Author: Dr. Leslie Ellis

How Technology is Making Our Dream Worlds More Accessible and Malleable

One aspect of dreams that makes them so mysterious is that they are notoriously difficult to study. While those who dream vividly or lucidly can accurately report their detailed dream content, most of us imperfectly capture fragments of our dreams and are left with a sense that there was so much more in our dream than we could capture. The longer we wait to document a dream, the more distorted and incomplete the dream report is likely to be.

As someone who works with dreams in clinical practice, this is not necessarily a problem. I have found that the most striking dream elements, those that break through sleep and enter consciousness, are often the most important dream events to process in sessions. Forgetting is like a natural editing process. Those with high recall who dream frequently and vividly tend to have too much material, and it can be overwhelming to sort through it all. Interestingly, when we do experiential dreamwork with highly active dreamers, their dream lives tend to quiet down – possibly because as we re-enter and metabolize dreams while awake, there is less emotional processing needed at night.

But I digress… while dream clinicians are less concerned about how closely dream reports reflect actual dreams, those who study dreams themselves really do need completeness and accuracy. Researchers have tried many ways to open up the ‘black box’ of dreaming, and with the help of a confluence of technologies, they are starting to have success.

In a review article, Remy Mallett and colleagues (2024) describe the most important current advancements for capturing, manipulating and studying dreams. Some of these ideas may apply clinically as well, especially for those who want to recall more dreams or learn how to change their dream content (more on this later). The article states, “these innovations herald a new era in dream science.” The review identifies three main areas of advancement that, taken together, are helping dream researchers to move beyond the limitations of subjective post-sleep reports to embrace more objective and scientifically rigorous approaches.

New Ways to Observe Dreams in Real Time

The first is observable dreaming, which represents a significant breakthrough in our ability to “witness” dreams as they occur. Through neural decoding techniques, researchers can now identify dream content by analyzing brain activity patterns. This approach is complemented by real-time reporting through lucid dreaming, enabling direct communication with dreamers during their dream experiences. As well, physiological measures such as eye movements and muscle activity are providing valuable insights into dream content, offering objective markers of subjective experiences.

Engineering Changes in Dreams While Dreaming

Dream engineering, the second major advance, introduces methods to actively influence and shape dream content. Through sensory stimulation during sleep, researchers can now guide dream narratives in specific directions. Targeted Memory Reactivation (TMR) has emerged as one promising technique, allowing for the strategic activation of specific memories or associations during sleep to influence dream content. For example, a recent study was able to use sound to enhance the effects of Imagery Rehearsal Therapy (IRT) – which basically involves rescripting the ending of nightmares. The reseachers paired piano chords with the dreamer’s imagined new dream ending, then played it back during the dreaming phases of sleep, and this improved the results of IRT (Schwartz et al., 2022).

Lucid dreaming serves as another powerful tool for dream manipulation, enabling participants to consciously direct their dream experiences. There has been increasing success in using technology to prompt lucid dreaming, a process called Targeted Lucidity Reactivation. The process includes pre-sleep conditioning to create a ‘lucidity mindset,’ a state of mind in which one is more likely to question the nature of their experience and ask, am I dreaming? When a sound associated with this mindset is played during REM/dream sleep, lucidity is triggered more often, even in novice lucid dreamers. Recently, this process was tailored for at home use via a phone app, and the results were impressive – tripling the incidence of lucidity in participants.

Analysis of Large Dream Databases

The third breakthrough comes in the form of computational analysis, which is transforming how we process and understand dream data. Big data approaches are revealing previously undetectable patterns in large collections of dream reports. Natural language processing tools are automating the analysis of dream content, making it possible to process vast amounts of dream narratives efficiently and systematically. Network analysis of dream reports has shown particular promise in clinical applications, potentially aiding in the diagnosis and treatment of various psychological conditions.

Clinical Applications

These advances offer strong potential for therapeutic applications. The article discusses particularly promising developments in the treatment of nightmares and PTSD. By combining traditional approaches like Imagery Rehearsal Therapy with dream engineering techniques, clinicians may have more effective tools for addressing sleep-related psychological distress. The ability to influence dream content directly could revolutionize how we approach trauma-related sleep disturbances and other dream-related psychological challenges.

What makes these advances particularly exciting is their complementary nature. While dream engineering provides tools for manipulating dream content, computational analysis helps us understand the patterns that emerge from these manipulations, and observable dreaming techniques offer ways to validate findings. This triangulation of methods strengthens the scientific validity of dream research and opens new avenues for understanding the relationship between dreaming and psychological well-being.

Challenges and Caveats

Several significant challenges remain in the field. The reliability of lucid dream induction remains inconsistent, limiting the broader applicability of this technique. Questions persist about whether findings from lucid dream research can be generalized to non-lucid dreams, which represent the majority of dream experiences. Current technology, while advancing rapidly, still has precision limitations that affect the ability to decode and influence dream content with high accuracy. Additionally, there are ongoing discussions about how best to assess dream incorporation – that is, how to measure the extent to which specific elements appear in dreams.

Looking forward, the field appears poised for further advances, spurred by the development of more sophisticated neural decoding techniques, improved methods for dream manipulation, and more powerful computational tools. While this is excellent for deepening the understanding of dreaming, I wonder how much manipulation of our dreams is truly helpful – or if the resulting dreams truly represent dreaming in its ‘wild’ state.

Are Hybrid States Authentic Dreaming?

When something like waking consciousness is added to dreaming, and we are aware of and able to manipulate our dream content, what results is a hybrid state of consciousness that is no longer natural dreaming. As someone who appreciates the healing power of dreams, even the intense ones, I have some concern about processes that shift the dream into something more palateable, possibly skipping the very processes the dream is trying to engender.

When I expressed this concern to Mallet, the article’s lead author, he said he tends to agree: everything in moderation. There is clearly a balance to be struck here, because anything that provides nightmare sufferers with some relief and restful sleep is a good thing.

Still, just because we can manipulate or become lucid in our dreams does not mean we should always do so. A study hot off the press (Carr et al., 2024) shows that caution and more information is needed. The researchers surveyed 1332 people about their dreams and mental health symptoms and found that the interaction between nightmares and lucid dreaming was a significant predictor of depressive symptoms. They also found that lucid dreaming predicts poor sleep quality, stress and anxiety, but that these latter symptoms could be accounted for by nightmares alone.

With a mix of caution and optimism, I welcome the advances researchers are making to better understand dreams. The pace of technological change is brisk, and it’s exciting to see the various new avenues it allows the study of dreams to take. So much of value can be learned. However, I am dubious about the prospect of opening up and altering our dream worlds too much – they are private, deep nocturnal experiences that have something of a wild nature I am reluctant to fully capture and tame.

References

Carr, M., Youngren, W., Seehuus, M., Semin, R., Angle, E., & Pigeon, W. R. (2024). The Effects of Lucid Dreaming and Nightmares on Sleep Quality and Mental Health Outcomes. Behavioral Sleep Medicine, 1-8.

Konkoly, K. R., Whitmore, N. W., Mallett, R., Mazurek, C. Y., & Paller, K. A. (2024). Provoking lucid dreams at home with sensory cues paired with pre-sleep cognitive training. Consciousness and Cognition, 125, 103759.

Mallett, R., Konkoly, K. R., Nielsen, T., Carr, M., & Paller, K. A. (2024). New strategies for the cognitive science of dreaming. Trends in Cognitive Sciences.

Schwartz, S., Clerget, A., & Perogamvros, L. (2022). Enhancing imagery rehearsal therapy for nightmares with targeted memory reactivation. Current Biology, 32(22), 4808-4816.

One of the most enduring paradoxes in the field of dream research is the mystery of dream amnesia. Why do we forget most of our dreams, even though they’re often vivid, emotionally charged, and potentially important for our survival? A recent paper by Zhao and colleagues offers an elegant solution to this puzzle.

Here’s the conundrum: Many scientists believe dreams serve crucial biological functions, helping us rehearse responses to threats and practice social interactions. These experiences can be incredibly vivid and emotionally intense – yet most of us can barely remember our dreams unless we wake up right in the middle of one. This seems counterintuitive. If dreams are so important, shouldn’t we remember them clearly?

The answer lies in understanding how different types of memory work in our brains. The researchers propose that forgetting our dreams isn’t a bug – it’s a feature. Here’s why: If we retained vivid memories of our dreams, we might confuse them with real experiences. Imagine having a heated argument with your partner in a dream and waking up angry at them for something that never actually happened. Not ideal, right?

But here’s the clever part – while we may forget the specific content of our dreams, the skills and behaviors we practice during them can still benefit us. Think about it like learning to ride a bike: you don’t need to remember every practice session to maintain the skill. Similarly, when we rehearse dealing with threats or social situations in our dreams, our brains can retain the practical lessons without keeping the specific dream memories.

This explains why dream amnesia makes sense from an evolutionary perspective. Our brains suppress the explicit, narrative memories of dreams to avoid confusion with real events, while preserving the implicit learning and skill development that occurred during the dream.

The system isn’t perfect – sometimes dreams do break through this forgetting mechanism, particularly when they’re highly emotional or frightening — most nightmares are easily recalled for example. But biological systems don’t need to work perfectly to be beneficial. The key is that dream amnesia helps us maintain a clear distinction between our dreaming and waking experiences while still allowing us to benefit from the practice and learning that occurs during our dreams. This group of reseachers are clear proponents of the idea that a major purpose of dreams is simulation. Other possible functions include memory consolidation, emotion processing and creative inspiration.

This new way of explaining dream amnesia provides a fresh perspective on the value of our forgotten dreams. Even though we may not remember them, our nightly adventures may continue to shape our skills and behaviors in subtle but important ways. So the next time you wake up with only fragments of a dream remaining, don’t worry about having lost the details. Possibly, as Zhao and collegaues suggest, the benefits of your dream experiences stay with you long after the memories fade.

Zhao, J., Schoch, S. F., Valli, K., & Dresler, M. (2024). Dream function and dream amnesia: dissolution of an apparent paradox. Neuroscience and biobehavioral reviews, 105951.

Fascinating new research that confirms what creative minds like Salvador Dalí and Thomas Edison intuited long ago – the drowsy period as we drift off to sleep can supercharge our creative abilities. Researchers from MIT and Harvard (Horowitz et al., 2020, 2023) demonstrated that deliberately influencing dreams during sleep onset (known as N1 sleep or hypnagogia) can significantly boost creative thinking.

Using a sensor-laden glove called Dormio, that detects when people enter this generative sleep stage, the team conducted an targeted dream incubation (TDI) experiment in which they prompted participants think about trees as they dozed off. The results were remarkable. People who had tree-related dreams during sleep onset performed far better on subsequent creativity tests compared to those who stayed awake or slept without the tree suggestion. Even more intriguingly, the more that participants incorporated trees into their drowsy dreams, the more creative their later responses became.

In the hypnagogic state, our usual mental boundaries become more permeable and fluid, allowing novel ideas and strange combinations of thoughts to emerge. The research has shown that our minds naturally make broader, more distant connections between concepts during sleep onset. What is significant about this study is that it’s the first to demonstrate a direct causal link between specific dream content and enhanced creativity. Previous research has demonstrated that sleep boosts creative problem-solving, but this study shows that we can actually guide our dreams to offer creative new ideas and solutions in specific areas of inquiry.

The implications are exciting. The study shows what many of us dream afficionados already understand – that it’s possible to harness your sleep onset period to enhance creative thinking around specific questions. While more research is needed to fully understand how long these effects last and how they might apply to different types of problems, this study lends credence to the idea that ‘sleeping on it’ really does help us find solutions not available to our waking minds.

For those interested in experimenting with this yourself, the key period is that drowsy state just as you’re falling asleep. While you may not have access to the Dormio device, simply holding a specific problem or theme in mind as you drift off could spark creative insights. Dormio detects alterations in sleep states and offers timely prompts to capture a whole series of pre-sleep dream images. It then records verbal N1 dream reports immediately. If we wait until morning to write our liminal reams down, most of these early images will be forgotten. So taking a cue from this research, try using a smartphone to record verbal dream reports as soon as you are awake enough to become aware of them. You may find you record many dreams throughout the night, not only in sleep onset, and develop a fuller picture of your creative dreaming mind.

Dali and Edison were known to deliberately harness the dreams from sleep onset by napping in a chair with an object in their hands that would clatter to the floor as soon as the muscle relaxation in early sleep released the object. The noise would wake them up and they would then record dreams that became fodder for inventions for Edison and surreal images for Dali.

The next frontier in creativity research may well be in understanding how to better utilize these unique states of consciousness that we all experience every night. As this study shows, our dreams might hold more practical value than we ever imagined.

What are your experiences with creative insights during sleep onset? I’d love to hear about them in the comments below.

The paper describes Dormio, a novel device designed to study and influence dream content during the hypnagogic period (sleep onset). The device uses sensors to detect when users are falling asleep and delivers targeted audio prompts to influence dream content, a process called targeted dream incubation (TDI).

The researchers conducted a study with 49 participants divided into sleep and wake conditions, with and without prompting to think about “trees.” The Dormio device monitored heart rate, finger muscle tension, and electrodermal activity to detect sleep onset. When sleep was detected, the device would wake participants and ask them to report their mental experiences before providing new prompts.

Key findings:

• 67% of prompted sleep condition reports contained references to trees
• Only 3% of unprompted sleep condition reports mentioned trees
• 52% of prompted wake condition reports mentioned trees
• 0% of unprompted wake condition reports mentioned trees

The device successfully demonstrated its ability to influence dream content during sleep onset. Dream reports showed increasing bizarreness and immersion with subsequent awakenings, while maintaining the targeted theme.

The research builds on previous studies showing that dream content can predict post-sleep memory enhancement and that sensory input during sleep can influence memory consolidation. While other techniques like Targeted Memory Reactivation (TMR) have shown that presenting sensory cues during sleep can enhance memory consolidation, Dormio provides a way to study the subjective experience of memory processing during sleep.

The researchers suggest several potential applications for Dormio and TDI:

• Studying the causal relationship between dream content and memory consolidation
• Enhancing creativity through directed dream experiences
• Understanding the role of dreams in processing daily experiences
• Investigating memory formation and integration during sleep

Limitations of the study include:

• Limited age range of participants
• Lack of polysomnographic validation of sleep stages
• Reliance on subjective dream reports
• Use of only one incubation theme (“tree”)

The researchers emphasize that while they can demonstrate correlation between dream incorporation and memory processing, they cannot yet prove whether dreaming itself causes memory consolidation or is simply a reflection of underlying processes.

The Dormio device represents a new tool for studying dreams and consciousness that is more accessible than traditional sleep lab equipment. It enables controlled manipulation of dream content, which could help answer fundamental questions about the role of dreams in memory, creativity, and cognitive processing.

The authors propose future studies using Dormio to investigate whether deliberately inducing specific dream content can enhance learning and memory consolidation, potentially opening new avenues for cognitive enhancement through dream engineering.

Horowitz, A. H., Cunningham, T. J., Maes, P., & Stickgold, R. (2020). Dormio: A targeted dream incubation device. Consciousness and cognition, 83, 102938.

Horowitz, A. H., Esfahany, K., Gálvez, T. V., Maes, P., & Stickgold, R. (2023). Targeted dream incubation at sleep onset increases post-sleep creative performance. Scientific reports, 13(1), 7319.

I was recently asked this question by Women’s Health magazine, and it led to some interesting further reading and provocative thoughts.

An amazing half of people asked will say they had a precognitive dream at some point in their lives. Does this mean dreams can predict the future? So far, there is no scientific evidence to back this statement up – and it may be impossible to actually run such an experiment. However, there are many possible explanations which point to the nature of dreaming itself.

What researchers have found is that most precognitive dreams are retrospective, meaning we recognize them as prescient after the fact. When you do the opposite – track dreams and then see if what we dream about actually comes to pass, the instances of precognition drop dramatically. However, there are still many astounding stories of dreams predicting events that actually happen.

I was once on a radio show, and a caller told me a story about a lifelong recurrent dream: they were rounding a curve in the highway and suddenly, there was a huge slide ahead that had washed out the road. He said one day, he found himself on this familiar stretch of road, and instinctively braked before the turn. The road indeed was washed away, and he credits the dream for saving his life.

Here is a quick survey of possible explanations:

• Dreams are future-oriented simulations that depict likely scenarios; some of them may be accurate.
• Our bodies and our subconscious are adept at picking up subtle early cues about things that matter to us such as our health and relationships.
• Statistically speaking, given the sheer number of dreams, it is impossible not to have precognitive dreams. (For more on this, see Matt Walker’s podcast: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/76-precognitive-dreaming/id1578319619?i=1000659367737)
• Dreams are our connection to the wider world of psyche and operate outside the bounds of rationality and linear time.

Notice that all of these could be true, although the last item asks us to step outside of the rational, evidence-based perspective that dominates our culture.  This bias toward what is visible and measurable has demoted dreams to the sidelines (even in psychology), and yet there remains a yearning to connect with their wider wisdom. So many people I encounter wish for a deeper connection to their dreaming lives and a way to make sense of them.  I suspect this us why I am often asked questions that point to the mysterious nature of dreaming. I typically search for the answers from both within the realm of science and also from those who relate to dreams as sacred, and not bounded by what can be seen and measured.

As luck would have it, as I was writing this short post, I picked up a new book, The Dreaming Way by Toko-pa Turner. In it, she eloquently offers her perspective on the purpose of dreaming: as a bridge between physical and sacred realities, a bridge that she says has “fallen into disrepair.” When dreams are viewed as sacred communication from the imaginal realm, they are taken seriously, as pointing to one’s deeper life purpose, and potentially as prophetic. Ancient texts from many cultures (including Greek philosophy, the Bible, the Upanishads) feature accounts of important, prophetic dreams.

The biggest problem with precognitive dreams is that you don’t know they are actually predicting something until after the fact. Still, because of the ability of our subconscious mind to pick up early warning signs, I suggest acting on any dreams that seem insistent, especially if they are pointing to potentially serious issues with your health or emotional life. Many people have credited such dreams with saving their life by pointing to a malignant cancer or other serious illness.

With other dreams that seem like warnings, it’s hard to know how to respond. A friend who was about to go on a road trip dreamt of not one, but several massive car crashes. She asked if this meant she should postpone her trip (she did). However, the dream could have been a metaphor for other things: at a personal level, a loss of control, or relational conflict. At the collective level, a portent of danger or disaster?

In general, I advocate for all of us to develop a deeper relationship with our dreaming worlds. When we have a sense of the ongoing trajectory of our dreaming lives, what they are telling us or asking of us can become much clearer. Whether you adopt the rational or sacred view of dreams, or bridge them both, viewing dreams as depictions of a possible future is a valid approach that invites reflection and possible course correction.

Research into the therapeutic potential of psychedelic (serotonergic) substances is experiencing a resurgence after lying dormant in North America for more than 50 years. Early research suggests these once-vilified substances show great promise in treating depression, anxiety, alcohol addiction, and potentially many other challenging conditions. This emerging area is ripe for the use of dreamwork techniques to help with the integration of psychedelic visionary experiences that have much in common with dreams.

Psychedelic visions and dreams: Vehicles for attenuating fear memories

From a neurobiological perspective, dreams and psychedelic visions (PVs) share similar forms of perception, mental imagery, fear memory extinction, emotional activation and distorted senses of self and body. This is according to a comprehensive review of the literature on the neurophenomenology of both dreams and psychedelic experiences (Kraehenmann, 2017). A major difference the author noted is that there is greater clarity of consciousness and meta-cognition in PVs, suggesting these experiences are closer to lucid dreaming (the ability to become aware of the dream state while still in it).

One of the areas of overlap that has significant therapeutic potential is the attenuation of fear memories. During dreaming, the brain’s limbic emotion processing network is more active than in wakefulness; in dreams, fear memories are often revisited, but broken into more isolated units, and associated with novel contexts. These are also the steps that lead to fear memory extinction, with a final step being emotional expression of the new experience, which consolidates the updated version. Even better, Kraehenmann states that “Dreaming might also directly rewrite fear memories via memory reconsolidation.” This process involves activation of an emotional memory, followed by a new, less fearful experiencing of it within the ‘reconsolidation window’ which permanently updates old fear memories.

In my decades of work as a trauma therapist, I have found that dreams provide excellent fodder for further therapeutic effects when reactivated while awake. In those who suffer from frequent nightmares, the dreams are remain fear-laden over time because the memory reconsolidation process is often interrupted as the emotion is so strong it wakes the dreamer up mid-process. But in a dream therapy session, the fear memory can be opened up again via dream re-experiencing. Then, in a supportive environment where fear is significantly reduced, the dream story can be metabolized and rewritten, permanently updating the original fear memory. When I have worked with nightmares in this way, the most common reported effect the removal of the emotional charge from the dream/memory. The memory is still accessible, but no longer activates a fear response, and this changes the dream itself.

The same kinds of mechanisms may be at work in psychedelic journeys – the activation and recombination of fear memories in a way that has the potential to remove the element of fear from the experience. As with experiential therapy for dreams, a similar process can be used for PVs to integrate the visions and hallucinations that have arisen, and to help reduce the emotional charge from the experience if there is residual fear present.

Optimism and Caution

Although psychedelic substances are still illegal in most countries (as was the case with cannabis before widespread legalization), there is an underground community already using these substances for therapeutic benefit. Legal permission is being granted for use in research in limited, but rapidly-expanding ways as early results show both promise and acceptable safety.

There is a dark side, however, to this mostly good news story. Recent studies are mainly small and many of them not well-designed. Within the community already using psychedelics, often in group therapy sessions, there are varying degrees of safety and levels of appropriate supervision. From those pioneering psychedelic journeyers, we mainly hear about the successes, and less about the frightening and disorienting experiences that can also result.

What the community of psychedelic pathfinders are discovering is that preparation, setting and post-treatment integration are key elements of success. Best practices, although still a work in progress, are emerging.  A scoping review by Golden and colleagues (2022) found that the main aspects of setting that can positively impact the experience include music/sound, religious or ritual contexts, group versus individual sessions, socio-cultural norms/expectations, and physical environment. Unfortunately, researchers found the existing data is too patchy, sparse or observational to establish evidence-based practices. Adding to the complexity, responses vary across individuals.

Despite the lack of empirical evidence about the factors that lead to success, early research into use of psychedelics for specific clinical conditions is quite promising. A recent meta-analysis of current research shows that psychedelics (psilocybin, LSD, ayahuasca) can be a part of safe, effective treatment protocol for depression, even in treatment-resistant, life-threatening cases (Ko et al., 2023). Another systematic review of 16 studies conducted between 2000 and 2020 showed that psychedelic substances were safe and effective for depression, anxiety, OCD, and tobacco and alcohol use disorders. They noted that the effects appeared to last weeks or even months after just 1-3 sessions, with no severe adverse effects reported (Andersen et al., 2021).

As someone who works with dream material and teaches therapists how to help clients navigate these rich imaginative realms, I believe these same methods can help with the integration of the dream-like aspects of psychedelic journeys. This feels like a rich potential extension of methods developed for experiential dream therapy and in particular, a way to continue the process of taking the charge out of frightening memories and images.

Andersen, K. A., Carhart‐Harris, R., Nutt, D. J., & Erritzoe, D. (2021). Therapeutic effects of classic serotonergic psychedelics: A systematic review of modern‐era clinical studies. Acta Psychiatrica Scandinavica, 143(2), 101-118.

Golden, T. L., Magsamen, S., Sandu, C. C., Lin, S., Roebuck, G. M., Shi, K. M., & Barrett, F. S. (2022). Effects of setting on psychedelic experiences, therapies, and outcomes: A rapid scoping review of the literature. Disruptive Psychopharmacology, 35-70.

Ko, K., Kopra, E. I., Cleare, A. J., & Rucker, J. J. (2023). Psychedelic therapy for depressive symptoms: A systematic review and meta-analysis. Journal of Affective Disorders, 322, 194-204.

Kraehenmann, R. (2017). Dreams and psychedelics: neurophenomenological comparison and therapeutic implications. Current neuropharmacology, 15(7), 1032-1042.