Every night our brains simulate a highly convincing thought often bizarre dream reality. In the rare case of lucid dreaming, the dreamer becomes aware of the ongoing state of mind without waking up. The main obstacle to both its scientific investigation and clinical application is its rarity: only few people have lucid dreams on a regular basis. Several strategies to increase lucid dreaming frequency exist, how-ever none induces lucid dreams with high reliability.
In this project, we aim for an embodied approach to lucid dream induction, focusing in particular on the vestibular system, inducing dreams of falling and potentially flying by galvanic vestibular stimulation during REM sleep. We will then train participants to associate such vestibular experience during wakefulness with the metacognitive thought "This is a dream!", which we in turn aim to reactivate during sleep, thus eliciting full-blown lucid dreams. We will combine this strategy with virtual reality scenarios of flying/falling experiences, thus developing a highly immersive training environment for effective lucid dream induction. With a combined EEG-VR approach, we will further elucidate the neural correlates of metacognitive introspection, as well as vestibular experiences, during both wakefulness and sleep, levering machine learning strategies to compare between the two states.
As a whole, the project will allow for novel insights into embodied dream experiences on both a cognitive and neural level, will develop a potentially highly effective new lucid dreaming induction strategy 'on button press', and will thus pave the way for applications in research, clinical practice, sports, and everyday life.
Tasks and responsibilities
- Plan, coordinate, perform, and analyze a research project using vestibular stimulation, virtual reality and HD-EEG for lucid dream induction.
- Prepare and write publications on the basis of open science practices.
- Supervise a PhD student dedicated to the project and more junior staff.
- Enjoy collaborative work in an interdisciplinary team of international scientists.
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