Although laboratories have specialized equipment to help induce lucidity, it’s easier for a person to fall asleep at home. In recent years, researchers have been actively developing ways to combine these advantages. In one experiment, a team of Swiss scientists led by Simge Genc combined two techniques—mnemonic induction of lucid dreams (MILD), which involves reminding yourself in the evening that you want to become lucid in a dream, and targeted memory reactivation (TMR), which entails playing auditory cues during sleep to activate lucidity.
Over three weeks, 174 participants (124 of whom provided complete reports) used the Oniri mobile application. In the first week, the scientists recorded how often these people became lucid on their own. Then, before going to sleep, participants listened to a meditation with the intention of becoming lucid in a dream. The experimental group received additional auditory cues embedded in the meditation text, while the control group listened to the same meditation without the cues. During sleep, both groups received the same auditory cues four times a night—two and a half, four, five, and six hours after falling asleep. In the morning, participants completed reports on how well they remembered their dreams, how often they experienced lucidity, the emotions they felt, the duration of their sleep, and whether they felt rested.
The results are encouraging, as the experimental group became lucid significantly more often than the control group. In the future, the authors plan to study how this phenomenon is affected by a person’s level of anxiety, the emotionality of their dreams, their experience in lucid dreaming practice, and the subjective perception of the loudness of the signal. If successful, people will be able to conduct experiments at home and derive specific benefits from lucid dreams, such as healing.
Do you need tools to help you become lucid, or do you easily become lucid on your own?
The report was presented in June 2025 at the 42nd Annual Conference of the International Association for the Study of Dreams.
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