EEG was recorded for 2–5 nights per subject. Submental EMG electrodes were fixed at the chin. EOG was taken from the outer canthi of both eyes and supraorbitally to the left eye. Electrodes were referenced to linked mastoids (bandpass filter 0.3–100 Hz, sampling rate 200 Hz).
Scalp EEG electrodes were placed at 19 positions (10-20 system). As subjects confirmed literature reports stating that lucid dreams commonly occur after several hours of sleep, during later REM periods, 1, 3 they were allowed to sleep in. Participants reported to the sleep laboratory 2 hours prior to their usual bedtime. They gave written consent to participate and received 50 Euro per night as compensation. These 6 were invited to the sleep laboratory of the Frankfurt University. After 4 months, 6 subjects had claimed to be lucid more than 3 times per week. The current study, thus, targets lucid control dreams.īecause lucidity can be self-induced, it constitutes not only an opportunity to study the brain basis of conscious states but also demonstrates how a voluntary intervention can change those states.Ī group of 20 undergraduate students of psychology at Bonn University took part in weekly lucidity training sessions. Such signal-verified lucid dreams, in which dreamers not only realize that they are currently dreaming, but are also able to deliberately control their own behavior, enabling them to signal lucidity by making prearranged patterns of eye movements, constitute lucid control dreams.
In combination with retrospective reports confirming that lucidity was attained and that the eye movement signals were executed, these voluntary eye movements can be used as behavioral indication of lucidity in the sleeping, dreaming subject, as evidenced by EEG and EMG tracings of sleep. An experimental advantage is that subjects can signal that they have become lucid by making a sequence of voluntary eye movements. 1 – 5 Subjects often succeed in becoming lucid when they tell themselves, before going to sleep, to recognize that they are dreaming by noticing the bizarre events of the dream. However, subjects can be trained to become lucid via pre-sleep autosuggestion. 1Īn obstacle to experimental studies of lucid dreams is that spontaneous lucidity is quite rare. Lucid dreams are generally thought to arise from non-lucid dreams in REM sleep. Lucid dreaming is the experience of achieving conscious awareness of dreaming while still asleep.
OUR WORKING HYPOTHESIS WAS THAT THE BRAIN must change state if the mind changes state. THE GOAL OF THE STUDY WAS TO SEEK ELECTROPHYSIOLOGICAL CORRELATES OF LUCID DREAMING.
0 kommentar(er)
