Real-time dialogue between experimenters and dreamers during REM sleep.
Karen R Konkoly, Kristoffer Appel, Emma Chabani, Anastasia Mangiaruga, Jarrod Gott, Remington Mallett, Bruce Caughran, Sarah Witkowski, Nathan W Whitmore, Christopher Y Mazurek, Jonathan B Berent, Frederik D Weber, Başak Türker, Smaranda Leu-Semenescu, Jean-Baptiste Maranci, Gordon Pipa, Isabelle Arnulf, Delphine Oudiette, Martin Dresler, Ken A Paller
Current biology : CB April 12, 2021 DOI: 10.1016/j.cub.2021.01.026 via PubMed
Summary
AI-generated from the abstractPeople who are asleep and having a lucid dream—aware that they are dreaming—can perceive questions from an experimenter and answer them in real time using eye movements and facial muscle contractions. In a study of 36 individuals during REM sleep, including frequent lucid dreamers, a novice, and a patient with narcolepsy, participants performed perceptual analysis of new information, held information in working memory, computed simple answers, and gave volitional replies. Correct answers occurred on 29 occasions across 6 individuals, documented by four independent laboratories. This two-way communication channel allows real-time interrogation of dream cognition and characteristics.
Study at a glance
| Characteristics | Observational study Peer reviewed |
|---|---|
| Sample size | 36 |
| Population | Individuals during REM sleep, including frequent lucid dreamers, a novice, and a patient with narcolepsy |
| Topics | Lucid dreaming |
| Keywords | Rem sleep Consciousness Dreams Interactive dreaming |
| Citations | 126 |
| Key finding | Individuals in a lucid dream can perceive questions and provide correct answers via eye movements and facial muscle contractions, enabling real-time two-way communication during REM sleep. |
Abstract
Dreams take us to a different reality, a hallucinatory world that feels as real as any waking experience. These often-bizarre episodes are emblematic of human sleep but have yet to be adequately explained. Retrospective dream reports are subject to distortion and forgetting, presenting a fundamental challenge for neuroscientific studies of dreaming. Here we show that individuals who are asleep and in the midst of a lucid dream (aware of the fact that they are currently dreaming) can perceive questions from an experimenter and provide answers using electrophysiological signals. We implemented our procedures for two-way communication during polysomnographically verified rapid-eye-movement (REM) sleep in 36 individuals. Some had minimal prior experience with lucid dreaming, others were frequent lucid dreamers, and one was a patient with narcolepsy who had frequent lucid dreams. During REM sleep, these individuals exhibited various capabilities, including performing veridical perceptual analysis of novel information, maintaining information in working memory, computing simple answers, and expressing volitional replies. Their responses included distinctive eye movements and selective facial muscle contractions, constituting correctly answered questions on 29 occasions across 6 of the individuals tested. These repeated observations of interactive dreaming, documented by four independent laboratory groups, demonstrate that phenomenological and cognitive characteristics of dreaming can be interrogated in real time. This relatively unexplored communication channel can enable a variety of practical applications and a new strategy for the empirical exploration of dreams.