Did anybody remember who did this studies and how to get them? We want to adress this theme in our german group. Thanks, dreamers
2 Likes
Jayne Gackenbach (2018). The psychology of video games and virtual reality. Academic Press.
In this book, Dr. Gackenbach discusses the relationship between video game play and lucid dreaming, as well as the use of virtual reality in inducing lucid dreams. She also explores the potential of virtual reality as a tool for inducing lucid dreams and the impact that technology may have on the nature of dreams.
Ursula Voss:
(2019). Lucid dreaming: An embodied experience with virtual reality. Frontiers in Psychology, 10, 2955.
In this article, Dr. Voss discusses the potential of virtual reality as a tool for inducing lucid dreams, based on her research exploring the relationship between lucid dreaming and the embodiment of dream experience. She also discusses the use of electrical stimulation to induce lucid dreams and the potential implications of this research for understanding the neural mechanisms underlying consciousness and perception.
Denholm Aspy:
(2018). Reality testing and the mnemonic induction of lucid dreams: Findings from the national Australian lucid dream induction study. Dreaming, 28(2), 77-95.
In this study, Dr. Aspy and his colleagues investigated the effectiveness of reality testing as a technique for inducing lucid dreams. They also explored the relationship between reality testing and other lucid dream induction techniques, including mnemonic induction of lucid dreams (MILD) and the use of virtual reality.
Daniel Erlacher: (2017). Lucid dreaming and virtual reality. In K. Bulkeley, M. L. Schredl, & T. J. Adams (Eds.), The lucid dreaming: New perspectives on consciousness in sleep (pp. 233-247). Santa Barbara, CA: Praeger.
In this book chapter, Dr. Erlacher discusses the potential of virtual reality as a tool for inducing lucid dreams, as well as the results of his study in which participants wore a virtual reality headset while attempting to induce lucid dreams.
Let me know if it is not one of them I will try harder to locate the correct one.
1 Like
The Gackenbach stuff is great. Update on the Voss electrical stimulation study:
Voss’s study using tAC to allegedly stimulate lucid dreaming (as well as a similar study) had significant methodological flaws. A follow-up study using the exact same technique failed to replicate the result.
two experimental demonstrations that frontal electrical stimulation during REM sleep increases dreamed self-awareness (Stumbrys et al., 2013, Voss et al., 2014). First (Stumbrys et al., 2013), transcranial direct current (tDC) stimulation over dorsolateral prefrontal cortex elevated self-rated lucid dreaming relative to a sham condition. Second (Voss et al., 2014), transcranial alternating current (tAC) stimulation at some frequencies—25 Hz and, especially, 40 Hz—over frontal regions increased dreamed self-awareness relative to sham in lucid dreaming-naïve participants.
These stimulation studies may herald discovery of an experimental approach to inducing novel hybrid states of reflective awareness during sleep. If reliable, the methods would greatly simplify efforts to uncover the neural correlates of sleep-related consciousness using EEG or other brain imaging platforms. However, both stimulation studies produced relatively weak effects and possessed methodological flaws that may have impeded a more robust production of the phenomenon. Key among these flaws were an absence of gold standard identification of lucid dreaming with pre-arranged signalling (LaBerge, Nagel, Dement, & Zarcone, 1981), a very low threshold for accepting participant self-ratings as evidence for self-awareness, and violation of assumptions of case independence for statistical comparisons, i.e., treating multiple dreams from individuals as wholly independent observations (thus increasing risk of Type I errors) (Kenny and Judd, 1986, Zimmerman et al., 1992). These studies also decreased the likelihood of inducing lucid dreams by selecting lucid dreaming-naĂŻve participants (Voss et al., 2014) and using nighttime sleep protocols (Stumbrys et al., 2013, Voss et al., 2014) which miss the circadian peak in REM sleep propensity that is captured by a mid-morning nap (Webb, Agnew, & Sternthal, 1966).
SOURCE: Attempted induction of signaled lucid dreaming by transcranial alternating current stimulation, Cloé Blanchette-Carrière et. al.,
2 Likes
Wow, that’s phantastic. Thank you for your support. That’s exactly the stuff I was looking for. I only knew the research of Jayne Gackenbach.
2 Likes
I’ve been using MetaQuest VR for about four years. Alternatively, now and then, trying to induce lucidity through flying over a city in VR.
From a Reddit post I came across recently : It seems pretty clear that VR can help people see the illusory nature of regular reality if they’re directed or instructed to look at it in that way. No different from a dream analogy, really, which is common in Buddhism. Dream analogies clearly aren’t necessary for enlightenment, so neither are VR analogies, but they’re still useful tools. In the same way, you could swap out “awakening” and “taking off the headset” and get a similar, albeit slightly different, effect.
1 Like