There's a Reliable Way to Trigger Lucid Dreams, Scientists Have Found
They're incredible. Amazing. Magical. But perhaps the most fantastic thing about
lucid dreams – in which the dreamer becomes aware they're dreaming – is how realistic they seem.
Sadly, only about half of us ever experience lucid dreams in our lives, and efforts to trigger the phenomenon have delivered
mixed results. But a study published in 2018 revealed one of the most effective ways of inducing lucid dreaming yet.
Building on their own
previous research, researchers at the University of Wisconsin–Madison and the Lucidity Institute in Hawaii wanted to investigate how chemicals called acetylcholinesterase inhibitors (AChEls) might
promote lucid dreaming.
The neurotransmitter
acetylcholine is thought to help modulate REM sleep, and AChEls help this compound to aggregate in the brain by inhibiting an enzyme (called acetylcholinesterase) that inactivates acetylcholine.
As it happens, a common drug used to treat memory decline in
Alzheimer's disease – known as
galantamine – is a fast-acting AChEI with only mild side effects, so researchers recruited 121 participants to see what effect the drug had on their ability to have and
recall lucid dreams.
It's worth pointing out these volunteers weren't just everyday people, but enthusiasts with an established interest in lucid dreams, who also had undertaken training with lucid dream induction protocols .
When this cognitive training was combined with galantamine, lucid stuff started to happen.
Over three consecutive nights, participants took increasing doses of the drug, starting with a placebo, then 4 mg, then 8 mg on the final night.
Each night, participants woke 4.5 hours after lights out, practiced their dream induction techniques, ingested their capsules, and returned to sleep.
The combination of the induction technique paired with the Alzheimer's medication looks to indeed help trigger lucid dreams, and the higher dosage delivered a stronger result.
While taking the 'active' placebo (0 mg of galantamine but still using the MILD technique), 14 percent of participants reported a lucid dream, but this increased to 27 percent when 4 mg was consumed and rose to 42 percent with an 8 mg dose.
"This combined protocol resulted in a total of 69 out of 121 participants (57 percent) successfully having a lucid dream on at least one out of two nights on an active dose of galantamine," the researchers wrote in their 2018
paper.
https://www.sciencealert.com/there-s-a-reliable-way-to-trigger-lucid-dreams-scientists-have-found
Further info on the drug:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Galantamine
https://cks.nice.org.uk/topics/dementia/prescribing-information/acetylcholinesterase-inhibitors/
maximus otter