Michael Schredl is a German researcher, scientific manager of the sleep laboratory at the Central Institute of Mental Health in Mannheim. He is the editor of the International Journal of Dream Research and a consulting editor for Dreaming. Both scientific journals publish articles on the topic of dreams, including lucid dreams. Schredl is also a member of the International Association for the Study of Dreams and its regional representative in Germany.
Interestingly, Schredl’s first specialty was electrical engineering. While studying the subject, Schredl became interested in psychology. As the researcher said in an interview published on the website of the Heidelberg University, he began to study the subject of dreams with a book by Erich Fromm because he could not remember his dreams. Then he bought a second book with practical tips for improving dream memory and has been keeping a dream journal ever since.
Michael Schredl is the author of over 500 articles and has produced more publications on lucid dreaming in peer-reviewed scientific journals than any other scholar. His latest studies focus on the prevalence of this practice among athletes, how it was impacted by the coronavirus, the importance of the ability to remember dreams, and the effectiveness of hypnosis for inducing lucid dreams. While exploring the psychological characteristics that facilitate lucidity during dreaming, he discovered that traits like openness to experience, mindfulness, sensitivity, extraversion, and self-centeredness are crucial for successful lucid dreaming practice. Meditation habits also have a positive impact.
This year, the researcher found that compared to ordinary (non-lucid) dreams, pre-lucid and lucid dreams contain more bizarreness, as well as more positive emotions, erotic scenes, and flight – especially when the lucid dreamer can control the plot. However, dialogue and communication are more prevalent in ordinary dreams. Ordinary dreams also contain slightly more aggression, both from the dreamer and from other characters in the dream.
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The scientist’s works are available on ResearchGate.
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