Lucid dreaming happens when people realize they are dreaming while still asleep. Sometimes, they can also influence what happens in the dream. A study involving 38 university students at the University of Trento in Italy suggests that training can develop this skill.
For one month, one group trained twice a week. Students first meditated to become more aware of their thoughts, then entered virtual reality, or VR, scenes with unusual events. Whenever something strange happened, they performed a “reality check,” asking whether they were dreaming. They also kept morning dream diaries and completed daily questionnaires.
The trained students experienced lucid dreams four times as often as a group that practiced reality checks without meditation or VR. Another group performed reality checks in realistic VR scenes rather than dreamlike ones. That group was over eight times less likely to report lucid dreams, suggesting that using VR alone did not explain the results.
However, the study was small, and neither comparison group meditated. Researchers therefore cannot separate the effects of meditation from those of dreamlike VR. They are now conducting a follow-up study without meditation. Daniel Morris, a dream researcher who was not involved in the study, said lucid dreaming may help people turn nightmares into positive dreams and feel more control over their experiences.
