Inception is here: Researchers “talk” to lucid dreamers for the first time

New studies show that some people can hear and respond to questions while dreaming.

DEREK BERES23 February, 2021

Credit: slayer87 / Adobe Stock

• Four research teams in four countries independently communicated with sleeping volunteers.
• A total of 36 participants correctly responded to questions 18.6% of the time.
• Researchers believe this could open up new avenues for treating anxiety, depression, and trauma.

From Leonardo DiCaprio to Freddie Krueger, pop culture has long been fascinated with the idea of entering someone else’s dreams to influence their thoughts—or steal their souls. Of course, dreams have a much longer track record than blockbuster movies. We’ve long been enthralled with the possibilities of what occurs when we drift off into that “other” world.

But what if that world isn’t as “other” as we believed?

Unlike many studies, which are conducted by one team of researchers, four teams in four labs in four countries (France, Germany, the Netherlands, and the United States) recently attempted to communicate through dreams. The results were published in the journal, Current Biology.

In total, 36 volunteers—a number of lucid dreamers and some novices who claim to remember at least one dream per week—were asked a total of 158 questions. Methods of replying ranged from smiling and frowning to eye movements. The German team went so far as to request Morse code tapped out with eye patterns in a display of, as the team writes, “interactive dreaming.”

While lucid dreaming dates back to at least the writings of Aristotle, the term was coined in 1913 by Dutch psychiatrist Frederik van Eeden, who identified seven types of dreams. He believed lucid dreaming was “the most interesting and worthy of the most careful observation and study.” Lucid dreaming is described as the ability to take control of elements of the dream due to an awareness that you’re dreaming.

A link between lucid dreams and the rapid eye movement (REM) phase of sleep was first made in 1975 by Keith Hearne. Roughly half of the population experiences at least one lucid dream in their lives, though some people regularly have them—some even train for them.

Philosophy professor Evan Thompson investigates the intersection between Buddhism and lucid dreaming in consciousness studies. In his book “Waking, Dreaming, Being,” he describes what occurs when you experience metacognition—in this case, an awareness that you’re awake while asleep—while dreaming.

“Use your imagination to manipulate the dream. Be playful. Change things and transform them… Explore the plasticity of the dream. In this way, the mind’s supple nature will manifest, and you’ll gain a deeper understanding of the dreamscape as a mental construct, a product of imagination.”