- seCtIon FIVe: BoRDeRLAnDs
The signalling method means we no longer have to rely on retrospective verbal
report, and so allows us to answer some classic questions about dreams. Correlations
between dream content and physiology can now be timed accurately, and lucid
dreamers can be given pre-sleep instructions to carry out particular activities during
their dream and signal as they do so. One example is that question about how long
dreams last. Lucid dreamers can accurately estimate the time taken by dreamed
events, and when asked to count to ten during lucid dreams and again during wak-
ing, they took about the same length of time (LaBerge, 2000). But physical actions
take longer. In one study, dreaming of doing squats took 40% longer than physically
doing them (Erlacher and Schredl, 2004). In another, lucid dreamers walked 10, 20,
or 30 steps and did a short gymnastics routine; both these actions took longer in
the dream than they would in real life (Erlacher et al., 2014). Respiration and heart
rate rose when doing squats in a lucid dream (Erlacher and Schredl, 2008) and when
performing different actions, the muscles that would be used for those actions in
waking life twitched slightly during the dreams. Pre-agreed voluntary breathing
patterns coincide with actual breathing, and in one study a woman’s erotic lucid
dream coincided with actual sexual arousal and a measurable orgasm (for a review
see LaBerge, 1990).
Could practising a skill during a lucid dream improve that skill in waking life? In
a survey of hundreds of German athletes, over half reported having lucid dreams
and nearly 10% claimed to use lucid dreaming to practise their sport (Erlacher,
Stumbrys, and Schredl, 2012). In experiments testing simple skills such as
C 3 -A 2
LOC
EMG
ROC
1
2
34 5
5 sec
LUCID LUCID AWAKE
AWAKE (STILL DREAMING)
LUCID
FIGURE 15.7 • Signal-verified lucid dream. Four channels of physiological data (central EEG [C3-A2], left and right eye
movements [LOC and ROC], and chin muscle tone [EMG]) from the last 8 min of a 30-min REM period are
shown. On awakening the sleeper reported having made five eye-movement signals (labelled 1-5 in figure).
The first signal (1, LRLR) marked the onset of lucidity (LaBerge, 2000, Fig. 1).
