Victor Spoormaker is a Dutch researcher and author of books on the topic of sleep and dreams. He works at the Max Planck Institute of Psychiatry in Munich (Germany) and is the founder of several websites dedicated to providing scientific information about insomnia, nightmares, and other sleep problems. At the moment, these portals are maintained by his colleagues.
Among other things, the scientist has also investigated the possibility of treating nightmares with the help of lucid dreams (LD). His 2006 study on the subject involved 23 participants, all suffering from nightmares. The findings showed that LD is an effective treatment, although what exactly accounts for the positive effect (lucidity, power over the situation, etc.) remains unclear.
Later, the researcher proved, with the help of EEG, that the areas of the human brain that are disabled during ordinary (unconscious) dream are active during lucid dreaming. The scientist also put forward very specific hypotheses about the connection between sleep and psychosis: the areas activated during LD show a striking overlap with brain regions that are impaired in psychotic patients who lack insight into their pathological state.
Spoormaker also conducted a study comparing various aspects of volition in ordinary dreaming, lucid dreaming, and waking life, noting that the states of reality and LD are very similar in this respect. However, while the planning ability is better expressed while awake, intention is better expressed in LD, and self-determination is highly expressed both in LD and in reality.
The scientist’s works are available on ResearchGate.
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