Frequency of Lucid Dreaming in a Representative German Sample

Abstract

Lucid dreams occur when a person is aware that he is dreaming while he is dreaming. In a representative sample of German adults (N = 919), 51% of the participants reported that they had experienced a lucid dream at least once. Lucid dream recall was significantly higher in women and negatively correlated with age. However, these effects might be explained by the frequency of dream recall, as there was a correlation of .57 between frequency of dream recall and frequency of lucid dreams. Other sociodemographic variables like education, marital status, or monthly income were not related to lucid dream frequency. Given the relatively high prevalence of lucid dreaming reported in the present study, research on lucid dreams might be pursued in the sleep laboratory to expand the knowledge about sleep, dreaming, and consciousness processes in general.

A Survey Focusing on Lucid Dreaming, Metacognition, and Dream Anxiety in Medical Students

“…In agreement with previous studies, we found that the dream anxiety level of females was higher than that of males (24,25,26). Several factors might explain why females have more dream anxiety compared with males, including higher rate of dream recall frequency in females, greater vulnerability to depression, more frequent childhood trauma history, and lower androgen levels, all of which have been reported to attenuate sympathetically mediated components of the integrated central stress response (25,27,28,29,30).…”

Lucid dreaming incidence: A quality effects meta-analysis of 50 years of research

“…95% CI [51%-65%]) and with a wider confidence interval due to the subgroup having the highest heterogeneity (Q = 297.42, p < .001, Ι² = 97%) suggesting methodological quality and sample characteristics are most different for this nationality. Of the seven studies in the German sub-group, the three most weighted studies demonstrate substantial overlap with one another Schredl & Erlacher, 2011;Voss et al, 2012). Japanese samples are the only homogeneous sub-group (Q = 2.24, p= .13, Ι² = 55%) their group estimate is also the largest observed deviation from the model estimate, being lower than the model by 15% (43%, 95% CI [37% -48%]).…”

“…As these studies include individuals with a marked interest in lucid dreams, and consistently presented higher estimates, these were removed resulting in a reduction in the remaining significant heterogeneity (Q = 790.9, p= <.001, Ι² = 97%) resulting in an overall pooled estimate (Figure 6) of 55% [49%, 62%] for lucid dreaming prevalence, contributed from the remaining 27 studies included within the final model. (2012) Gackenbach (1988) Children subgroup Blackmore (1984) Erlacher et al (2008) Zink & Pietroysky (2013) Fingerlin (2013) Athletes subgroup Schredl & Erlacher (2011) Voss et al (2012) Thalbourne ( (2014) Green (1966) Blackmore (1982a) Blackmore (1985) Alvarado & Zingrone (2003) Schredl & Erlacher (2004) Gackenbach ( Frequent lucid dreaming (one or more lucid dreams per month) rates were reported by 25 of the 34 studies included within the prevalence analysis, with study estimates ranging from 8% to 50%. Studies included in the analysis of frequent lucid dreamers are reported in Table 1.…”

Induction of lucid dreams: A systematic review of evidence

“…at least once a month (Schredl & Erlacher, 2011;Snyder & Gackenbach, 1988; but cf. Stepansky et al, 1998).…”