Imagine a world in which you could solve problems, create art or music or even improve your tennis serve in your sleep. If scientists working in the field of lucid dreams succeed, that world could become a reality sooner than we realise.
Researchers are developing techniques that could enable more people to experience lucid dreams – a state of consciousness where a person is aware they are dreaming and can recognise their thoughts and emotions while doing so – and transfer the content of these dreams into their waking lives.
They have shown in recent months that it is possible to transfer the rhythm of dream music, switch on a real-life kettle and control a virtual car on a computer screen from inside a lucid dream.
“Sooner or later there will be methods or tools that will allow anybody to experience lucid dreams easily or relatively easily, we are searching for ways to connect these two worlds together,” said Michael Raduga, the founder and CEO of REMspace Inc, a sleep research company in Redwood City, California who led the studies. “Even for people who don’t think they are smart, their subconscious is enormous, and we hope to be able to transfer all of this information into reality.”
Although not everyone can do it, roughly half of the population have experienced at least one lucid dream in their lifetimes and around a fifth experience them once a month or more.
An international group of researchers published a paper in Current Biology several years ago that suggested it was possible to ask people questions, either vocally or using morse code delivered via flashing lights, while they were in a lucid dream – including basic mathematical calculations – and for the dreamers to answer using eye movements or by contracting facial muscles to convey yes/no or numerical answers.
Raduga and his colleagues have since been expanding these techniques to broaden communication between dreamers and the waking world. They showed last year that it was possible to communicate musical rhythms from lucid dreams by teaching people to contract their arm muscles in time with a piece of music while they were awake, and then applying the same technique to relay the same musical rhythm while they were in a lucid dream.
Even though muscles are largely paralysed during REM sleep, when most dreaming occurs, they still produce micro-contractions that can be detected via electrical sensors on the skin. The next step will be to use this method to relay unique musical compositions from lucid dreams.
Raduga said the study was inspired by a dream he had experienced as a teenager in which he watched the German rock band Rammstein performing a piece of music. “It was the best song ever,” he said. “I am not a musician, but something my brain, and probably other people’s brains, is capable of creating music better than people create in reality.”
In another recent study, he and his colleagues converted electrical impulses from a dreamer’s hand and facial muscles into commands to a smart speaker that enabled a real-world lightbulb, electric kettle and radio to be switched on from inside their dream, demonstrating the possibility of performing morning tasks while still asleep.
In a further study, activity in dreamers’ biceps and forearm and thigh muscles was connected to a virtual car, which they learned to drive by contracting their muscles while they were awake. Next, once brain recordings had confirmed they were in REM sleep, light flashes were used to signal to dreamers that they needed to make turns to avoid obstacles, and they were able to respond using the same muscle contractions. This technique could eventually be used to convey spatial information about the dream world.
“I am showing that it is possible to link these two realms,” Raduga said. “These are small steps, but in 10 or 20 years, people could accomplish stuff related to their work or personal lives before waking up.”
Other researchers questioned the utility of moving a virtual car or turning on a kettle while asleep, but said the ability to communicate dream content using several different muscle groups, with contractions held for different durations, might broaden the complexity of information that could be transferred from dreams.
“Once we can communicate in both directions, them dream research could move forwards, because you could ask people follow-up questions; maybe present them with more difficult cognitive tasks to better understand how the waking 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 maybe distorted.”
Emma Peters, a PhD student at the University of Bern in Switzerland who is investigating ways of increasing the frequency of lucid dreams, believes they 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 rehearsing physical movements such throwing darts or tossing a coin during lucid dreaming can improve real-life performance.
There may be a catch though: “Even though the selling point [of lucid dreams] is that you are in control of everything so you can do whatever you want, the problem is that you are in control of everything,” Peters said. “Say you want to practise alpine skiing: you can make the slope and the weather, but you could be skiing down the mountain and then end up in outer space.”
Lucid dreaming is also difficult to induce, even for experienced practitioners, limiting its application. “At this point, we are still trying to find ways to make [more] people lucid,” said Peters. “The next step will be finding ways to practise better dream control.”
There may already be ways to start harvesting the creative potential of the sleeping brain. Laura Roklicer at the University of Swansea is investigating whether teaching creative writers and poets to lucid dream could improve the quality of their writing.
She has already gathered evidence that such individuals may be 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 writers Roklicer has been working with experienced at least once such dream after eight weeks of training.
In order to harvest ideas from these dreams, Roklicer encourages writers to set themselves a work-related intention as they are falling 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 score short stories produced by the writers before dream training and after it. On a range of measures, from emotional content, to symbolism, setting, character and plot, “all of that seemed to improve after the training,” she said.
Roklicer believes other groups may also benefit from this kind of approach: “A lot of studies have looked at how different aspects of dreaming can help creativity through generating more original ideas or problem solving, and that can be applied across the board, from the arts, to science, to business.
“I think the biggest benefit 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, by looking into your dreams – and especially becoming lucid in your dreams – you can find more authentic ideas.”
How to lucid dream
Various exercises have been designed to help people lucid dream, and researchers are developing others.
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Dream journaling: Each 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 help to familiarise yourself with your dreams, enabling you to become more aware of them once you are asleep.
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Reality testing: This exercise, performed during waking hours, trains the brain to better distinguish between dreams and reality, which may enhance lucidity once you are asleep. At regular intervals throughout the day, pause and take careful stock of your surroundings, looking for anything out of the ordinary which might indicate that you are dreaming.
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Intention setting: Some people can increase the frequency of their lucid dreams simply by telling themselves that they will become aware during their dreams, for example by repeating a phrase such as “once I’m asleep, I’ll remember I’m dreaming”.
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Wake back to bed: Most dreams occur during REM sleep, which is more prevalent during the second half of the night. By setting an alarm clock to wake yourself an hour or so before your usual time, then drifting back to sleep, you may boost your odds of dropping straight into a dream. Telling yourself you’ll become lucid in that dream may also help to achieve this.
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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 aware in their dream and signal back. Some of these methods are also being investigated as a tool for increasing the frequency of lucid dreams.