Body awareness and motor learning in lucid dreams

The current SNF project, "The Embodied Dreaming Project - Linking Body Stimulation and Virtual Reality Training to Lucid Dreaming" (10001CM_201074), investigates how external stimuli to the human senses (balance, touch, hand movement) are incorporated into dreaming events and how these stimuli can be combined to reliably induce lucid dreaming (Erlacher et al., 2020; Paul et al., 2014; for eye signals for lucidity, see video). This project will provide new insights into body-related dream content at both the cognitive and neural levels. This will allow us to reliably develop a potentially highly effective new strategy for inducing lucid dreaming; further, paving the way for applications in research, medical treatment, sports, and everyday life (Dresler, Braid et al., 2022). Lucid dreaming has a variety of applications in sleep research, clinical practice, sports, and everyday life. In several studies, we demonstrated that motor learning processes were improved by training in lucid dreaming (Schädlich & Erlacher, 2018, Schädlich et al, 2017; Stumbrys et al, 2016).

Selected Publications:

Erlacher, D., Schmid, D., Schuler, S. & Rasch, B. (2020). Inducing lucid dreams by olfactory-cued reactivation of reality testing during early-morning sleep: A proof of concept. Consciousness and Cognition, 83:102975. 10.1016/j.concog.2020.102975

Paul, F., Schädlich, M. & Erlacher, D. (2014). Lucid dream induction by visual and tactile stimulation: An exploratory sleep laboratory study. International Journal of Dream Research, 7(1), 61–66. 10.11588/ijodr.2014.1.13044

Schädlich, M. & Erlacher, D. (2018). Practicing sports in lucid dreams – characteristics, effects, and practical implications. Current Issues in Sport Science, 3:007. 10.15203/CISS_2018.007

Schädlich, M., Erlacher, D. & Schredl, M. (2017). Improvement of darts performance following lucid dream practice depends on the number of distractions while rehearsing within the dream – a sleep laboratory pilot study. Journal of Sports Sciences, 35(23), 2365–2372. 10.1080/02640414.2016.1267387

Stumbrys, T., Erlacher, D. & Schredl, M. (2016). Effectiveness of motor practice in lucid dreams: a comparison with physical and mental practice. Journal of Sports Sciences, 34(1), 27–34. 10.1080/02640414.2015.1030342

Literature:

Dresler, M., Baird, B., Erlacher, D., Czisch, M., Spoormaker, V. I. & LaBerge, S. (2022). Lucid dreaming. In M. Kryger, T. Roth, C. A. Goldstein & W. C. Dement (Hrsg.), Principles and practice of sleep medicine (7th ed., pp. 579–585). Elsevier.

Contact:

Daniel Erlacher