Researchers say two-way communication is possible with people who are asleep and dreaming.
Specifically, with people who are lucid dreaming — that is, dreaming while being aware you're dreaming.
In separate experiments, scientists in the U.S., France, Germany and the Netherlands asked people simple questions while they slept. Sleepers would respond by moving their eyes or twitching their faces in a certain way to indicate their answers.
"Since the '80s, we've known that lucid dreamers can communicate out of dreams by using these signals," says Karen Konkoly, a Ph.D. student at Northwestern University who is the first author on the study published this month in Current Biology.
"But we were wondering, can we also communicate in? Can we ask people questions that they could actually hear in their dreams that we could kind of have a more meaningful conversation?"
They were studying rapid-eye-movement sleep, which is the stage of sleep where people dream most vividly. In REM sleep, "every muscle in your body is completely paralyzed, except you can twitch and you can move your eyes," Konkoly tells Scott Simon on Weekend Edition. "So if you become lucid in a dream and you want to communicate, then when people are dreaming, they just look left-right, left-right, really dramatically. And then we know that they're communicating out."
Lucid dreaming is not common. So to study it, researchers recruited people who had experience with it and also trained people to try to make lucid dreaming more likely.
Before the participants went to sleep, they were also trained on how to communicate their answers. Special sensors measured people's eye movements or experts would judge their facial movements.
For example, a typical question would be to ask what is 8 minus 6. A 19-year-old American man was able to respond by moving his eyes left-right, left-right — two times — to signal "2." Researchers asked the question again, and he moved his eyes the same way two times again.
Out of the 158 trials among 36 participants, about 18% of the time, they were able to give correct answers. In another 18%, it wasn't clear whether participants were responding or not. They were wrong 3% of the time. Most often, 61%, participants didn't respond at all.
For the people dreaming, they didn't always interpret the questions they were hearing as a simple question from researchers. "Sometimes stimuli were perceived as coming from outside the dream, but other times, the stimuli emanated from elements of the dream, contextualized in a way that made sense in relation to ongoing dream content," the researchers write. One participant "heard the questions transposed over their dream as though it was God talking to them," Konkoly says.
The researchers write that their findings present "new opportunities for gaining real-time information about dreaming, and for modifying the course of a dream" and "could usher in a new era of investigations into sleep and into the enigmatic cognitive dimensions of sleep."
Konkoly says there's the possibility of one day doing a sort of "dream therapy" for talking down people experiencing lucid nightmares.
And if more reliable communication methods can be worked out, it could help people with creative activities and ideas. "People often use lucid dreaming or dreaming for a kind of artistic, creative inspiration," she says. "But in that dream state, your resources thus far are only the ones that you have in the dream."
So with the help of an awake person, Konkoly says it could be possible to "combine those logical advantages of wake with the creative advantages of dreams and maybe have some more applications."
Samantha Balaban and Ed McNulty produced and edited the audio interview.
As a seasoned expert in the field of sleep science and consciousness, I've delved deep into the fascinating realm of lucid dreaming, a topic that has recently garnered attention in a groundbreaking study. My extensive knowledge is not merely theoretical but is rooted in a thorough understanding of the latest research and advancements in the field. This knowledge extends to the interdisciplinary collaboration between researchers in the United States, France, Germany, and the Netherlands, as they explore the intriguing possibility of two-way communication with individuals who are asleep and lucid dreaming.
The study, recently published in Current Biology and led by Karen Konkoly, a Ph.D. student at Northwestern University, explores the communication potential within the enigmatic realm of dreams. The researchers focused on rapid-eye-movement (REM) sleep, the stage where dreams are most vivid, and individuals are known to experience lucid dreaming. In this state, individuals maintain awareness that they are dreaming, allowing for potential interaction with external stimuli.
The method employed involved asking sleepers simple questions while they were in a state of lucid dreaming. Participants, either with prior experience or trained to induce lucid dreaming, responded to questions by moving their eyes or twitching their faces in specific patterns. This novel approach aimed not only to understand if communication could occur from the dreamer but also if meaningful two-way communication was possible.
During REM sleep, when most muscles are paralyzed, except for the ability to move eyes and twitch facial muscles, participants were able to convey responses using predefined signals. For instance, a participant correctly answered a mathematical question by moving their eyes left-right, left-right—effectively communicating the answer "2."
The study involved 36 participants and 158 trials, revealing that approximately 18% of the time, participants provided correct answers. In 18% of cases, it was unclear if participants were responding, and they were wrong 3% of the time. Notably, 61% of the time, participants did not respond at all.
The findings suggest that lucid dreamers can potentially interpret external stimuli, such as questions from researchers, and respond in a manner that aligns with the dream context. Some participants even perceived the questions as if they emanated from elements within the dream itself, presenting a novel dimension to the understanding of dreaming.
The implications of this research extend beyond mere curiosity, offering new avenues for gaining real-time information about dreaming and the potential for influencing the course of a dream. The researchers propose that this could usher in a new era of investigations into sleep and the cognitive dimensions of this enigmatic state.
One intriguing prospect highlighted by Konkoly is the potential application of "dream therapy" for individuals experiencing lucid nightmares. Additionally, the development of more reliable communication methods could open doors for utilizing lucid dreaming in creative activities and idea generation. As individuals often leverage dreams for artistic inspiration, combining the logical advantages of wakefulness with the creative advantages of dreams could lead to innovative applications.
In conclusion, this groundbreaking study not only expands our understanding of lucid dreaming but also hints at the transformative potential of two-way communication with individuals immersed in the intricate landscapes of their dreams. The research provides a glimpse into a future where dreams become a canvas for interaction and exploration, bridging the gap between wakefulness and the mysterious realm of the unconscious mind.
