for the purposes of lucid dreaming research, “approximately eight out of 10 people have had a lucid dream, in which they were conscious of their dreaming, at least once” (Voss).

            First, let’s define lucid dreaming. Lucid dreaming is when someone understands they are asleep and dreaming and can stay asleep and continue to dream and sometimes control their dream (Konkoly et. al.). Lucid dreams occur most often in REM sleep and can occur for varying amounts of time. One of the big issues for dream researchers has been getting good data or results (Konkoly et. al.). Until recently, dream researchers had to rely on the dreamer’s recollection of the dream once they woke up. Recently, researchers have developed newer methods based on the knowledge that we can make small eye movements and breathing signals while staying asleep (Konkoly et. al.). This allows for researchers to set defined signals for participants and allows the participants to communicate that they are lucid dreaming. Now that the participants can communicate this to the researcher, a variety of methods and possibilities have opened.

In “Lucid Dream Analysis Could Tap the Creative Unconscious” by Ursula Voss the method of EEG is discussed to monitor brain activity once the participant signaled that they were lucid dreaming. They found what they “believe to be an electrical signature of lucid dreaming—increased activity in the 40-hertz range (the “gamma band”), primarily in the frontal lobe, located behind the forehead.” (Voss). This allowed for them to make the conclusion that the frontal lobe may have a large part of lucid dreaming. The finding that I found to be most fascinating was “patients suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder suggests that learning how to control dreams reduces the fear of dreaming, boosts self-confidence and makes patients more optimistic about their ability to eventually cope with their trauma.” (Voss). This allows for the possibility to help people with trauma and anxiety-based disorders to cope. The article also discusses the way that lucid dreaming can help people with generalized anxiety disorder to cope and better their symptoms.

Lucid dreams and communication with lucid dreamers were further delve into by Karen Konkoly at Northwestern University. In “Real-time dialogue between experimenters and dreamers during REM sleep" by Konkoly et. al. it is discussed how they communicated with participants while in lucid dreams. They trained participants to communicate once they had started a lucid dream. Once in this dream, the researchers asked simple math problems such as “eight minus six”. About 18.4% of the participants responded correctly with eye movements to signify their answers. Konkoly and her team also developed ways to induce lucid dreaming for the purposes of their research which greatly expands the possibilities of lucid dreaming research.

I had the incredible opportunity to shadow Karen Konkoly in her lab for a night while she was running a pilot experiment and we were able to have some great conversations about the future of lucid dreaming research. Something I am quite interested in is the possibility of teaching lucid dreamers a language- or other tasks that our brains are already wired to do -while they are asleep. I believe that if we can maximize our sleep by learning new things in our sleep, we can further our cognitive functions and become more intelligent than ever before. We will see what the future of lucid dreaming research brings, and I cannot wait to see where it goes.

 

References:

(1)   Voss, U. (n.d.). Lucid dream analysis could tap the creative unconscious. Scientific American. Retrieved October 21, 2021, from https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/lucid-dream-analysis-could-tap-the-creative-unconscious/.

(2) Karen R. Konkoly et. al. “Real-time dialogue between experimenters and dreamers during REM sleep”, Current Biology, Volume 31, Issue 7, 2021, Pages 1417-1427.e6, ISSN 0960-9822, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cub.2021.01.026.

(3) [The Sheekey Science Show]. (2021, February 19). Real-time communication with lucid dreamers! [Video]. YouTube. https://youtu.be/Av-zhlPE4HM