Sometimes people know they are dreaming while they sleep. They can sometimes change what happens in the dream. A study at the University of Trento in Italy suggests people can learn this skill. The study included 38 university students.
One group trained twice a week for a month. First, they sat quietly and practised noticing their thoughts. Then they used virtual reality, a technology that creates scenes around you. When something strange happened, they asked themselves whether they were dreaming.
Students wrote about their dreams each morning and answered daily questions. The training group had dreams they recognised as dreams four times as often as a group that only practised asking that question. They reported these dreams more than eight times as often as another group. That group practised the question in virtual reality scenes that looked like normal life.
The study was small. Neither comparison group practised quietly noticing their thoughts, so researchers cannot tell which part of the training helped most. They are now testing the training without that quiet practice. Daniel Morris, a brain scientist outside the team, said knowing you are dreaming could help you turn a frightening dream into a happier one.
