Motor Learning in Lucid Dreams: Prevalence, Induction, and Effectiveness

The purpose of the present investigation was to explore the potentials for motor learning in a special state of consciousness – so called lucid dreams (dreams in which the dreamers are aware that they are dreaming): its prevalence among athletes, facilitating methods and effectiveness. The contents of this dissertation are structured in the following way. The first chapter introduces the concept of mental practice in sports, reviews the evidence for its effectiveness and presents main theories explaining its effects. Further, the empirical evidence showing the correspondence between imagined and executed actions is discussed, which supports the theoretical view of a functional equivalence between covert and overt motor actions. The second chapter presents the basics of human sleep and the relation of sleep to memory consolidation, especially in terms of procedural (motor) memory. It also introduces the basics of dreams and dream research. The third chapter presents the phenomenon of lucid dreaming, its incidence and frequency rates, underlying physiology and psychology. The fourth chapter, the core of the present investigation, focuses on the application of lucid dreams in sports and, specifically, in motor learning. Anecdotal accounts and previous research is discussed and the present empirical work is introduced. The first study (Paper 1) surveyed the frequency of lucid dreaming and lucid dream practice in athletes. In the second study (Paper 2), a systematic review was conducted to examine the empirical evidence for all different methods for lucid dream induction that have been suggested in the literature. Then a sleep laboratory study followed to test one of the prospective methods suggested in the literature but not yet examined – an induction of lucid dreams via transcranial brain stimulation (Paper 3). Lastly, an online study was carried out in which the effectiveness of motor practice was compared to actual physical practice and mental practice in wakefulness (Paper 4). Finally, the last chapter provides an overall discussion of the findings and directions for future research

The Luminous Night of the Soul: The Relationship between Lucid Dreaming and Spirituality

Lucid dreams, in which the dreamers are aware that they are dreaming, can be a source of spiritual and mystical experiences. This empirical study aimed to explore the relationship between lucid dreaming and spirituality, taking into account the role of mystical lucid dream experience, in an online sample of 471 respondents, 95% of whom had lucid dream experience and 65% were frequent lucid dreamers. The findings support the relationship between lucid dreaming and spirituality: spiritual transcendence was positively associated with both lucid dream frequency and mystical lucid dream experiences. Thus having recurrent lucid dreams and mystical experiences in them may foster spiritual growth, rendering lucid dreaming possibly a viable spiritual practice, especially within the secular context. However, the correlative nature of the present research does not imply causality and further longitudinal research confirming this is needed

The Luminous Night of the Soul: The Relationship between Lucid Dreaming and Spirituality

Lucid dreams, in which the dreamers are aware that they are dreaming, can be a source of spiritual and mystical experiences. This empirical study aimed to explore the relationship between lucid dreaming and spirituality, taking into account the role of mystical lucid dream experience, in an online sample of 471 respondents, 95% of whom had lucid dream experience and 65% were frequent lucid dreamers. The findings support the relationship between lucid dreaming and spirituality: spiritual transcendence was positively associated with both lucid dream frequency and mystical lucid dream experiences. Thus having recurrent lucid dreams and mystical experiences in them may foster spiritual growth, rendering lucid dreaming possibly a viable spiritual practice, especially within the secular context. However, the correlative nature of the present research does not imply causality and further longitudinal research confirming this is needed

Induction of lucid dreams: A systematic review of evidence

In lucid dreams the dreamer is aware of dreaming and often able to influence the ongoing dream content. Lucid dreaming is a learnable skill and a variety of techniques is suggested for lucid dreaming induction. This systematic review evaluated the evidence for the effectiveness of induction techniques. A comprehensive literature search was carried out in biomedical databases and specific resources. Thirty-five studies were included in the analysis (11 sleep laboratory and 24 field studies), of which 26 employed cognitive techniques, 11 external stimulation and one drug application. The methodological quality of the included studies was relatively low. None of the induction techniques were verified to induce lucid dreams reliably and consistently, although some of them look promising. On the basis of the reviewed studies, a taxonomy of lucid dream induction methods is presented. Several methodological issues are discussed and further directions for future studies are proposed

Trends in waking salivary alpha-amylase levels following healing lucid dreams

IntroductionSalivary alpha-amylase (sAA) is considered a marker of autonomic nervous system activity in stress research, and atypical waking sAA responses have been reported for traumatized individuals. Lucid dreams, characterized by a dreamer’s awareness of their dream state while remaining asleep, have shown promising preliminary evidence of their potential to enhance mental health. This study’s objective was to evaluate sAA in relation to healing lucid dreams.MethodsParticipants experiencing PTSD symptoms attended a six-day workshop delivered via live video designed to teach techniques for transforming trauma through dreamwork and dream lucidity. Participants (n = 20) collected saliva samples each morning, immediately upon awakening (Time 1) and 30 min afterward (Time 2). sAA levels were determined by enzymatic assay, and the waking sAA slope was calculated as the difference of Time 2 minus Time 1. Participants completed dream reports each morning, with a dream classified as a ‘healing lucid dream’ when they reported attaining lucidity and remembered their intention to manifest a healing experience within the dreamscape.ResultsOf eight participants experiencing healing lucid dreams, four were able to provide usable saliva samples. Statistical tests on these four participants were not significant because of low power. However, nonsignificant positive associations were observed between experiencing more healing lucid dreams and increased waking sAA slope.ConclusionThe results did not reveal a consistent effect of healing lucid dreams on waking sAA slope. Identifying meaningful patterns in this relationship will require larger samples and more stringent control over saliva collection procedures in future studies

Wake Up, Work on Dreams, Back to Bed and Lucid Dream: A Sleep Laboratory Study

Lucid dreaming offers many opportunities to study consciousness processes. However, laboratory research in this area is limited because frequent lucid dreamers are rare. Several studies demonstrated that different methods of induction could increase the number of lucid dreams. In four field studies, a combination of a wake-up-back-to-bed (WBTB) sleep protocol and a mnemonic technique (MILD) showed promising results. To further investigate the effectiveness of this combined approach, we conducted a sleep laboratory experiment with four different conditions. The general experimental procedure was the following: Participants were awakened after 6 h of sleep from a subsequent REM period and kept awake for 30 or 60 min, during which they were asked to practice MILD or a control task (e.g., reading). Then they returned to bed for a morning sleep period. In the first condition eleven sport students, who attended a seminar on sleep and dreams, spent one night in a sleep laboratory. To avoid biases due to the seminar attendance (e.g., higher motivation), in the second condition 15 participants who did not attend the seminar were recruited. In the third condition, 14 sport students were tested with a shorter awakening period (30 min). Finally, the fourth condition served as a control condition, whereas eleven sport students slept two non-consecutive nights in a laboratory. Instead of MILD, in one night the participants read a book (fiction, unrelated to dreams), while in the other night they played a Nintendo Wii video game. In the first three conditions, six (54%), eight (53%), and five participants (36%) reported lucid dreams during the morning sleep period, whereas three, (27%), four (27%), and two participants (14%) produced PSG-verified eye signals. In contrast, in the reading condition, only one (9%) participant reported lucid dreams and no eye movements. No lucid dreams were observed in the Wii condition. The findings of the present study show that by using a combination of WBTB and MILD, lucid dreams can be effectively induced in people who are not selected for their lucid dream abilities

Reliability and stability of lucid dream and nightmare frequency scales

Lucid dream and nightmare frequencies vary greatly between individuals and to assess these differences reliable instruments are needed. The present study aimed to examine the reliability of eight-point scales for measuring lucid dream and nightmare frequencies. The scales were administered twice (with a four-week interval) to 93 sport students. A re-test reliability for the lucid dream frequency was found r=.89 (p<.001) and for the nightmare frequency r=.75 (p<.001). Both eight-point scales appear to be reliable measures for assessing individual differences in lucid dream and nightmare frequencies

Testing the involvement of the prefrontal cortex in lucid dreaming: A tDCS study

Recent studies suggest that lucid dreaming (awareness of dreaming while dreaming) might be associated with increased brain activity over frontal regions during rapid eye movement (REM) sleep. By applying transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS), we aimed to manipulate the activation of the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC) during REM sleep to induce lucid dreaming. Nineteen participants spent three consecutive nights in a sleep laboratory. On the second and third nights they randomly received either 1 mA tDCS for 10 min or sham stimulation during each REM period starting with the second one. According to the participants' self-ratings, tDCS over the DLPFC during REM sleep increased lucidity in dreams. The effects, however, were not strong and found only in frequent lucid dreamers. While this indicates some preliminary support for the involvement of the DLPFC in lucid dreaming, further research, controlling for indirect effects of stimulation and including other brain regions, is needed