Debunking Sleep Series Part 4: Lucid dreaming
In the last post of this series, I want to dive into something that has always interested me, but I didn’t know a lot about.
According to the Sleep Foundation, lucid dreaming is defined as, “... the sleeper is aware a dream is taking place but will not leave the dream state,” and “... the sleeper can exercise control over different aspects of their environment…”.
Basically, it means that some people have the ability to manipulate or control their dreams.
Unfortunately, I am not one of those people. I am one on the “nightmare struggle bus” that keeps telling myself that my nightmares or dreams aren’t real but can’t seem to wake up out of them or control the outcome. I will still be chased by a knife-wielding murderer no matter how much I don’t want to be.
But, my main question is: is there a biological reason why some people are able to lucid dream and others cannot?
As described in Part 1 and Part 3 of this series, our dreams or nightmares occur during REM sleep. In case you missed it, here is the link for Part 1 and Part 3.
Let’s get straight to the point before I get into the finer details: the answer is yes.
There does seem to be an association between physiological changes in the brain for those that experience lucid dreaming compared to those who do not. There are multiple physiological phenomena that have been identified to support this theory.
The main one I am going to discuss is the activation of areas of the brain that aren’t normally activated while sleeping.
In those who have lucid dreams, studies have shown an activation of the anterior prefrontal cortex (PFC) region of the brain which is relatively quiet during normal sleeping. The PFC region is part of the frontal cortex which is responsible for our higher or complex thinking. During lucid dreaming, there is an association between this activated PFC region and temporoparietal association areas that is otherwise not seen in normal sleeping.
Specifically, there is an area of the temporoparietal area that seems to be a major player in this activation/association: the temporoparietal junction (TPJ). The TPJ area is responsible for audio and visual processing, sematosenory regulation (aka touch, heat sensation, etc.), and more.
See the diagram to find out how/where these regions are located and communicating.
So, why would a complex thinking area of the brain be needed during a quiet, restful time for the brain? Why would this complex processing area be communicating with our sensory area of the brain?
We have this complex thinking region of the brain, which is not normally activated during sleep, not only activated but communicating with another region of the brain that deals with our part of our sensory regulation. This is a very interesting interaction that kind of makes sense (in an odd way) because of how unique lucid dreaming is.
Maybe it has to do with the ability to control the dreams? Is the complex thinking needed to enter this realm of awareness to actually allow for the control? We don’t know.
I could go into a lot more detail for how this process works, but I think this is a lot of heavy material. If you are more interested in this phenomenon, check out this Nature article that describes the science of lucid dreaming in extensive detail.
The main takeaway from this series is that we, as humans, can do some super cool stuff, even while we are sleeping, and sleep is often something that we take advantage of or don’t fully appreciate.
I hope that, throughout this series, I have been able to spark some interest in you to ask yourself why we do the things we do in relation to sleep.
As always, reach out with any questions you have and stay humble.
Emily
