The New Science of Controlling Lucid Dreams
“Engineering” sleeping consciousness could reduce nightmares, treat insomnia—and even be induce specific dreams just for fun
I routinely control my own dreams. During a recent episode, in my dream laboratory, my experience went like this: I was asleep on a twin mattress in the dark lab room, wrapped in a cozy duvet and a blanket of silence. But I felt like I was awake. The sensation of being watched hung over me. Experimenters two rooms over peered at me through an infrared camera mounted on the wall. Electrodes on my scalp sent them signals about my brain waves. I opened my eyes—at least I thought I did—and sighed. Little specks of pink dust hovered in front of me. I examined them curiously. “Oh,” I then thought, realizing I was asleep, “this is a dream.”
In my dream I sat up slowly, my body feeling heavy. In reality I lay silently and moved my eyes left to right behind my closed eyelids. This signal, which I had learned to make through practice, was tracked by the electrodes and told the experimenters I was lucid: asleep yet aware I was dreaming. I remembered the task they had given me before I went to sleep: summon a dream character. I called out for my grandmother, and moments later simple black-and-white photographs of her appeared, shape-shifting and vague. I could sense her presence, a connection, a warmth rolling along my spine. It was a simple and meaningful dream that soon faded into a pleasant awakening.
