People think more deliberately in lucid dreams than in regular dreams. This was the conclusion reached by scientists from China and France, led by Tao Xia, who conducted an experiment involving 30 participants with narcolepsy (80% of whom experienced lucidity at least three times a week) and 22 healthy individuals (with no experience in lucid dreams). While awake and during sleep, they were made to listen to words and pseudowords (sets of sounds resembling words) and asked to react with facial muscle movements—specifically, to smile if a word was heard and frown if a pseudoword was heard.
The results show that decision-making slows down in lucid dreams. While awake and in regular dreams, the brain recognizes familiar words more quickly (in a regular dream, this happens as an automatic reaction to daytime training). But in lucid dreams, speed is unimportant. The main thing is how the brain accumulates and uses information. It is as if it carefully weighs all the pros and cons before making a decision—and does so more slowly than in reality.
These data show that in lucid dreams, the brain restructures thoughts and decision-making processes in a unique way. In other words, lucid dreaming forces the brain to use all its resources to make a choice, even if the world it’s perceiving is an illusion.
Have you noticed that you think more slowly in lucid dreams?
The preprint of the article was published in March 2025 on bioRxiv.
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