Erlacher Daniel, Stumbrys Tadas
Institute of Sport Science, University of Bern, Bern, Switzerland.
Institute of Psychology, Faculty of Philosophy, Vilnius University, Vilnius, Lithuania.
Front Psychol. 2020 Jun 26;11:1383. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2020.01383. eCollection 2020.
Lucid dreaming offers many opportunities to study consciousness processes. However, laboratory research in this area is limited because frequent lucid dreamers are rare. Several studies demonstrated that different methods of induction could increase the number of lucid dreams. In four field studies, a combination of a wake-up-back-to-bed (WBTB) sleep protocol and a mnemonic technique (MILD) showed promising results. To further investigate the effectiveness of this combined approach, we conducted a sleep laboratory experiment with four different conditions. The general experimental procedure was the following: Participants were awakened after 6 h of sleep from a subsequent REM period and kept awake for 30 or 60 min, during which they were asked to practice MILD or a control task (e.g., reading). Then they returned to bed for a morning sleep period. In the first condition eleven sport students, who attended a seminar on sleep and dreams, spent one night in a sleep laboratory. To avoid biases due to the seminar attendance (e.g., higher motivation), in the second condition 15 participants who did not attend the seminar were recruited. In the third condition, 14 sport students were tested with a shorter awakening period (30 min). Finally, the fourth condition served as a control condition, whereas eleven sport students slept two non-consecutive nights in a laboratory. Instead of MILD, in one night the participants read a book (fiction, unrelated to dreams), while in the other night they played a Nintendo Wii video game. In the first three conditions, six (54%), eight (53%), and five participants (36%) reported lucid dreams during the morning sleep period, whereas three, (27%), four (27%), and two participants (14%) produced PSG-verified eye signals. In contrast, in the reading condition, only one (9%) participant reported lucid dreams and no eye movements. No lucid dreams were observed in the Wii condition. The findings of the present study show that by using a combination of WBTB and MILD, lucid dreams can be effectively induced in people who are not selected for their lucid dream abilities.
清醒梦为研究意识过程提供了诸多机会。然而，该领域的实验室研究受到限制，因为频繁做清醒梦的人很罕见。多项研究表明，不同的诱导方法可以增加清醒梦的数量。在四项实地研究中，睡醒再睡（WBTB）睡眠方案与记忆诱导清醒梦技术（MILD）相结合显示出了有前景的结果。为了进一步探究这种组合方法的有效性，我们进行了一项包含四种不同条件的睡眠实验室实验。一般的实验步骤如下：参与者在睡眠6小时后从随后的快速眼动期被唤醒，并保持清醒30或60分钟，在此期间他们被要求练习MILD或一项对照任务（例如阅读）。然后他们回到床上进行晨睡阶段。在第一种条件下，11名参加了关于睡眠与梦的研讨会的体育专业学生在睡眠实验室度过了一晚。为避免因参加研讨会而产生的偏差（例如更高的积极性），在第二种条件下招募了15名未参加研讨会的参与者。在第三种条件下，14名体育专业学生接受了更短唤醒期（30分钟）的测试。最后，第四种条件作为对照条件，11名体育专业学生在实验室睡了两个非连续的夜晚。参与者在其中一晚读一本书（小说，与梦无关），而在另一晚玩任天堂Wii电子游戏。在前三种条件下，分别有6名（54%）、8名（53%）和5名参与者（36%）在晨睡阶段报告做了清醒梦，而分别有3名（27%）、4名（27%）和2名参与者（14%）产生了经多导睡眠图（PSG）验证的眼动信号。相比之下，在阅读条件下，只有1名（9%）参与者报告做了清醒梦且没有眼动。在玩Wii的条件下未观察到清醒梦。本研究的结果表明，通过结合使用WBTB和MILD，可以在未因清醒梦能力而被挑选的人群中有效诱导出清醒梦。
