Many curious types of dream patterns have been investigated and scientifically analyzed, including daydreaming, REM dreaming, and lucid dreaming, just to name a few. Lucid dreaming occurs when the sleeper realizes that he/she is dreaming and actively takes hold of the dream’s plot to alter the storyline and outcome. Aristotle depicted lucid dreaming as, “Often when one is asleep, there is something in consciousness which declares that what then presents itself is but a dream.” With this concept in mind, researchers have developed a way to train the human brain to create lucid dreaming patterns through electrical current stimulation.
Based on the study conducted earlier this year by Germany’s Johann Wolfgang Goethe University, the research was performed through a series of tests on 27 volunteers. Scientists determined that when humans are sleeping, scalp stimulation can lead to lucid dreaming. The people receiving the electrical shock treatment were analyzed during sessions of monitored slumber. All shocks were applied to the frontal and temporal spots on the peoples’ scalps all while they experienced REM sleep.
When people are lucid dreaming, they exert characteristics of REM sleep and conscious awareness. The study’s team leader, Dr. Ursula Voss, honed the research toward analyzing sleepers’ brainwave patterns and how they varied at different frequencies. After a range of 2 to 100-Hz shock treatment was applied, the volunteers were woken up and asked to describe their dreams. The lucid dreamers were found to have heightened brainwave activity when their scalps received shocks at 40 Hz. On the lesser scale, people receiving 25 Hz also reported lucid dreams.
It is interesting how studying dreams can be applied to analyzing and treating various mental illnesses. For instance, sleepers who suffer from problems like night tremors can control their nightmares with lucid dreaming.
Story via The Guardian
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