Lucid dreaming in narcolepsy
Open accessAbstract
OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the frequency, determinants and sleep characteristics of lucid dreaming in narcolepsy. SETTINGS: University hospital sleep disorder unit. DESIGN: Case-control study. PARTICIPANTS: Consecutive patients with narcolepsy and healthy controls. METHODS: Participants were interviewed regarding the frequency and determinants of lucid dreaming. Twelve narcolepsy patients and 5 controls who self-identified as frequent lucid dreamers underwent nighttime and daytime sleep monitoring after being given instructions regarding how to give an eye signal when lucid. RESULTS: Compared to 53 healthy controls, the 53 narcolepsy patients reported more frequent dream recall, nightmares and recurrent dreams. Lucid dreaming was achieved by 77.4% of narcoleptic patients and 49.1% of controls (P < 0.05), with an average of 7.6±11 vs. 0.3±0.8 lucid dreams/ month (P < 0.0001). The frequency of cataplexy, hallucinations, sleep paralysis, dyssomnia, HLA positivity, and the severity of sleepiness were similar in narcolepsy with and without lucid dreaming. Seven of 12 narcoleptic (and 0 non-narcoleptic) lucid dreamers achieved lucid REM sleep across a total of 33 naps, including 14 episodes with eye signal. The delta power in the electrode average, in delta, theta, and alpha powers in C4, and coherences between frontal electrodes were lower in lucid than non-lucid REM sleep in spectral EEG analysis. The duration of REM sleep was longer, the REM sleep onset latency tended to be shorter, and the percentage of atonia tended to be higher in lucid vs. non-lucid REM sleep; the arousal index and REM density and amplitude were unchanged. CONCLUSION: Narcolepsy is a novel, easy model for studying lucid dreaming.
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Higher cortical desynchronization and fragmented sleep promote dreams in healthy subjects, nightmare sufferers, and narcoleptic patients.
“It should be noted, the notion that higher cortical desynchronization and fragmented sleep promote dreams is not new in healthy subjects (Koulack and Goodenough, 1976; Scarpelli et al., 2017; Siclari et al., 2017) as well as in nightmare sufferers (Simor et al., 2013) and in narcoleptic patients (Dodet et al., 2015; D'Atri et al., 2019).”
From The Functional Role of Dreaming in Emotional Processes (2019) · cites this paper as Dodet et al., 2015
The Discussion (page unavailable) links lower delta activity to a more activated state during lucid REM sleep in narcolepsy, and suggests that direct entry into REM sleep may promote lucid dreaming. It does not show that fragmented sleep promotes dreams; the Discussion instead reports similar arousal indices in lucid and non-lucid REM sleep. (LLM, conf=0.84)
Experimental — accuracy not yet measuredBoth posterior and frontal gamma activity seems related to emotional processes and dream recall, and the gamma band is related to lucid dreams, which are associated with attenuation of nightmares.
“Also, both posterior and frontal gamma activity seems to be related to emotional processes and dream recall and -interestingly- this band is related to lucid dreams (Voss et al., 2014; Dodet et al., 2015), that are associated with an attenuation of nightmares (Rak et al., 2015).”
From The Functional Role of Dreaming in Emotional Processes (2019) · cites this paper as Dodet et al., 2015
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- Authors
- Dodet, P., Chavez, M., Leu-Semenescu, S., Golmard, J.-L., & Arnulf, I.
- Affiliations
- Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (FR)
- Sorbonne Universites, UPMC Univ Paris 06, Paris, France
- Brain Research Institute (CRICM - UPMC-Paris6; Inserm UMR_S 975; CNRS UMR 7225) Paris, France
- Université Pierre-et-Marie-Curie (FR)
- Corresponding author
- Arnulf, Isabelle
- Venue
- SLEEP
- Publisher
- Oxford University Press (OUP)
- Published
- 2015-03-01
- Volume
- 38
- Issue
- 3
- Pages
- 487-497
- ISSN
- 0161-8105 (ISSN-L)
- 1550-9109
- PMC
- PMC4335518
- OpenAlex
- W2321171207
- Cited by
- 118
- References
- 34
- Citations by year
- 2026: 4 · 2025: 11 · 2024: 10 · 2023: 11 · 2022: 12 · 2021: 9 · 2020: 20 · 2019: 16 · 2018: 6 · 2017: 7 · 2016: 7 · 2015: 5
- FWCI
- 4.95
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- green
- www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
- Locations
- SLEEP (publishedVersion)
- PubMed Central (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- HAL (submittedVersion)
- Topics
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Sleep and Wakefulness Research
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Experimental and Cognitive Psychology › Sleep and related disorders
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Epidemiology › Restless Legs Syndrome Research
- Keywords
- lucid dreaming, narcolepsy, REM sleep, REM sleep atonia, REM density, EEG spectral analysis, dream recall, nightmares, sleep paralysis, cataplexy, sleepiness
- MeSH terms
- Adolescent, Adult, Arousal, Cataplexy, Dreams, Female, Hallucinations, Humans, Interviews as Topic, Male, Narcolepsy, Mental Recall, Sleep Stages, Sleep, REM, Case-Control Studies, Sleep Paralysis, Dyssomnias, Young Adult, Self Report
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