Lucid Dreamers Can 'Respond' While Asleep Thanks To The Electrodes Attached To Their Heads

Joen Coronel, Tech Times 19 February 2021, 02:02 am

A group of scientists has discovered that they could talk to a person under a lucid dream state. While two-way communication seems to be an ambiguous idea, to begin with, it is still possible.

Through the test, electrodes are connected to the face of the sleeping people for brainwave measurement and for monitoring muscle activity.

Lucid Dreamers Can Answer Questions Asked by Scientists

According to the study published in the Current Biology journal on February 18, lucid dreams can now be instructed with simple tasks like answering questions and solving mathematical equations. In the process, they will not be awakened by the scientists.

It was found out that the participants underwent a series of interrogations conducted by the researchers. During lucid dreaming, they will respond through facial and eye gestures. It might appear to be impossible since when you ask a sleeping person, he/she will not respond since they are not aware of the tasks during the state.

What's fascinating is that some lucid dreamers can even manipulate what they should dream about, so they can have full control of the outcome of their dreams.

In an interview with Live Science, Karen Konkonly, a graduate student researcher at Northwestern University according to her LinkedIn profile, people would expect that talking to someone who is sleeping will not produce any response. But, the cognitive neuroscientist was shocked upon learning that someone who is in deep slumber can reply to her during the dream phase.

It is normal for a person to dream on a nightly basis but what baffles the scientists is why people resort to dreaming. Oftentimes, when people dreamed they failed to remember what were the exact details of their dreams upon waking up.

Based on the study, science explains that when a person sleeps, the brain could not construct a new memory because it is restricted to store details especially when the dream has come to its end.

The Use Of Electrodes To The Study Of Lucid Dreams

To carry out the study more effectively, scientists used electrodes that are connected to the sleeping persons' heads. The electrochemical cell will be significant for measuring brainwaves. They will also be placed near the eyes and on the chin for tracking eye movements and muscle activities.

The data gathered from the procedure will be used for the rapid eye movement (REM) stage of the participants when they sleep. At REM state, Konkoly said that this is the time that lucid dreaming occurs.

The experiments were separately done into four groups located in the Netherlands, Germany, the United States, and France. During REM sleep, the scientists conducted a series of experimental tasks such as tapping, asking a query, using sounds, and quizzing them through secret messages seen in lights.

The main objective of it is to determine whether the 36 lucid dreamers could understand the messages decoded by the electrodes. They have responded through body part movements using their faces and eyes.

"This work pushes us to think carefully-rethink, maybe-about some of those fundamental definitions about the nature of sleep itself, and what's possible in sleep," told Benjamin Baird, a postdoctoral researcher from the University of Wisconsin-Madison who specializes in the study of dreams.