Benjamin Baird is a researcher at the Center for Sleep and Consciousness in the School of Medicine at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Specializing in cognitive psychology and neurobiology, he published a dozen of scientific works on lucid dreaming, including a collaboration with the founder of this field, Stephen LaBerge. In February, the scientific journal ALIUS Bulletin published an interview with the researcher, in which he shared his thoughts on the development of the science of lucid dreams and avenues for its future development.
All these questions boil down to our understanding of consciousness and its mechanisms. For example, how are dreams different from the state of the wandering mind and why have more and more researchers come around to the idea that these states are similar? In answering this question, Baird sees more of a difference between the two: “Dreams, particularly those occurring during Rapid Eye Movement (REM) sleep, often involve what might be called ‘full immersion,’ whereas mind-wandering does not. That is, in a dream you often find yourself embodied in a dream body interacting with a tridimensional (3D) multimodal virtual dream world.” According to the scientist, if dreams are a full-fledged simulation of the world, then it is closer to the state of wakefulness than to that of floating consciousness.
However, from the point of view of neurobiology, this is only one among a myriad of questions, because brain research has not advanced as much as we would like in the last several decades. One of the main discoveries in this area was that lucid dreaming is associated with a surge in brain activity during REM sleep, as well as increased excitability of the body – the nervous system, respiration, and heart rate. However, the science, according to Baird, has remained at an “infancy level” because, over the past 40 years, only a few EEG studies have been carried out to show that areas of the frontoparietal network are important for lucid dreams. And that is pretty much it, as far as discoveries go.
“One of the most important findings we have comes from pharmacology. Specifically, we know that the probability of having a lucid dream is substantially enhanced by cholinergic stimulation during REM sleep,” said the scientist. It is in this area that he sees the main potential for important discoveries. Commenting on the latest scientific trends, in particular, communication with sleepers during lucid dreams in a sensational international experiment, Baird takes a skeptical position: “Many of us in the field have known for a long time that this was possible since there have been lucid dream induction devices available for decades that include the possibility for two-way interaction with the device through eye movements. I haven’t yet heard a compelling argument for how this will open up new avenues of research.”
The most interesting question for the scientist concerns the connection between meditation and lucid dreams. Indeed, more than one experiment has shown that sustainable practices make it possible to stabilize the phase state and learn to control your dreams. “At least some types of meditation practices result in changes in trait mindfulness, or cognitive skills associated with specific aspects of mindfulness, that then carry over into sleep and dream states, leading to increases in lucidity,” he comments. What does the future hold for us? “Lucid dreaming essentially gives us experimental control over the dream state in a way that was previously impossible.” We can also use the potential of our minds for purposes that have not yet been explored – for example, to use lucid dreams to imagine works of art that we can then create. That is why this field remains so fascinating.
