No effect of α‑GPC on lucid dream induction or dream content

Abstract

A lucid dream is a dream in which one is aware of the fact that one is dreaming. Various cognitive and technical methods exist to induce lucid dreaming, most of which show only little success when tested scientifically. Until now, only few studies have dealt with inducing lucid dreaming by supplements, with, however, promising results. We have continued this line of research by conducting a double-blind randomized placebo-controlled field study in order to investigate pharmacological lucid dream induction using L‑alpha-glycerylphosphorylcholine (α-GPC), a prescription-free drug acting as an acetylcholine precursor. Additionally, we tested whether cholinergic activation changes dream emotions or bizarreness. Following the baseline night with placebo, 23 participants with little lucid dreaming experience and 10 participants with advanced experience were administered a placebo on one night and 1200 mg of α‑GPC on one night. The Lucidity and Consciousness in Dreams (LuCiD) scale was used to measure the level of dream lucidity. In addition, dream reports were collected to analyse dream content alterations. Out of 75 dreams in total, six were rated as lucid: two in the baseline condition, two in the placebo condition and two in the α‑GPC condition. There was no significant alteration of dream content such as dream emotions or bizarreness. Thus, previous anecdotal findings about lucidity-promoting or dream-altering effects of α‑GPC were not confirmed in our study.