Connecting Worlds: The Effort to Harness the True Potential of Lucid Dreaming | Neuroscience

IImagine a world where you can solve problems, create art or music, or even improve your tennis game while you sleep. If scientists working on lucid dreaming have their way, this world could become a reality sooner than we think.

Researchers are developing techniques that may enable more people to experience lucid dreaming — a state of consciousness in which a person is aware that they are dreaming and can identify their thoughts and emotions while doing so — and transfer the content of these dreams into their waking lives.

In recent months they have shown that it is possible to transmit the rhythm of dream music, turn on a real kettle, and control a virtual car on a computer screen from within a lucid dream.

“Sooner or later, there will be ways or tools that allow anyone to experience lucid dreams easily or relatively easily, and we are looking for ways to connect these two worlds together,” said Michael Radoja, founder and CEO of Oracle. Reem Space Company“Even for people who don’t think they’re smart, their subconscious is huge, and hopefully we can turn all that information into reality,” according to the Redwood City, California-based sleep research company that led the studies.

Although not everyone can do this, Almost half Nearly one-fifth of the population has experienced at least one lucid dream in their lifetime, and about one-fifth experiences it once a month or more.

An international group of researchers published a research paper in Current Biology Several years ago, this theory proposed that it was possible to ask people questions, either vocally or using Morse code communicated via flashing lights, while they were in a lucid dream—including basic mathematical calculations—and for dreamers to answer using eye movements or by contracting facial muscles to convey yes/no or numerical answers.

Since then, Raduga and his colleagues have been working to extend these techniques to expand the communication between dreamers and the waking world. Last year, they showed that it is possible Communication with musical rhythms Through lucid dreaming, people are taught to tense their arm muscles in time with a piece of music while they are awake, and then apply the same technique to convey the same musical rhythm while they are in a lucid dream.

Although the muscles are largely paralyzed during REM sleep, they still produce subtle contractions that can be detected by electrical sensors on the skin. The next step is to use this method to transmit the unique musical textures of lucid dreams.

Raduga said the study was inspired by a dream he had as a teenager, in which he saw the German rock band Rammstein perform a piece. “It was the best song ever,” he said. “I’m not a musician, but my mind, and maybe other people’s minds, are capable of creating better music than people actually do.”

In another recent study, he and his colleagues converted electrical impulses from the dreamer’s hand and facial muscles into commands for a smart speaker that enabled it to operate a real light bulb, an electric kettle, and a radio. It was triggered from within their dream.indicating the possibility of performing morning tasks while sleeping.

In another study, activity was observed in the biceps, forearm, and thigh muscles of dreamers. Connected to a virtual carIn this study, researchers used a novel technique to train dreamers to drive using their awake muscle contractions. After brain recordings confirmed that they were in REM sleep, flashes of light were used to signal to the dreamers that they needed to turn 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.

“It shows that it is possible to connect these two worlds,” says Raduga. “It’s small steps, but in 10 or 20 years, people can accomplish things in their work or personal life before they wake up.”

Other researchers have questioned the usefulness of driving a virtual car or turning on a kettle while we sleep, but say that the ability to communicate dream content using several different muscle groups, with contractions for different lengths of time, could expand the complexity of information that can be conveyed from dreams.

“Once we can communicate in both directions, dream research can move forward, because you can ask people follow-up questions; perhaps give them more challenging cognitive tasks to better understand how the awake brain differs from the sleeping brain,” he said. Dr. Christopher Apple At the University of Osnabrück in Germany, who co-authored a paper in the journal Current Biology, said: “At the moment, we have to rely on dream reports. [once people have woken up]”Which may be distorted.”

Emma PetersA PhD student at the University of Bern in Switzerland, who is researching ways to increase the frequency of lucid dreams, she believes they could one day be used to aid physical recovery in stroke patients or improve athletic performance. There is already evidence from her lab and others that practicing physical movements such as throwing darts or flipping a coin while in lucid dreams can help improve athletic performance. Improve real-life performance.

There may be a problem though: “Although the point of sale [of lucid dreams] “The problem is that you control everything, so you can do whatever you want, but the problem is that you control everything,” says Peters. “Let’s say you want to go alpine skiing: you can go up the slope and enjoy the weather, but you might as well go down the mountain and end up in outer space.”

Lucid dreams are also difficult to induce, even for experienced practitioners, which limits their application. “At this point, we are still trying to find ways to make lucid dreams more vivid. [more] “The next step will be to find ways to better exercise control over dreams,” Peters said.

There may already be ways to start harvesting the creative potential of the sleeping brain. Laura Rocklecher At Swansea University an investigation is underway into whether teaching creative writers Poets Lucid dreaming may improve the quality of their writing.

She has already gathered evidence that these individuals may be more prone to lucid dreams. Previous studies have suggested that about 45 percent of the population can be trained to lucid dream, but so far, 83 percent of the 29 writers Rockler has worked with have had at least one lucid dream after eight weeks of training.

To harvest ideas from these dreams, Rockler encourages writers to set a work-related intention for themselves while they sleep, such as “find a new story idea” or “meet one of my dream characters.”

In a recent, unpublished study, she asked independent judges to rate the short stories writers produced before and after dream training. “All of them seemed to improve after training on a range of measures, from emotional content to symbolism, setting, character, and plot,” she said.

Rockler believes other groups could also benefit from this kind of approach: “Many studies have looked at how different aspects of dreaming can help with creativity by generating more original ideas or solving problems, and this can be applied across all fields, from the arts to the sciences to business.

“I think the biggest benefit is originality. In today’s world where AI generates ideas, where most stories are the same thing and so on, by looking at your dreams — and especially becoming lucid in your dreams — you can find more original ideas.”

How to lucid dream

Various exercises have been designed to help people lucid dream, and researchers are developing others.

• Dream journaling: Every morning, as soon as you wake up, write down everything you remember about your dreams, or use a voice recorder to do the same. Doing this can help you become more aware of your dreams, allowing you to become more aware of them once you fall asleep.

• Reality Test: This exercise, done during waking hours, trains the brain to better distinguish between dreams and reality, which may enhance clarity of vision once you fall asleep. At regular intervals throughout the day, stop and carefully assess your surroundings, looking for anything unusual that might indicate you are dreaming.

• Determine the intention: Some people can increase the frequency of their lucid dreams simply by telling themselves that they will become aware of them while they are dreaming, for example by repeating a phrase such as “As soon as I fall asleep, I will remember that I am dreaming.”

• Back to bed: Most dreams occur during REM sleep, which is most prevalent during the second half of the night. By setting an alarm to wake you up an hour or so earlier than usual, and then going back to sleep, you may increase the chances of falling straight into a dream. Telling yourself that you will become conscious in this dream may also help.

• External motivation: Several recent studies designed to communicate with people during lucid dreams have used gentle vibrations, electrical stimulation, or flashing lights during REM sleep to cue the person to become conscious in their dream and send a signal. Some of these methods are also being investigated as a tool to increase the frequency of lucid dreams.