Mindfulness is directly related to the function of attention. This property has been studied in several scientific experiments, including a study conducted in 2010 to assess the frequency of lucid dreams and their effect on the capacity of sustaining attention while awake. Participants in the experiment performed the Stroop color task and it was observed that experienced lucid dreaming practitioners responded to the assignment faster than those who had less or no lucid dreams.
In an article published in January 2021, researchers at National Central University in Taiwan shared data from a new experiment to assess attention in lucid dreaming practitioners. 77 participants assessed their dream lucidity for a week and then completed a task that measured their attention.
The Attention Network Test (ANT) is a task that evaluates three attention components – alertness, orientation, and control. Volunteers are asked to perform a test on a computer, during which they must point to the correct direction of the target arrow. In this case, the arrow was surrounded by confusing figures that could point in different directions. The participant’s response time was then estimated for each test item.
The experiment results showed that the lucidity of dreams does affect various aspects of attention processing, for example, when solving conflict problems. Thus, the higher the level of awareness developed in the state of sleep, the more dynamic it is in the waking state, and the more effectively the participant can cope with conflict tasks. This proves once again that lucid dreams contribute to developing our mindfulness.
The study was published in January 2021 in Frontiers in Psychology magazine.
