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.
Neuroscience of consciousness
January 1, 2025
Daniel J Morris, D Blaise Elliott, S Gabriela Torres-Platas et al.
3 citations
Combining virtual reality (VR) with lucid dreaming—awareness during a dream—can produce immersive experiences that may deepen effects from VR alone. In a small pilot study, four frequent lucid dreamers experienced a VR simulation called Ripple, which prior research found reduces self-other boundaries and enhances feelings of interconnectedness. After two VR sessions, sounds from Ripple were played during REM sleep. Three participants had lucid dreams about Ripple, and all four reported dream elements from the VR experience. Real-time physiological signals confirmed lucidity and dreaming about the VR content. The findings suggest that lucid dreaming can recapitulate and potentially amplify the psychological impact of prior VR experiences.
Neuroscience of consciousness
January 1, 2026
Karen R Konkoly, Daniel J Morris, Kaitlyn Hurka et al.
REM-sleep dreaming can be experimentally guided toward specific unsolved problems and improve next-day creative problem-solving. Lucid dreamers who heard soundtracks of unsolved puzzles during REM sleep reported more dreams about those puzzles. In a post-hoc analysis, participants whose dreams were successfully biased by the sound cues solved more of the associated puzzles after waking. The study provides experimental evidence that REM dreams themselves, not just sleep-related memory reactivation, contribute to creative insight, addressing a long-standing gap in dream research that had relied on anecdotal or confounded evidence.