On the Edge: Neuroscience of Lucid Dreaming

Dreams are very strange and neuroscientists can only speculate on why we have them. Even stranger is that we are not actually aware that we are dreaming, except in the rare event we have a lucid dream.

They are difficult to study in the lab, but it has been done by a handful of scientists. They are able train people to have lucid dreams, and then the brain activity of lucid dreamers can be studied.

Lucid dreaming has been called a state where one is on the edge of waking and sleeping. Crude analysis of brain activity show that there are hotspots of activity at a region of the brain at the front during a lucid dream. This may correspond to a brain region that is rendered inactive during regular dreaming. Could there be a brain region that is responsible for awareness? If we were able to manipulate this brain region, what would it mean for us?

Neuroscience is full of discoveries, but also red herrings. Most of what I talk about is speculation based on a tiny amount of data. What do you think?


My accompanying blog post about the origins of my interest: http://www.nervousneuron.com/2011/08/on-edge-of-waking-and-sleeping.html

References/Links:

Voss, U. (2009). "Lucid dreaming: A state of consciousness with features of both waking and non-lucid dreaming." Sleep 32(9): 1191-1200.
This one's a freebie, so you can read full text for yourself: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov.ezproxy.lib.monash.edu.au/pmc/articles/PMC2737577...

Schredl, M. and D. Erlacher (2011). "Frequency of lucid dreaming in a representative German sample." Perceptual and motor skills 112(1): 104-108.

Hobson, J. A., E. F. Pace-Schott, et al. (2000). "Dreaming and the brain: Toward a cognitive neuroscience of conscious states." Behavioral and Brain Sciences 23(6): 793-842.

A bit about the history of lucid dreaming science: http://www.nasw.org/users/chandra/Clips/lucid_dreaming.htm

I am not going to bother with providing references for all of LaBerge's papers. You can visit the lucidity institute for more information: http://www.lucidity.com/ Here there is more information about how to increase the changes of having a lucid dream. You can even go on a bloody lucid dreaming camp with the dude!

Another good site is http://www.lucidipedia.com/

Category:

Science & Technology

Tags:

• dreams
• how to lucid dream
• lucid dreaming how to
• lucid dreaming
• what are lucid dreams
• neuroscience of lucid dreaming
• neuroscience
• stephan
• laberge
• mind
• brains
• body
• brain
• neuron
• consciousness
• self aware
• logic
• prefrontal
• cortex

[rainbowheartlove1]

I have always wondered about my ability to dream while awake. I have found that if I move, I break the dream. But, in the past few years, it is getting more interesting because my reality checker is entering my dreams more. I now can't fly around or run around naked in a dream without thinking "I think this is a dream." However, I can't control the dream yet. I can sometimes magically clothe myself but other times it doesn't work.

[nervousneuron]

@rainbowheartlove1

Yeah I find it very hard to fully control a dream. The moment I try to control the dream as if it were a day dream, the whole thing falls apart and I wake up. The harder I think in the dream, the harder it is to do 'super human' stuff.

[zealcore]

I finally watched your video, thanks for filling my request! Some bits were really informative and interesting, great video as a whole. I'd really love to make a video about this as I'm really interested in this topic since my early childhood. I've been lucid dreaming for a long time and have been doing my own "first hand" research on lucid dreams lately. One thing that bothered me in the past: Is lucid dreaming healthy? As long as neuroscientist says it is, I'm ok with that. ;) Cheers and thx!

[nervousneuron]

@zealcore

Thanks! You should totally do a vid because it sounds like you have a lot of experience. Actually I have no idea about how healthy lucid dreaming is. It doesn't come with government health warnings yet so should be okay. And nobody (to my knowledge) has done a study on it. Though I did wonder if lucid dreaming every night would have any health impact. I imagined there must be a reason why we are naturally not lucid in our dreams. Don't know.

[EpicAmanda]

@nervousneuron

I've had some rather interesting experiences with dream characters.

Most of the time, my DCs deny that they don't exist and sometimes even prove that they exist, by doing something impossible in the waking world like shapeshifting.

one time I read that all DC faces in your dream are based off people you've met before. So In a lucid I just observed faces around me- often they are faces I know, but the character itself has different hair, features, bodily proportions. fascinating!

[Rebecca71Jeanine]

WOW When I saw the title to this one, I just HAD to come and watch. My oldest brother was a 'guinea pig' for the Lucid Dream Society here in California for a looong time!!! I had NO idea what Lucid dreams were until my brother explained it to me...that's when I realized I had them on my own :P.... Now I have fun w/ them :D!!!

[nervousneuron]

@TheAnotherJake

Yeah, I reckon the people are the most interesting. I've had the opposite happen to me, in a lucid dream, the people were convincing me they were a 'figment of my imagination' and I was confused as I still believed they were real people.

I always treat dream characters like they are real (as in sentient beings), sometimes being exciting to share the lucid dream experience with them. I can never control their actions, and I don't want to anyway.

[TheAnotherJake]

@APerfectAsss I HATE sleep paralysis. I've only experienced it a couple times, but both times it was like the old stories... It felt like a demon holding me down, or what I would imagine that feels like. I could even see it to some extent. I even went so far as to cast it away in desperation... which, as unlikely as it sounds, worked. They're waking nightmares. Horrible and terrifying.

[TheAnotherJake]

The oddest bit, perhaps, is the the characters... so real I might run into them on the street, but purely conjured from sheer thought, people I've never seen or think that I haven't. I often tell them they're not real... and sometimes they believe me, but it's funny how often they vehemently defend their reality as individual "people". hehe. Poor imaginary saps. I've even had them convince me that they WERE real and that we were sharing a dream. I had a good laugh at that when I awoke.

[TheAnotherJake]

Sometimes though, I have the God-like abilities to remake landscapes or build skyscrapers at the raise of a hand. I once reached the "end" of a dream only to have the ability to go back to the start and fix the mistakes I'd made that'd cost "lives" in the first go-around. I love the brain. Dreams blow my mind... so-to-speak.

[TheAnotherJake]

It seems that different people have different Tells in their dreams. Mine are gravity--which doesn't work well--and breathing--which works too well... underwater... It's odd, but the fact that I can't read doesn't seem to tip me off, ever. It's also odd that flying is actually REALLY HARD! It's almost like lifting a too-heavy weight in the gym. Fast flying is even worse...almost impossible. Sometimes the dreams don't even cooperate and my control of them is so limited I get annoyed.

[rebelrouser444]

Aiiight Sista... you have a very good understanding of some of the dynamics and mechanics of the astral "world"/plane... whatever. I encourage you to continue further because what you are saying makes so much sense!