Lucid dreaming is commonly understood as the ability to recognize that one is dreaming while one is asleep (Baird et al., 2019). Despite extensive evidence dating back decades, studies on lucid dreaming often face skepticism from outsiders. Researchers like Dr. Torres-Plates, however, are attempting to dismantle that skepticism and investigate the potential that lucid dreaming offers.
This past semester, Loyola University Chicago’s Neuroscience Seminar 300 class had the pleasure of hearing from Dr. Torres-Platas, a neuroscience researcher at Northwestern University. In her presentation, Dr. Torres-Platas explained how her team, taking inspiration from Konkoly et al.’s (2021) study, is in the process of developing a communication channel between people who are in a lucid dream state and those who are conscious. In Konkoly et al.’s (2021) study, lucid dreamers responded to questions from the researchers using facial eye movements and facial muscle contractions. The questions included discriminating between simple mathematical equations and answering yes-or-no questions. Although there was frequently a lack of response in the trials, which Dr. Torres-Platas maintains is a common problem for sleep researchers like her, Konkoly and colleagues were still able to successfully create a dialogue between themselves and the lucid dreamers. Dr. Torres-Platas plans to expand on this research, exploring how these communication channels can be utilized to answer questions regarding the nature and limits of consciousness.
Dr. Torres-Platas and Konkoly et al.’s research led me down a rabbit hole—wanting to know more about the boundaries of lucid dreaming. Gintare Štuikytė and Tadas Stumbrys are two researchers at Vilnius University who are also exploring the capabilities of people experiencing a lucid dream. Their article, titled “Lucid Dream Poetry: An Exploration Into Creative Potentials of the Lucid Dream State,” details an experiment in which lucid dreamers were asked to draft a Haiku poem while awake and during a lucid dream. Afterwards, the Haiku poems were reviewed by experts in poetry writing, who rated them on a scale between one and six (one meaning least creative and six meaning most creative). As a result, Štuikytė and Sumbrys found that the poems written while the participants were lucid dreaming were rated substantially higher in creativity than those written while the participants were awake. Through this research, Štuikytė and Sumbrys (2025) highlight a practical advantage of the lucid dream state, in which individuals can actually boost their creativity through lucid dreaming (p. S90).
Despite these two studies focusing on completely different facets, it is clear that there is a vast potential for credible research into lucid dreaming. If experimenters like Dr. Torres-Platas are able to develop methods that result in a higher response rate from individuals who are lucid dreaming, the boundaries of communication channels can only be transcended, including taking advantage of the enhanced creativity lucid dreaming provides.
Baird, B., Mota-Rolim, S. A., & Dresler, M. (2019). The cognitive neuroscience of lucid dreaming. Neuroscience and biobehavioral reviews, 100, 305–323. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neubiorev.2019.03.008
Konkoly, K. R., Appel, K., Chabani, E., Mangiaruga, A., Gott, J., Mallett, R., Caughran, B., Witkowski, S., Whitmore, N. W., Mazurek, C. Y., Berent, J. B., Weber, F. D., Türker, B., Leu-Semenescu, S., Maranci, J. B., Pipa, G., Arnulf, I., Oudiette, D., Dresler, M., & Paller, K. A. (2021). Real-time dialogue between experimenters and dreamers during REM sleep. Current biology: CB, 31(7), 1417–1427.e6. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cub.2021.01.026
Štuikytė, G., & Stumbrys, T. (2025). Lucid dream poetry: An exploration into creative potentials of the lucid dream state. Dreaming, 35(Suppl 1), S82–S93. https://doi.org/10.1037/drm0000328
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