The DOI matches its Crossref record; 180 of the 183 references it cites were found in a registry or an index.
The cognitive neuroscience of lucid dreaming
Open accessAbstract
Lucid dreaming refers to the phenomenon of becoming aware of the fact that one is dreaming during ongoing sleep. Despite having been physiologically validated for decades, the neurobiology of lucid dreaming is still incompletely characterized. Here we review the neuroscientific literature on lucid dreaming, including electroencephalographic, neuroimaging, brain lesion, pharmacological and brain stimulation studies. Electroencephalographic studies of lucid dreaming are mostly underpowered and show mixed results. Neuroimaging data is scant but preliminary results suggest that prefrontal and parietal regions are involved in lucid dreaming. A focus of research is also to develop methods to induce lucid dreams. Combining training in mental set with cholinergic stimulation has shown promising results, while it remains unclear whether electrical brain stimulation could be used to induce lucid dreams. Finally, we discuss strategies to measure lucid dreaming, including best-practice procedures for the sleep laboratory. Lucid dreaming has clinical and scientific applications, and shows emerging potential as a methodology in the cognitive neuroscience of consciousness. Further research with larger sample sizes and refined methodology is needed.
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“The teaching signal dreamed for the discriminator neurons may give the subject the awareness that its current state is the dream, and is in fact happening in lucid dreaming [61].”
From How Adversarial REM Dreams May Facilitate Creativity, and Why We Become Aware of Them (2024) · cites this paper as [61]
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“The dentate gyrus, which contains many Fos positive neurons during REM sleep217, may be central to the generation of concatenated activations.”
From Consciousness and sleep (2024) · cites this paper as [217]
Experimental — accuracy not yet measuredIn the citing paper
“In lucid dreaming there appears to occur an increased prominence of interoceptive signals.”
From Prodromal dreams (2025) · cites this paper as [88]
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“Lucid dreams ( 88 ) represent another opportunity where prodromal information might be present.”
From Prodromal dreams (2025) · cites this paper as [88]
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Real-time dialogue between experimenters and dreamers during REM sleep
Konkoly, K. R., Appel, K., Chabani, E., Mangiaruga, A., Gott, J., Mallett, R., Caughran, B., Witkowski, S., Whitmore, N. W., Mazurek, C. Y., et al. (2021) · Current Biology · doi:10.1016/j.cub.2021.01.026 · Cited by 131
Self-citationPerceptual reality monitoring: Neural mechanisms dissociating imagination from reality
Dijkstra, N., Kok, P., & Fleming, S. M. (2022) · Neuroscience & Biobehavioral Reviews · doi:10.1016/j.neubiorev.2022.104557 · Cited by 116
Tononi, G., Boly, M., & Cirelli, C. (2024) · Neuron · doi:10.1016/j.neuron.2024.04.011 · Cited by 70
My Dream, My Rules: Can Lucid Dreaming Treat Nightmares?
Macêdo, T., Ferreira, G. H., de Almondes, K. M., Kirov, R., & Mota-Rolim, S. A. (2019) · Frontiers in Psychology · doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2019.02618 · Cited by 74
Self-citationClosed-loop auditory stimulation of sleep slow oscillations: Basic principles and best practices
Esfahani, M. J., Farboud, S., Ngo, H.-V. V., Schneider, J., Weber, F. D., Talamini, L. M., & Dresler, M. (2023) · Neuroscience & Biobehavioral Reviews · doi:10.1016/j.neubiorev.2023.105379 · Cited by 70
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Metadata
- Authors
- Baird, B., Mota-Rolim, S. A., & Dresler, M.
- Affiliations
- University of Wisconsin–Madison (US)
- Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Norte (BR)
- Radboud University Medical Center (NL)
- Corresponding author
- Baird, Benjamin
- Venue
- Neuroscience & Biobehavioral Reviews
- Publisher
- Elsevier BV
- Published
- 2019-05
- Volume
- 100
- Pages
- 305-323
- ISSN
- 0149-7634 (ISSN-L)
- PMC
- PMC6451677
- OpenAlex
- W2922234293
- Cited by
- 192
- References
- 183
- Citations by year
- 2026: 16 · 2025: 42 · 2024: 41 · 2023: 24 · 2022: 22 · 2021: 20 · 2020: 23 · 2019: 4
- FWCI
- 2.19
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- green
- www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
- Locations
- Neuroscience & Biobehavioral Reviews (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- PubMed Central (acceptedVersion)
- Radboud Repository (Radboud University) (submittedVersion)
- Radboud Repository (Radboud University) (submittedVersion, other-oa)
- Funders
- National Institutes of HealthNational Institutes of Health (NIH)
- Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior
- Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico
- Financiadora de Estudos e Projetos do Ministério da Ciência e Tecnologia
- Fundação de Apoio à Pesquisa do Estado do Rio Grande do Norte
- Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research
- Topics
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Sleep and Wakefulness Research
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Experimental and Cognitive Psychology › Sleep and related disorders
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Social Psychology › Paranormal Experiences and Beliefs
- Keywords
- lucid dreaming, prefrontal cortex, parietal cortex, cholinergic stimulation, brain stimulation, lucid dream induction, consciousness
- MeSH terms
- Cognitive Neuroscience, Metacognition, Awareness, Brain, Brain Mapping, Dreams, Humans, Magnetic Resonance Imaging, Brain Waves, Transcranial Direct Current Stimulation
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