Query: consciousness and lucid dreaming

title: Pre sleep treatment with galantamine stimulates lucid dreaming: A double blind, placebo controlled, crossover study
abstract: Lucid dreaming is a remarkable state of consciousness in which one is aware of the fact that one is dreaming while continuing to dream. Based on the strong relationship between physiological activation during rapid eye movement sleep and lucid dreaming, our pilot research investigated whether enhancing cortical activation via acetylcholinesterease inhibition (AChEI) would increase the frequency of lucid dreams and found AChEI to be a promising method for lucid dream induction. In the current study we sought to quantify the size and reliability of the effect of AChEI on lucid dreaming, dream recall and dream content as well as to test the effectiveness of an integrated lucid dream induction protocol which combined cholinergic stimulation with other methods for lucid dream induction. Participants (N 121) with high dream recall and an interest in lucid dreaming were randomly assigned counterbalanced orders of 3 doses of galantamine (0, 4 and 8 mg) On 3 consecutive nights, they awoke approximately 4.5 hours after lights out, recalled a dream, ingested the capsules and stayed out of bed for at least 30 minutes. Participants then returned to bed and practiced the Mnemonic Induction of Lucid Dreams technique while returning to sleep. The percentage of participants who reported a lucid dream was significantly increased for both 4 mg (27% odds ratio 2.29) and 8 mg doses (42% odds ratio 4.46) compared to the active placebo procedure (14% Galantamine also significantly increased dream recall, sensory vividness and complexity (p<0.05) Dream recall, cognitive clarity, control, positive emotion, vividness and self reflection were increased during lucid compared to non lucid dreams (p<0.0001) These results show that galantamine increases the frequency of lucid dreams in a dose related manner. Furthermore, the integrated method of taking galantamine in the last third of the night with at least 30 minutes of sleep interruption and with an appropriately focused mental set is one of the most effective methods for inducing lucid dreams available today.

title: Frequent lucid dreaming associated with increased functional connectivity between frontopolar cortex and temporoparietal association areas
abstract: Humans typically lack awareness that they are dreaming while dreaming. However, at times a remarkable exception occurs and reflective consciousness can be regained while dreaming, referred to as lucid dreaming. While most individuals experience lucid dreams rarely there is substantial variance in lucid dream frequency. The neurobiological basis of lucid dreaming is unknown, but evidence points to involvement of anterior prefrontal cortex (aPFC) and parietal cortex. This study evaluated the neuroanatomical/neurofunctional correlates of frequent lucid dreams and specifically whether functional connectivity of aPFC is associated with frequent lucid dreams. We analyzed structural and functional magnetic resonance imaging from an exceptional sample of fourteen individuals who reported =3 lucid dreams/week and a control group matched on age, gender and dream recall that reported =1 lucid dream/year. Compared to controls, the frequent lucid dream group showed significantly increased resting state functional connectivity between left aPFC and bilateral angular gyrus, bilateral middle temporal gyrus and right inferior frontal gyrus, and higher node degree and strength in left aPFC. In contrast, no significant differences in brain structure were observed. Our results suggest that frequent lucid dreaming is associated with increased functional connectivity between aPFC and temporoparietal association areas, regions normally deactivated during sleep.

title: Insight and Dissociation in Lucid Dreaming and Psychosis
abstract: Dreams and psychosis share several important features regarding symptoms and underlying neurobiology, which is helpful in constructing a testable model of, for example, schizophrenia and delirium. The purpose of the present communication is to discuss two major concepts in dreaming and psychosis that have received much attention in the recent literature: insight and dissociation. Both phenomena are considered functions of higher order consciousness because they involve metacognition in the form of reflective thought and attempted control of negative emotional impact. Insight in dreams is a core criterion for lucid dreams. Lucid dreams are usually accompanied by attempts to control the dream plot and dissociative elements akin to depersonalization and derealization. These concepts are also relevant in psychotic illness. Whereas insightfulness can be considered innocuous in lucid dreaming and even advantageous in psychosis, the concept of dissociation is still unresolved. The present review compares correlates and functions of insight and dissociation in lucid dreaming and psychosis. This is helpful in understanding the two concepts with regard to psychological function as well as neurophysiology.

title: Phenomenal consciousness, access consciousness and self across waking and dreaming: bridging phenomenology and neuroscience
abstract: The distinction between phenomenal and access consciousness is central to debates about consciousness and its neural correlates. However, this distinction has often been limited to the domain of perceptual (visual) experiences. On the basis of dream phenomenology and neuroscientific findings this paper suggests a theoretical framework which extends this distinction to dreaming, also in terms of plausible neural correlates. In this framework, phenomenal consciousness is involved in both waking perception and dreaming, whereas access consciousness is weakened, but not fully eliminated, during dreaming. However, access consciousness is more active during lucid dreaming. The proposed framework accounts for different aspects of dream phenomenology, including levels of integration of perceptual, cognitive and affective features in dreams, bizarreness, dream amnesia and the occurrence of meta awareness and accessibility in lucid dreaming. Self related experiences and their neural substrates are suggested to be differently involved in waking cognition and dreaming. Further, phenomenal consciousness during both waking and dream experiences involve widespread recurrent interactions and convergence divergence zones in the thalamo cortico limbic system, activated before conscious access in global workspace areas. Finally, we discuss the relationships of the proposed framework with other neurocognitive theories and models of consciousness and major theories of dreaming, and propose novel experimental predictions.

title: Lucid dreaming: Paradoxes of dreaming consciousness.
abstract: I briefly looked back. The person following me did not look like an ordinary human being; he was as tall as a giant and reminded me of Rubezahl [a mountain spirit in German legend] Now it was fully clear to me that I was undergoing a dream, and with a great sense of relief I continued running away. Then it suddenly occurred to me that I did not have to escape but was capable of doing something else. I remembered my plan of talking to other persons during the dream. So I stopped running, turned around, and allowed the pursuer to approach me. Then I asked him what it actually was that he wanted. His answer was: "How am I supposed to know? After all, this is your dream and, moreover, you studied psychology and not me." (Tholey, 1987, p. 97; translated in Metzinger, 2009, p. 146)

title: Running head: A REVIEW OF LUCID DREAMING 1! Being Comfortable Inside Your Own Dream: A Systematic Review of Lucid Dreaming Barron Banks Reigel Wofford College A REVIEW OF LUCID DREAMING
abstract: The purpose of this paper is to examine current literature on lucid dreaming pertaining to cognition, consciousness, personality, health, and other benefits. This paper also discusses ways to induce lucidity. Lucid dreaming is the state of consciousness when the dreamer is aware that they are dreaming. Dreaming serves to make sense of random action potentials firing in the brain, but lucidity allows the dream to be controlled. Controlling a dream could give the dreamer a greater sense of control over their life and even remedy nightmares (Schadlich Erlacher, 2012) Lucid dreaming allows the dreamer to complete wake state intentions in their dreams and can be useful for problem solving. Self reports are the most effective way to obtain information about lucid dreams.

title: Fading light and sluggish flight: A two dimensional model of consciousness in lucid dreams
abstract: In the interest of correlating subjective dream experience with emergent models for dreaming consciousness, the following hypothesis is considered: A variety of anomalies occurring in lucid dreaming suggest that there are two distinct modes of awareness available in the lucid state focused and objectifying awareness (FOA) and relational immersive awareness (RIA) and that these distinct modes impact the phenomenology of the lucid experience in clearly observable ways. While this hypothesis may raise questions about neural processes and large scale networks, this paper focuses principally on the phenomenological features of these two modes of awareness.

title: Lucid Dreaming and Consciousness: A Theoretical Investigation

title: Lucid dreaming incidence: A quality effects meta analysis of 50years of research
abstract: We report a quality effects meta analysis on studies from the period 1966 2016 measuring either (a) lucid dreaming prevalence (one or more lucid dreams in a lifetime) (b) frequent lucid dreaming (one or more lucid dreams in a month) or both. A quality effects meta analysis allows for the minimisation of the influence of study methodological quality on overall model estimates. Following sensitivity analysis, a heterogeneous lucid dreaming prevalence data set of 34 studies yielded a mean estimate of 55% 95% C. I. [49% 62% for which moderator analysis showed no systematic bias for suspected sources of variability. A heterogeneous lucid dreaming frequency data set of 25 studies yielded a mean estimate of 23% 95% C. I. [20% 25% moderator analysis revealed no suspected sources of variability. These findings are consistent with earlier estimates of lucid dreaming prevalence and frequent lucid dreaming in the population but are based on more robust evidence.

title: Lucid dreaming: discontinuity or continuity in consciousness?
abstract: The notions of continuity and discontinuity are discussed in relation to the phenomenon of lucid dreaming (awareness of dreaming while dreaming) Lucid dreams seem to be more dreamlike than non lucid dreams both in terms of their content and REM sleep physiology and therefore are more discontinuous with our waking experience. They also seem to represent some "crack" discontinuity in the ordinary autocreative process of dreaming or in the state of protoconsciousness as suggested by Hobson. However, it is argued here that the notion of lucidity in dreams, which is comparable to the notion of mindfulness in wakefulness, presents a possible continuity in self reflective awareness or consciousness across the whole sleep wake cycle.