It is clear to see that, in recent years, scientific interest in lucid dreaming has grown exponentially. To examine how research on this topic has evolved over the past 50 years, a team from the KU Leuven (Belgium) led by Daniele Pepe conducted a thorough meta-analysis of the existing literature.
The study looked at 306 articles from 1966 to 2019. The leader in publications was revealed to be the United States (the total number of articles published by American scientists stood at 59). The most cited sources in the context of lucid dreaming turned out to be the magazines Dreaming, the International Journal of Dream Research, and Perceptual and Motor Skills. The most prolific researchers, in descending order, were M. Schredl, D. Erlacher, and T. Stumbrys.
The meta-analysis confirmed that the number of publications on lucid dreaming is increasing by 5.6% annually. Obviously, the topic is becoming more and more attractive to the scientific world and has long since been disassociated with esotericism and metaphysics.
Although the phenomenon of lucid dreams had been ignored by most scientific journals until 1979, more research is expected on the topic now and in the upcoming years. Finally, this gives us hope for scientific progress that will help advance the practice of the phase and its applications.
The article was published in October 2020 in the International Journal of Dream Research.
Наконец-то, скоро нас заметят!