Posts tagged lucid dreaming
Articles and news from the latest research reports.
Awake within a dream: lucid dreamers show greater insight in waking life
People who are aware they are asleep when they are dreaming have better than average problem-solving abilities, new research has discovered.
Experts from the University of Lincoln, UK, say that those who experience ‘lucid dreaming’ – a phenomena where someone who is asleep can recognise that they are dreaming – can solve problems in the waking world better than those who remain unaware of the dream until they wake up.
The concept of lucid dreaming was explored in the 2010 film Inception, where the dreamers were able to spot incongruities within their dream. It is thought some people are able to do this because of a higher level of insight, meaning their brains detect they are in a dream because events would not make sense otherwise. This cognitive ability translates to the waking world when it comes to finding the solution to a problem by spotting hidden connections or inconsistencies, researchers say.
The research was carried out by Dr Patrick Bourke, Senior Lecturer at the Lincoln School of Psychology and his student Hannah Shaw. It is the first empirical study demonstrating the relationship between lucid dreaming and insight.
He said: “It is believed that for dreamers to become lucid while asleep, they must see past the overwhelming reality of their dream state, and recognise that they are dreaming.
“The same cognitive ability was found to be demonstrated while awake by a person’s ability to think in a different way when it comes to solving problems.”
The study examined 68 participants aged between 18 and 25 who had experienced different levels of lucid dreaming, from never to several times a month. They were asked to solve 30 problems designed to test insight. Each problem consisted of three words and a solution word.
Each of the three words could be combined with the solution word to create a new compound word.
For example with the words ‘sand’, ‘mile’ and ‘age’, the linking word would be ‘stone’.
Results showed that frequent lucid dreamers solved 25 per cent more of the insight problems than the non-lucid dreamers.
Miss Shaw, who conducted the research as part of her undergraduate dissertation, said the ability to experience lucid dreams is something that can be learned. “We aren’t entirely sure why some people are naturally better at lucid dreaming than others, although it is a skill which can be taught,” said Hannah.
“For example you can get into the habit of asking yourself “is this a dream?”. If you do this during the day when you are awake and make it a habit then it can transfer to when you are in a dream.”
(Source: lincoln.ac.uk)
Electrical stimulation of brain alters dreams
Nighttime dreams in which you show up at work naked, encounter an ax-wielding psychopath or experience other tribulations may become a thing of the past thanks to a discovery reported on Sunday.
Applying electrical current to the brain, according to a study published online in Nature Neuroscience, induces “lucid dreaming,” in which the dreamer is aware that he is dreaming and can often gain control of the ongoing plot.
The findings are the first to show that inducing brain waves of a specific frequency produces lucid dreaming.
The Ways to Control Dreaming
In 2008, Isaac Katz, a civil service officer, passed away just before reaching his 78th birthday. He had been struggling with cardiovascular problems for some time. His son, Arnon Katz, now a 47-year-old tech entrepreneur, was beside himself with grief, and frustrated by the fact that he would never speak to his father again.
At the time, the younger Katz had been training himself to lucid dream—a phenomenon in which the dreamer becomes aware they are dreaming and can potentially control their actions as well as the content and context of the dream. But despite keeping a dream journal and diligently practicing other techniques, hadn’t had any success. All that changed, though, a year after his father’s death.
Katz recalled in a recent phone interview that he was mid-dream when his mother suddenly warned him in a voiceover, “Hey, you’re dreaming right now, so don’t take what your father is saying too seriously.”
Katz told me, “Suddenly everything slowed down and became incredibly vivid and real. I knew I was dreaming, but I felt I was with my father and could choose what to say as if I was awake. When I woke up, I realized that our brains are capable of creating an entire reality apart from waking life.” Many other lucid dreamers have said something similar.
Katz said the experience allowed him to finally “close the circle.” The frustration he felt in the year following his father’s death was gone.
The seat of meta-consciousness in the brain
Which areas of the brain help us to perceive our world in a self-reflective manner is difficult to measure. During wakefulness, we are always conscious of ourselves. In sleep, however, we are not. But there are people, known as lucid dreamers, who can become aware of dreaming during sleep. Studies employing magnetic resonance tomography (MRT) have now been able to demonstrate that a specific cortical network consisting of the right dorsolateral prefrontal cortex, the frontopolar regions and the precuneus is activated when this lucid consciousness is attained. All of these regions are associated with self-reflective functions. This research into lucid dreaming gives the authors of the latest study insight into the neural basis of human consciousness.