Donders Institute for Brain, Cognition and Behaviour, Radboud University Medical Centre, Nijmegen, The Netherlands.
Department of Psychology, Philipps University, Marburg, Germany.
Philos Trans R Soc Lond B Biol Sci. 2021 Feb;376(1817):20190697. doi: 10.1098/rstb.2019.0697. Epub 2020 Dec 14.
Metacognitive reflections on one's current state of mind are largely absent during dreaming. Lucid dreaming as the exception to this rule is a rare phenomenon; however, its occurrence can be facilitated through cognitive training. A central idea of respective training strategies is to regularly question one's phenomenal experience: is the currently experienced world , or just a dream? Here, we tested if such lucid dreaming training can be enhanced with dream-like virtual reality (VR): over the course of four weeks, volunteers underwent lucid dreaming training in VR scenarios comprising dream-like elements, classical lucid dreaming training or no training. We found that VR-assisted training led to significantly stronger increases in lucid dreaming compared to the no-training condition. Eye signal-verified lucid dreams during polysomnography supported behavioural results. We discuss the potential mechanisms underlying these findings, in particular the role of synthetic dream-like experiences, incorporation of VR content in dream imagery serving as memory cues, and extended dissociative effects of VR session on subsequent experiences that might amplify lucid dreaming training during wakefulness. This article is part of the theme issue 'Offline perception: voluntary and spontaneous perceptual experiences without matching external stimulation'.
在做梦时，人们对当前思维状态的元认知反思基本上是不存在的。清醒梦是该规则的例外，是一种罕见的现象；然而，它的发生可以通过认知训练来促进。相应训练策略的一个核心思想是定期质疑自己的现象体验：当前体验的世界，还是只是一个梦？在这里，我们测试了这种清醒梦训练是否可以通过类似梦境的虚拟现实 (VR) 来增强：在四周的时间里，志愿者在包含类似梦境元素的 VR 场景中进行清醒梦训练、经典的清醒梦训练或不进行训练。我们发现，与不训练的情况相比，VR 辅助训练导致清醒梦的显著增强。多导睡眠图中的眼信号验证清醒梦支持了行为结果。我们讨论了这些发现背后的潜在机制，特别是合成类似梦境体验的作用、将 VR 内容纳入梦境意象作为记忆线索，以及 VR 对随后的分离效果的扩展，这可能会在清醒状态下放大清醒梦训练。本文是“离线感知：没有匹配外部刺激的自愿和自发感知体验”主题问题的一部分。
