Iimagine a world where you can solve problems, create art or music or even improve your tennis serve in your sleep. If scientists working in the field of lucid dreaming succeed, that world may become reality sooner than we realize.
Researchers are developing techniques that can enable more people to experience lucid dreaming – a state of consciousness where a person is aware that they are dreaming and can recognize their thoughts and emotions while they are dreaming – and the content of these dreams in their waking lives to transfer.
In recent months, they have shown that it is possible to transmit the rhythm of dream music, turn on a real boiler and control a virtual car on a computer screen from a lucid dream.
“Sooner or later there will be methods or tools that will allow anyone to experience lucid dreams easily or relatively easily, we are looking for ways to connect these two worlds,” said Michael Raduga, the founder and CEO of REMspace Inca sleep research company in Redwood City, California that led the studies. “Even for people who don’t think they’re smart, their subconscious is enormous, and we hope to be able to translate all this information into reality.”
Although not everyone can do it, about half of the population have experienced at least one lucid dream in their lifetime and about a fifth experience it once a month or more.
An international group of researchers has submitted a paper Current Biology a few years ago who suggested that it was possible to ask people questions, either vocally or using Morse code delivered by flashing lights, while they were in a lucid dream – including basic mathematical calculations – and for the dreamers to to answer by eye movements or by facial expressions muscles to convey yes/no or numerical answers.
Raduga and his colleagues have since expanded these techniques to broaden communication between dreamers and the waking world. They showed last year that it is possible to communicate musical rhythms of lucid dreaming by teaching people to contract their arm muscles in time with a piece of music while awake, and then apply the same technique to transmit the same musical rhythm while in a lucid dream.
Even though muscles are largely paralyzed during REM sleep, when most dreaming occurs, they still produce micro-contractions that can be detected by electrical sensors on the skin. The next step will be to use this method to transmit unique musical compositions from lucid dreams.
Raduga said the study was inspired by a dream he had as a teenager in which he watched the German rock band Rammstein perform a piece of music. “It was the best song ever,” he said. “I’m not a musician, but something that my brain, and probably other people’s brains, is capable of creating music better than people actually create.”
In another recent study, he and his colleagues converted electrical impulses from a dreamer’s hand and facial muscles into commands for a smart speaker that enabled a real light bulb, electric kettle and radio to switched on from their dreamdemonstrating the possibility of performing morning tasks while still sleeping.
In a further study, activity was in dreamers’ biceps and forearm and thigh muscles connected to a virtual carwhich they learned to manage by contracting their muscles while awake. Next, once brain scans confirmed they were in REM sleep, flashes of light were used to signal dreamers to take turns to avoid obstacles, and they could respond with the same muscle contractions. This technique can eventually be used to convey spatial information about the dream world.
“I show that it is possible to connect these two realms,” Raduga said. “These are small steps, but in 10 or 20 years, people can achieve things related to their work or personal lives before they wake up.”
Other researchers have questioned the usefulness of moving a virtual car or turning on a boiler while sleeping, but have said that the ability to communicate dream content by using different muscle groups, with contractions held for different durations, may the complexity of information that can be transmitted from dreams.
“Once we can communicate in both directions, their dream research can move forward because you can ask people follow-up questions; maybe give them more difficult cognitive tasks to better understand how the awake brain differs from the sleeping brain,” said Dr Kristoffer Appel at the University of Osnabrück in Germany, who co-authored the Current Biology paper. “Currently we have to rely on dream reports [once people have woken up]which may be distorted.”
Emma PetersA PhD student at the University of Bern in Switzerland who is investigating ways to increase the frequency of lucid dreams believes it could one day be used to aid physical recovery in stroke patients or to improve athletic performance. There is already evidence from her lab and others that practicing physical movements such as throwing darts or flipping a coin during lucid dreams can improve real-life performance.
However, there can be a catch: “Although the selling point [of lucid dreams] is that you’re in control of everything so you can do what you want, the problem is that you’re in control of everything,” Peters said. “Say you want to practice alpine skiing: you can make the slope and the weather, but you can ski down the mountain and then end up in outer space.”
Lucid dreaming is also difficult to induce, even for experienced practitioners, which limits its application. “At this stage we are still trying to find ways to make [more] people bright,” said Peters. “The next step will be to find ways to practice better dream control.”
There may already be ways to start harvesting the creative potential of the dormant brain. Laura Roklicer at Swansea University research or teach creative writers and poets a lucid dream can improve the quality of their writing.
She has already collected evidence that such individuals are more prone to lucid dreaming. Previous studies have suggested that about 45% of the population can be trained to lucid dream, but so far 83% of the 29 authors Roklicer has worked with have experienced such a dream at least once after eight weeks of training.
To harvest ideas from these dreams, Roklicer encourages writers to set a work-related intention for themselves as they fall asleep, such as “find a new story idea” or “meet one of my characters in a dream.” .
In one recent unpublished study, she asked independent judges to write author-produced short stories before and after dream training. Across a range of measures, from emotional content, to symbolism, setting, character and plot, “it all seemed to improve after the training,” she said.
Roklicer believes other groups can also benefit from this kind of approach: “Many studies have looked at how different aspects of dreaming can help creativity by generating more original ideas or problem solving, and which can be applied across the board, from the arts, to science, to business.
“I think the biggest advantage is the authenticity. In today’s world of AI-generated ideas, where most of the stories are the same kind of stories and so on, you can find more authentic ideas by looking at your dreams – and especially becoming lucid in your dreams.”
How to lucid dream
Various exercises have been designed to help people lucid dream, and researchers are developing others.
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Dream Journal: Every morning, as soon as you wake up, write down everything you remember about your dreams, or use a voice recording device to do the same. Doing so can familiarize yourself with your dreams, allowing you to become more aware of them once you’ve slept.
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Reality Check: This exercise, performed during waking hours, trains the brain to better distinguish between dreams and reality, which can improve clarity once you sleep. At regular intervals throughout the day, pause and take careful inventory of your surroundings, looking for anything out of the ordinary that might indicate you are dreaming.
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Intent setting: Some people can increase the frequency of their lucid dreams simply by telling themselves that they will become conscious during their dreams, for example by repeating a phrase such as “as soon as I sleep, I will remember I’m dreaming”.
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Wake up back to bed: Most dreams occur during REM sleep, which occurs more commonly during the second half of the night. By setting an alarm to wake yourself up an hour or so before your usual time, and then going back to sleep, you can increase your chances of falling straight into a dream. Telling yourself you will become lucid in that dream can also help achieve it.
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External stimulation: Many recent studies designed to communicate with people during lucid dreams have used gentle vibration, electrical stimulation, or flashing lights during REM sleep as a cue for the person to become conscious in their dream and signal back. Some of these methods are also being investigated as a tool to increase the frequency of lucid dreaming.
