Inducing signal-verified lucid dreams in 40% of untrained novice lucid dreamers within two nights in a sleep laboratory setting.

Lucid dreams, where the dreamer is aware they are dreaming, are hard to induce in people without prior experience in a sleep laboratory. By simplifying a previous induction protocol, twenty naïve subjects spent one or two nights in a sleep lab. After about six hours of sleep, they were woken during REM sleep, performed cognitive tasks, and returned to bed. Ten subjects reported a lucid dream in the subsequent sleep period, and eight of these gave a predefined eye signal visible in the electrooculogram during REM sleep. The simplified protocol successfully replicated earlier results.

Study at a glance

Abstract

Dreams in which the dreamer is aware of the dream state (lucid dreams, LD) are difficult to induce in naïve subjects in-laboratory. Recently, Stumbrys and Erlacher (2014) used a combination of existing induction techniques together with a self-developed experiment protocol and achieved comparatively high LD induction rates. In this study, we simplified their methodology slightly and repeated their experiment with twenty naïve subjects who spent one or two nights in our sleep laboratory. After about six hours of sleep, they were woken up during REM sleep and engaged in a series of cognitive tasks before going back to bed. Ten subjects reported a LD during the following period of sleep in one of the nights. Eight of these subjects gave a predefined eye signal, which was clearly visible in the electrooculogram during REM sleep. In summary, we replicated Stumbrys and Erlacher's results using a simplified version of their induction protocol.