My Dream, My Rules: Can Lucid Dreaming Treat Nightmares?

Abstract

Nightmares are defined as repeated occurrences of extremely dysphoric and well-remembered dreams that usually involve subjective threats to survival, security, or physical integrity. Generally, they occur during rapid eye movement sleep (REMS) and lead to awakenings with distress and insufficient overnight sleep. Nightmares may occur spontaneously (idiopathic) or as recurrent nightmares. Recurrent nightmares cause significant distress and impairment in occupational and social functioning, as have been commonly observed in post-traumatic stress disorder, depression and anxiety. By contrast, during lucid dreaming (LD), subjects get insight they are dreaming and may even control the content of their dreams. These features may open a way to help those who suffer from nightmare disorder through re-significations of the dream scene, i.e., knowing that they are dreaming and having control over their dream content. Thus, lucid dreamers might be able to render nightmares normal dreams, thereby assuring a restoring sleep. The aim of the present study is to review the existing literature of the use of LD as an auxiliary tool for treatment of nightmares. We conducted a careful literature search for eligible studies on the use of LD treatment for nightmares. We observed that whereas LD may be a feasible aid in the treatment of patients with nightmares through minimizing their frequency, intensity and psychological distress, the available literature is still scarce and does not provide consistent results. We conclude therefore that more research is clearly warranted for a better estimation of the effective conductance and therapeutic outcome of LD treatment in clinical practice.

Frontal Brain Activity and Subjective Arousal During Emotional Picture Viewing in Nightmare Sufferers

“…Our findings align with those of Marquis et al (2019), who found measures of dysphoric dream recall and nightmare distress negatively correlated with cerebral blood flow during both a neutral and a negative picture-viewing task. On a related note, this provides some support for the idea that lucid dreams can be used to treat frequent nightmares, since lucid dreams seem to be characterized by an increase in frontal activity (Macêdo et al, 2019). That we did not see any correlations for the positive condition does not align with predictions of the differential susceptibility framework.…”

Findings From the International Lucid Dream Induction Study

“…Lucid dreaming has many potential benefits and applications, such as treatment for nightmares (Spoormaker and Van Den Bout, 2006;Lancee et al, 2010;Holzinger et al, 2015), improvement of physical skills and abilities through dream rehearsal (Erlacher and Schredl, 2010;Stumbrys et al, 2016), creative problem solving (Stumbrys and Daniels, 2010), and research opportunities for exploring mind-body relationships and consciousness (see Hobson, 2009). However, to date the effects reported in most studies have been weak and inconsistent, and more research is needed into the applications of lucid dreaming (Baird et al, 2019;de Macêdo et al, 2019).…”

Lucid Dreaming Brain Network Based on Tholey’s 7 Klartraum Criteria

“…We think that theoretical and practical works regarding lucid dreaming make this approach very promising. Lucid dreaming shows potential as a methodology in the cognitive neuroscience of consciousness as well as psychotherapy (Zadra and Pihl, 1997;Holzinger, 2014;De Macedo et al, 2019). However, there is still substantial disagreement with regard to the brain regions and frequency bands most activated during lucid dreaming and how they correlate with the theoretical base of lucid dreams.…”