It is interesting to me that this is the first time someone has done this in a lab setting. I have lucid dreams and I talk in my sleep a fair amount as well. I used to be a somnambulist as a kid as well, though haven't done that in a long time though I will still kick out occasionally in my dreams.
I have had reasonably long conversations in my sleep. When I was living in the dorms once my roommates were solving a physics problem and I answered several parts correctly leading them to the solution though on waking up I knew I had some conversation but no recollection of the actual problem they were solving. My wife often says I am funny to talk to when I am talking in sleep as in the answers can be wildly creative but getting information out is usually impossible, as in if she asks me a password or something I will deflect rather than give an answer.
I know the answers, but can't really drive my attention. So I might say that I am a train occasionally... But then I'm able to correct myself sometimes!
(All of this is absolutely out of my memory, you have to trust my girlfriend)
My wife is a lucid dreamer, and once there was smoke in her dream and while dreaming she was worried that maybe there was a fire in "the real world", so she called me out loud asked if I smelled smoke... her voice came out strangely muffled, and her closed eyes were doing the REM thing, so I knew that she was dreaming. I told her that there was no smoke and she relaxed and continued dreaming.
So yes, we've had first hand experience that communication between a lucid dreamer and a waking person is possible.
This is amazing, underwhelming and not very surprising, all at the same time.
Unsurprising, as it was already known that lucid dreamers can move their eyes... And I think everyone has experienced external stimuli, say an alarm clock, being seamlessly integrated into a dream.
Underwhelming, as this requires people with rare skills and special requirement to achieve just 18% success rate. For a basic task.
Amazing, because obviously the first time something is achieved with rigor, it's opening some hard to predict room to grow. Hopefully this will bring more research and any decade now we'll see practical applications, say dream manipulation to said psychotherapy.
On integrating outside stimuli, what I’ve always wondered is how wall clock time relates to time in the dream world.
I have a vivid memory of a dream as a kid where I was a fighter pilot, went through a bunch of dream time as a kid’s idea of what fighter pilots did, was eventually shot down/ejected over water and condemned to drown in the dream. I woke up with my mouth stuffed full of my own blanket to the point which was making mouth breathing almost impossible.
Did I start ingesting the blanket and concoct and experience a long dreamtime dream in 3 minutes? Or did the dream take 45+ minutes and I started ingesting the blanket midway through?
This was probably 40 years ago and I can remember it like it was last week.
Maybe I should simplify my question. If my alarm starts ringing at 7:00:00 and this is an instance where that stimulus will be incorporated into a dream which started slightly earlier, can the dream be 4 hours long in dream time, ending with the alarm stimulus, if the dream started at 6:58? Or is there a much smaller (or larger) time dilation possible?
Does the brain speed up to quickly get to a scenario where that alarm sound is plausibly part of the dream world? If I started dreaming 1 second before the alarm, what’s the most complex dream I could experience that ended with an alarm sound?
The brain and dreams are fascinating to me, which is pleasingly meta.
I can confirm this. I literally had zero natural aptitude for dreams and when prior to achieving my first consciously induced lucid dream, thought for a long time that I stopped having dreams (in reality I just was not recalling them).
Does this mean my staff could be asked to get some work done while asleep?
In all seriousness I look forward to seeing exactly how much we can do while lucid dreaming. Also, what are the consequences? Does it cost you the nights rest? or could this be a life hack for getting more done in a day?
There are all sorts of things that are meant to happen during sleep, around learning and similar, that are unlikely to be feasible while you're lucid dreaming, so it might impede learning skills, for example.
When I did extensive lucid dreaming I found my brain was making my dreams more and more boring, I'd guess to reduce the chances of me noticing that I was dreaming.
Nowadays, I retain an awareness of when I'm dreaming, and I interrupt dreams when I'm especially fascinated by something in them or don't like them, but I otherwise let them run their course and don't take control.
No you are rested as if it were a normal dream. But it's not easy to keep focused on something while lucid dreaming, you will likely forget that you are in a dream and no longer be lucid.
I've had a productive coding session in a lucid dream at least once. But it was just a small number of lines of code (a few blocks) I was playing around with, and I had been thinking about it all day. The visual and semantic memory was sort of stuck in my mind, consciously and subconsciously. In any event, it was insanely precise (I was editing on a giant terminal screen) and when I woke up I typed in my refactored algorithm verbatim.
But reading text coherently in a dream is, AFAIU, quite uncommon as you suggest. I used to lucid dream regularly and deliberately as an adolescent. I would hesitate to say you can't focus in a lucid dream--consciously focusing on elements of the dream, or trying to shape the dream, is kind of the point of lucid dreaming. (Of course, what you have most control over is yourself.) But, yeah, you can't usually control things in such fine detail for the duration necessary to coherently manipulate it. Reading any non-trivial text in a dream isn't very common, lucid or not-lucid, AFAIU. Though, I would imagine it's more common for people with experience lucid dreaming.
I'm sure some people can read and write as much as they want, but at a certain point on the curve we're probably dealing with people with abnormal neurology. Sort of like how there's memory palaces and other mnemonic techniques, which anybody can learn, and then there's people with Hyperthymesia.
Something I tried testing once was practicing the guitar while in a lucid dream. I was really interested in whether I'd be able to practice inside a dream and see improvement outside of it. Unfortunately the one time I attempted this, the guitar didn't sound correct, and I woke up moments later. I'm still interested in whether it would be possible, but I unfortunately no longer have the ability to test it.
It should be feasible, given that mental practice seems to work in general (from both studies and anecdotes). When I've tried practicing piano in lucid dreams, I've found the wrong notes sounding even when I press the right keys to be distracting, but if you can ignore 'dream effects', the practice will probably help.
Sure. I've also had a couple non-lucid dreams where I've read a longish excerpt of text. (Memorable because of the extraordinary detail, and because it seemed original.) And I've certainly had non-lucid dreams where I've resolved abstract problems in some inarticulable, non-visual manner. And then there's the experience of your subconscious figuring something out and it pops into your conscious mind, which can happen when sleeping or awake.
I've had enough lucid dreams when I was kid to know the difference. These days lucid dreaming for me is rare and not deliberate--i.e. if I have the presence of mind to wake up in a dream, it's mostly by chance, not because I orchestrated it through habituation. It came mostly naturally as a kid, after I stumbled upon a reproducible technique. Adults usually have to practice at it, and I'm just too lazy (and too tired). The vast majority of my dreams now are non-lucid, or quasi-lucid (i.e. I'm not in deep sleep) such that I know it's not like a proper lucid dream. The experiences are quite different.
Speaking from experience, lucid dreaming is not as restful as normal sleep. Furthermore when I was lucid dreaming often, I would get much more regular bouts of sleep paralysis, which only happens to me when my sleep health has severely deteriorated.
I may disagree, as from my own experience and lucid dreamers I spoke to, lucid dream is not a rest state but more of the awake. After lucid dreaming I am as tired as I did not sleep at all, maybe even more.
I'm pretty sure there's distinction between lucid dreaming during REM sleep and something akin to day dreaming while falling in and out of sleep, which some might still call lucid dreaming. I've experienced both. In the latter you won't feel refreshed in the same way (or at all), similar to when stress or alcohol prevents restful sleep. (Stress or alcohol very well may have setup the conditions for the non-REM dreaming.) In the former you feel the same as you normally would.
I followed the advice of this page http://www.lucidity.com/ which is mostly what other commenters are saying
First step is to get a dream diary next to your bed to write down any dreams before you forget them (note: you forget dreams faster when you move your muscles, so try to write down without moving too much). In the long term, this makes you greatly improve recalling of dreams, which include lucid dreams. see also http://www.lucidity.com/NL11.DreamRecall.html
After that, you need to develop a trigger to distinguish between dreaming and awake states. One idea is to look at a clock, then look away and look back to it - if you're in a dream the display will be completely different each time. You need to repeat this regularly when you are awake - by habit you will repeat this in your dreams too.
Once you successfully discover you're dreaming, don't get too excited! Being to hasty to do stuff in your dreams will most likely make you wake up. You need to appreciate it calmly. see also http://www.lucidity.com/NL7.34.RU.SpinFlowRub.html
Also, the dream maker in your mind will attempt a number of tricks to make you cease the lucid dreaming and get back to regular dreaming, such as false awakening https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/False_awakening - it seems that the mind is really invested in having dreams where you're not aware you're dreaming, that you forget as soon as you start your day.
Be careful with clocks. I semi-intentionally developed clocks-not-looking-right as a dream test and then, not having thought about it for years, got a hilarious moment of disassociation when our conference room clock was broken and I happened to glance at it and see a totally wrong time.
Do reality checks regularly while awake. Try telekinesis, jumping (try to defeat gravity), look for your personal dream signs, that's why keeping a dream journal helps.
So I made a tattoo on my hand not to forget to do reality checks. I got used to it and doesn't work :)
I really, really like closing my nose (with fingers) and mouth and trying to breath. It takes so little time, can be done anywhere and without anyone noticing and seems to work extremely easily in dreams for me. Lot of the other recommendations I've read are much harder. (As in flying or putting a hand through a wall were hard to do at first even when I knew I was dreaming. Looking at clock multiple times requires a clock. And all look weird if done in public)
So my technique is find some situation I'm in pretty often in both dreams and in real life, and do this check every time in that situation. After a while it's like a reflex and sometimes I even think I'm surely not dreaming and get surprised.
I've have an amusing anecdote regarding the closing the nose reality check - I once woke up and was feeling strange. Everything around me looked completely real and in full fidelity but I couldn't shake the feeling off so I attempted to close my nose off to breathing and I couldn't breath through my nose as expected.
I still couldn't shake the feeling though and I attempted it twice more before giving up and concluding that I was just groggy and needed to hydrate so got up and went to the kitchen to get some water. Of course, I suddenly wake up with a jolt. The entire scenario was in fact a false awakening and my brain decided to cuck me.
I think for the reality check to really work, you need to not just perform it but really mentally try to will whatever affect you think will break the illusion. The problem with the above scenario is that as I was performing the reality check, I was doing it idly so my brain could easily emulate the expected effect.
the physics in my lucid dreams are generally quite grounded so I only managed to fly after my third lucid dream. Dream control != dream lucidity. They are separate skill sets that you need to train independently.
I’ve been doing this lately. Basically I read a lot either programming or just browsing forums etc so I dream about a lot of text almost every night. Lately I’ve got to a point where I see some text (in a dream) and try to read it and it’s gibberish. So when I see this text my mind immediately knows that I’m dreaming and im able to “take control” and walk around the dream land. It isn’t anything special and usually I wake up after a few minutes of walking around in confusing land, but this may be because I’ve only just started. I’m not sure why I’m only now beginning to tell this gibberish text, as I wasn’t intending to lucid dream and until it happened I thought it was a myth.
The technique I used when I was younger was blocking my nose and trying to inhale through it at random points throughout the day. If you're dreaming, you'll be able to breathe through a blocked nose. If you turn this into a habit, you'll eventually do it inside of a dream, and become lucid.
The second necessary component is developing your dream recall (it's no use having lucid dreams if you can't remember them). You do this by writing down your dreams in as much detail as possible every morning when you wake up. At first you may only remember a couple of dreams every month, but do this often enough and you'll eventually work your way up to remembering 5-10 dreams every night.
As others have written getting a trigger you regularly practise is key. Some triggers I have used are:
Watches misbehave in dreams, look at it twice to sus it out. Usually the time changes between peeks.
Light switches. They seem to never work in dreams.
Pushing your hand through your chest. This trigger is very easy and quick. Put your fingers to your chest and push against your ribs without look down at your hand. If dreaming the hand will go through without any effort.
Generally our dreaming brains don't seem to deal well with permanence. The trick is to make it a habit to check if you are dreaming regularly, and at some point you'll do it instinctually in a dream and realize that its not reality.
Many people start lucid dreaming after simply learning that this is a thing and thinking about it. That’s how it happened to me: I simply started getting ideas in my dreams of the sort “hey, this is really weird, maybe this is the lucid dream thing I read about”.
It happens to me regularly now, probably something on the order of 1-2 times a week. However, I usually wake up rather soon after this realization, especially if I attempt to exercise any control over a dream, which makes it not very exciting, to be honest.
I didn't do any specific training nor did I plan to lucid dream, it just happened at a point in my life when I meditated a lot. The realisation, ie. that you are asleep and dreaming but aware, is rather special and you can choose to do whatever you like with it. I had some pretty wild experiences "sitting down and meditating" in my lucid dream :) Sadly these days I don't meditate much and I did not have lucid dreams for a while.
Wake-back-to-bed technique, google it. Standard methods of dream recall, dream journal, reality checks during day don't do anything for me. But if I wake up at 3 AM, either with an alarm clock or just psyching myself to do it, stay up for an hour or so and read something to wake my brain up a bit and then go back to bed, there's a good chance I'll have a lucid dream after falling asleep.
I did it twice ages ago, I noticed I was in a dream after realising things that didn't make sense, I was on a bus to school when in reality it was the holidays.
At the time I was also staying at someone else's house so I had that weird feeling of sleeping under a different roof.
Also the whole time I was on the verge of waking up, I could feel my body and had to be careful not to move it while moving in my dream.
Keep a dream journal. Meaning, when you wake up each morning, immediately write down everything from your dreams.
Everyone says they can't do this because they don't remember their dreams, but if you start trying to do it, you will probably find that when you have just woken up, you remember a little, and as you start writing, more comes back to you. Over days of doing this, you will get better at it.
After doing this for a while, try to recognize patterns, particularly specific things that show up with some frequency in your dreams that are indications you are dreaming. For example, there is someone you went to high school with that you encounter semi-often in your dreams, but never see anymore in real life. If you are talking to that person it means you are dreaming.
Try to brainwash yourself, really drill into your head over and over, that when you see this person, you are in a dream, and you should start trying to activate your mind and be conscious of what is going on. Also, really drill into your mind the idea that if you every find yourself vaguely wondering "am I dreaming right now?" the answer is ALWAYS yes.
With luck, the next time you encounter this situation in your dream, there will be a nagging feeling that there was something you were supposed to remember, and then you'll realize what it is and start to wake up your mind within the dream. After a few times, your mind will start to recognize when it is in a dream and become lucid sometimes without the specific trigger.
This is the technique I read in a book decades ago in my early teens and didn't expect it to actually work, but it did. I don't get there regularly (and never did), but I still get to full on lucid maybe once every month or two and it is amazing. It's so incredible to be able to look at the world around you and realize that everything you are seeing is created by your mind.
It gives a deep appreciation for how powerful your mind is and how much more there is to it than just what you are conscious of, since in the dream your conscious mind feels the same as when you are awake, but you know that all of the seemingly external stuff around you and even people that you speak to are also "you". If your conscious mind and everything that seems external to it are really part of the same connected whole when you are dreaming, could the same be true when you're awake?
Even if this approach doesn't work for you, keeping a dream journal for a while can be super interesting anyway.
I haven't seen it in decades, so can't really vouch for it too much. From what I remember, it explained the approach I've outlined above in not much more detail than I just did and most of the rest was filler talking about what dreams are.
>For example, a typical question would be to ask what is 8 minus 6. A 19-year-old American man was able to respond by moving his eyes left-right, left-right — two times — to signal "2." Researchers asked the question again, and he moved his eyes the same way two times again.
I’d have to read the paper but color me skeptical. Moving eyes back and forth twice while sleeping is not exactly a clear signal of anything.
