How many people experience lucid dreaming

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Luo, M. When lucid dreaming occurs. How to experience lucid dreams. The benefits of lucid dreaming. Interpreting lucid dreams. The risks of lucid dreaming. Read this next. Medically reviewed by Deborah Weatherspoon, Ph. Medically reviewed by Shilpa Amin, M. Medically reviewed by Timothy J. Legg, Ph. Why Do We Dream? Medically reviewed by Debra Sullivan, Ph.

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Medically Reviewed by Dr. Anis Rehman. How Are Lucid Dreams Studied? How To Lucid Dream. How Do Lucid Dreams Work? Some of the most common techniques include the following: Reality testing: This technique requires participants to perform tests throughout the day that differentiate sleep and waking.

For example, a participant may ask themselves whether or not they are dreaming during the day; since self-awareness is not possible during non-lucid dreams, being able to answer this question proves they are in fact awake. Mnemonic induction of lucid dreams MILD : This technique involves training oneself to recognize the difference between dreams and reality during sleep.

Wake back to bed WBTB : Some people can induce lucid dreams using this technique, which involves waking up in the middle of the night and then returning to sleep after a certain amount of time has passed. When these two methods are used together, the most effective length of time between waking up and returning to sleep appears to be 30 to minutes.

External stimulation: This technique involves flashing lights and other stimuli that are activated while the subject is in REM sleep. The rationale behind this method is that the sleeper will incorporate this stimuli into their dreams, triggering lucidity in the process. Sign up below for your free gift. Your privacy is important to us. Was this article helpful? Yes No. Anis Rehman Endocrinologist MD. Soffer-Dudek, N. Are Lucid Dreams Good for Us? Are We Asking the Right Question?

Frontiers in Neuroscience. Neider, M. Consciousness and Cognition, 20 2 , — Voss, U. Sleep, 32 9 , — Aspy, D. Frontiers in Psychology.

These techniques have been organized by Stumbrys et al. Cognitive techniques include mental exercises that increase the likelihood of lucid dreaming. The rationale is that if RT becomes habitual, it will eventually be performed while dreaming, triggering lucidity. The MILD technique is performed during a brief awakening after 5 or so hours of sleep.

External stimulation techniques involve stimuli such as flashing lights presented during REM sleep that can be incorporated into dreams, serving as cues that trigger lucidity. Miscellaneous techniques include lucid dream inducing drugs and supplements see LaBerge, ; see also Yuschak, Stumbrys et al. Most 24 were field studies, with the others conducted in sleep laboratories The others were classified as moderate quality. More than half of the studies were unpublished Ph. All studies showed poor external validity.

Participants were mostly university students or self-selected and highly experienced lucid dreamers. Most lucid dreaming studies are also limited by small sample sizes, lack of random allocation, failure to investigate variables that operationalize the way in which techniques were practiced e. These widespread limitations are a major impediment to lucid dream research and make it difficult to compare the effectiveness of techniques across studies.

Several additional lucid dream induction studies have been published since the publication of Stumbrys et al. Taitz found that daily RT for 2 weeks was ineffective. Poor success rates were reported in laboratory studies of external stimulation flashing lights and vibration; Franc et al.

Dyck et al. However, the authors did not provide statistics to indicate how effective this training program was except that 39 lucid dreams were reported. Saunders et al. However, the frequency of lucid dreaming is unclear. Kumar et al. Sparrow et al. However, results do not permit calculation of lucid dreaming rates.

LaBerge et al. During Week 1, participants recorded baseline dream recall rates and were then randomly allocated to one of three experimental groups for Week 2.

No significant changes in lucid dreaming frequency were observed in the other two groups. Higher general dream recall was a significant predictor of lucid dreaming following practice of the MILD technique. However, the strongest predictor of lucid dreaming was the amount of time taken to fall back asleep after completing the MILD technique. Lucid dreaming was experienced on A likely explanation is that returning to sleep quickly makes it more likely that the MILD intention will persist into REM sleep and trigger lucidity.

The biggest impediment to research into the potential benefits and applications of lucid dreaming is the lack of effective and reliable lucid dream induction techniques. Despite a reduction of research interest in lucid dream induction over the past few decades Stumbrys et al.

Numerous lucid dream induction techniques have been developed by lucid dreaming enthusiasts but have not been investigated scientifically. Recruitment took place during a media release and subsequent media coverage that occurred when the NALDIS was published. The following hypotheses were tested:. An initial sample of participants completed the pre-test questionnaire. A total of participants continued to complete Week 1 of the study and participants completed Week 2.

In the final sample there were Just over half of participants Only six participants 1. Sources included: Country of residence was: in United States Participants were excluded from the study if they had been diagnosed with any kind of mental health disorder, sleep disorder, or neurological disorder; suspected they might have one of these disorders; were experiencing a traumatic or highly stressful life event that was interfering with their sleep; suffered from persistent insomnia or were unable to keep a regular sleep schedule; had experienced sleep paralysis more than once in the past 6 months; found it unpleasant to think about their dreams; or were under 18 years of age.

No material incentive was offered. Participants were given an information sheet and then gave informed consent prior to participating. Materials included a pre-test questionnaire, logbooks for Week 1 and Week 2, and technique instructions documents.

All pre-test, Week 1 logbook and Week 2 logbook measures were hosted online using the survey management website Survey Monkey. Instructions were sent via email. Participants indicated their gender, age, occupation, how they heard about the study, their country of residence, and if they had ever participated in a scientific study on lucid dreaming techniques. Participants wrote the date for each logbook entry.

This information was used to calculate the number of days taken to complete all seven logbook entries L Days to complete log. The total number of logbook entries was also counted L Total log entries. Participants reported whether they could recall anything specific about their dreams from the preceding night and provided brief titles for each dream they could recall.

Using this information, general dream recall was operationalized as both Dream Recall Frequency L DRF ; the percentage of days on which there was dream recall and Dream Count L DC per day ; the number of dreams recalled each day. Participants also rated how much content they could recall from each dream according to four categories, operationalizing dream recall as Dream Quantity L DQ.

The measure was developed by Aspy and is based on an earlier measure developed by Reed The number values 1, 2, 4, and 8 reflect the proportionate increase in dream content associated with the category labels and descriptions, based on qualitative data collected by Reed DRF was used instead of DC because participants were unsure of how many lucid dreams they had in some cases, and in other cases lost and regained lucidity within the same dream.

This measure was included to assess any potential effect of sleep deprivation on lucid dream induction, e. The Week 2 logbooks included additional measures related to lucid dreaming technique practice. Fast, Slow. All participants were advised to print their lucid dream induction technique instructions, keep them beside the bed, spend a full hour familiarizing themselves with them before commencing the study, practice their techniques at least once during the day to ensure understanding, and to revise the instructions directly before bed each night.

Based on findings from the NALDIS, the importance of falling asleep quickly after practicing the techniques was emphasized. Participants were advised that if they were falling asleep too quickly, they could try turning the lights on for a few minutes and reading over the technique instructions to increase wakefulness.

They were advised to keep the lights off, put the alarm next to their bed, and use a quieter alarm tone if they had trouble returning to sleep. All participants were given instructions on how to perform an RT if they suspected they were dreaming but were not sure. Participants were also given information and advice about sleep paralysis see LaBerge and Rheingold, ; Sleep Paralysis Information Service, ; University of Waterloo, Instructions that were specific to each group are provided below.

Participants were told to simultaneously visualize being back in the dream they had recalled and noticing something unusual that causes them to realize they are dreaming.

They were advised to continue until they felt their intention was set. They were also provided with instructions for performing a minimum of 10 inhalation RT per day. This group was given a different kind of RT from Group 2, which involves attempting to push the fingers of one hand through the palm of the other.

This was chosen because it is one of the most widely practiced RT. The ability to push the fingers through the palm indicates that one is dreaming. Participants were advised to also inspect their hands for anomalies during each test. Instructions for this group were the same as the instructions for Group 1, with no modifications. Instructions for the SSILD technique were designed with consultation from the creator of the technique.

Step 1. Focus on Vision : Close your eyes and focus all your attention on the darkness behind your closed eyelids. Keep your eyes completely still and totally relaxed. You might see colored dots, complex patterns, images, or maybe nothing at all. Step 2. Focus on Hearing : Shift all of your attention to your ears. You might be able to hear the faint sounds of traffic or the wind from outside. You might also be able to hear sounds from within you, such as your own heartbeat or a faint ringing in your ears.

Step 3. Focus on Bodily Sensations : Shift all of your attention to sensations from your body. Feel the weight of the blanket, your heartbeat, the temperature of the air, etc. You might also notice some unusual sensations such as tingling, heaviness, lightness, spinning sensations, and so on.

If this happens simply relax, observe them passively and try not to get excited. Participants were instructed to first perform four fast cycles 2 or 3 s on each step and then four to six slow cycles approximately 20 s on each step. They were told not to count the number of seconds, and that it is important to complete at least four slow cycles.

Participants were instructed to fall asleep as normal after completing six slow cycles. The importance of strong intention was emphasized.

Participants were not asked to recall dreams or do any visualization. The ILDIS was conducted entirely via the internet, allowing people from around the world to complete the study at home. Participants were sent emails with instructions and web URLs for accessing the Week 1 logbooks hosted on Survey Monkey.

Participants were instructed to complete each logbook entry immediately upon waking, and to not practice any lucid dreaming techniques during Week 1.

Participants were given instructions on how to improve their dream recall during both Week 1 and Week 2. Upon completing Day 7 of the Week 1 logbook, participants were sent further instructions, lucid dream induction technique documents, and additional web URLs to access the Week 2 logbooks.

Participants were asked to practice the techniques and make logbook entries on consecutive days if possible, but not to practice the techniques if they were sleep deprived. They were instructed to make up for any skipped days at the end. Non-parametric tests were used in all cases because most variables were non-normally distributed. The proportion of participants who reported prior experience with lucid dreaming techniques at pre-test was significantly higher for participants who completed the full study Mann-Whitney tests indicated that participants who completed the full study had significantly higher general dream recall rates and P Lucid tech freq at pre-test.

These findings and descriptive statistics for pre-test variables are presented in Table 1. Table 1. Descriptive statistics for pre-test variables with Mann-Whitney tests for differences between participants who did and did not complete the full study.

There were no significant differences between the three groups within Cohort 1 or within Cohort 2 on these variables. Non-significant test results are not reported for the sake of brevity. Descriptive statistics and Wilcoxon tests of differences between Week 1 and Week 2 logbook variables are presented in Table 2. Results showed that participants reported significantly higher L Time asleep and significantly lower general dream recall rates, L Tiredness on waking and L Total log entries in Week 2 of the study compared to in Week 1.

Table 2.