Sleep fragmentation and lucid dreaming.

Jarrod Gott,Michael Rak,Emma Peters,Anastasia Mangiaruga,Luke Gorman,Lucia Talamini,Steven Wilson,Rathiga Varatheeswaran,Carmen F.M Van Hooijdonk,Axel Steiger,Frederik Weber,Martin Dresler,Mahmoud Chaabou,Leonore Bovy

doi:10.1016/j.concog.2020.102988

Abstract

Lucid dreaming-the phenomenon of experiencing waking levels of self-reflection within one's dreams-is associated with more wake-like levels of neural activation in prefrontal brain regions. In addition, alternating periods of wakefulness and sleep might increase the likelihood of experiencing a lucid dream. Here we investigate the association between sleep fragmentation and lucid dreaming, with a multi-centre study encompassing four different investigations into subjective and objective measures of sleep fragmentation, nocturnal awakenings, sleep quality and polyphasic sleep schedules. Results across these four studies provide a more nuanced picture into the purported connection between sleep fragmentation and lucid dreaming: While self-assessed numbers of awakenings, polyphasic sleep and physiologically validated wake-REM sleep transitions were associated with lucid dreaming, neither self-assessed sleep quality, nor physiologically validated numbers of awakenings were. We discuss these results, and their underlying neural mechanisms, within the general question of whether sleep fragmentation and lucid dreaming share a causal link.

Highlights

Lucid dreaming is a distinct phenomenon whereby waking levels of self-reflection and insight are made available to within one’s dreams (Baird et al, 2019)
We found no significant correlation between nocturnal awakenings as measured by Pittsburgh Sleep Quality index (PSQI) question 5b and lucid dreaming as measured by the DLQ score (r = −0.02, p = 0.88) during the 6-weeks period
We varied the temporal parameters to determine whether these were adequate, and justifiable for re-employment in future analyses. Since both of these variables were chosen somewhat arbitrarily, it was pertinent to investigate whether lucidity from previous REM epochs could have been driving some of the questionnaire answers; and whether the 5-minute wake-REM sequence was optimal for capturing the observable phenomena in question, at its maximal statistical power

Summary

Introduction

Lucid dreaming is a distinct phenomenon whereby waking levels of self-reflection and insight are made available to within one’s dreams (Baird et al, 2019). Consciousness and Cognition 84 (2020) 102988 increased incidence of lucid dreaming. Patients with narcolepsy, who experience fragmented sleep during the night and sleep attacks during day, report significantly increased lucid dreaming frequency (Rak et al, 2015; Dodet et al, 2015). Lucid dreaming frequency has found to be associated with the self-reported number of nocturnal awakenings, and alarm clock ‘snooze’ function usage during morning sleep (Smith and Blagrove, 2015). In experimental studies, extended periods of wakefulness during morning hours increases the chance to dream lucidly in subsequent sleep periods (LaBerge et al, 1994; Appel et al, 2020; Erlacher & Stumbrys, 2020); a technique known as the ‘wake-back-to-bed’ method (Stumbrys et al, 2012)

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