Tadas Stumbrys

Introduction: Salivary alpha-amylase (sAA) is considered a marker of autonomic nervous system activity in stress research, and atypical waking sAA responses have been reported for traumatized individuals. Lucid dreams, characterized by a dreamer's awareness of their dream state while remaining asleep, have shown promising preliminary evidence of their potential to enhance mental health. This study’s objective was to evaluate sAA in relation to healing lucid dreams. Methods: Participants experiencing PTSD symptoms attended a six-day workshop delivered via live video designed to teach techniques for transforming trauma through dreamwork and dream lucidity. Participants (n=20) collected saliva samples each morning, immediately upon awakening (Time 1) and 30 minutes afterward (Time 2). sAA levels were determined by enzymatic assay, and the waking sAA slope was calculated as the difference of Time 2 minus Time 1. Participants completed dream reports each morning, with a dream classified as a ‘healing lucid dream’ when they reported attaining lucidity and remembered their intention to manifest a healing experience within the dreamscape. Results: Of eight participants experiencing healing lucid dreams, four were able to provide usable saliva samples. Statistical tests on these four participants were not significant because of low power. However, nonsignificant positive associations were observed between experiencing more healing lucid dreams and increased waking sAA slope. Conclusion: The results did not reveal a consistent effect of healing lucid dreams on waking sAA slope. Identifying meaningful patterns in this relationship will require larger samples and more stringent control over saliva collection procedures in future studies.

Standard treatments for nightmares focus on waking activities, with consequences for subsequent sleep. An alternative strategy may be to provide people with a novel way to learn to end a nightmare by waking up. People typically think of sleep as a state that they cannot control, but there are exceptions to this rule. For example, the ability to select dream content in a lucid dream might allow one to wake up deliberately, thus countering the typical helplessness of nightmares. However, documented evidence that this strategy can work is lacking. Therefore, we recruited healthy participants to complete a task during their next lucid dream; they were instructed either to attempt to wake up or to clench their fists. In the former case, we offered several options for how to wake up. After sleep, participants responded to a detailed survey about their dream and their subsequent awakening experience. Relative to those who clenched their fists, participants who attempted to wake up from the dream by closing their eyes reported waking up sooner after task completion. Furthermore, higher levels of lucidity and lucid-dream skills while dreaming were correlated with a quicker wake-up time and reduced negative emotions. This research showed that people can succeed in waking up from sleep intentionally while lucid dreaming. Because lucid dreaming is trainable, training for waking up in this way could constitute a viable therapeutic approach to relieve nightmare suffering.

In lucid dreams, the dreamer is aware that one is dreaming; however, this does not necessary imply that the dreamer has complete control over the ongoing dream narrative. The present study explored the extent to which the lucid dreamers are able to control their dreams, as well as underlying factors. An online survey was completed by 528 respondents, of whom 386 had lucid dream experience. According to their reports, full control over the dream body is possible in about two thirds of cases, while control of the dream environment and the ability to maintain dream awareness are possible in less than half of cases. The main predictors of lucid dream control were higher lucid dream frequency and dispositional mindfulness in wakefulness, as well as younger age. The findings suggest that by cultivating mindfulness lucid dreamers might be able to develop greater dream control; however, further longitudinal research is needed.