Scientists may be able to induce lucid dreaming using mild electric zaps:
For decades, people have been manipulating the brain using chemical means – drugs. But in recent years, researchers have begun to use electricity, as well. For example, there’s FDA-approved electrical brain implant that treats tremors associated with Parkinson’s disease.
The new dream study, which was published May 11 in Nature Neuroscience, used a far less invasive method: electrodes temporarily placed at strategic locations on the scalp. The research involved 24 volunteers with no history of lucid dreaming. The subjects went to sleep and eventually dreamed. Then, researchers turned on a 30-second-long electrical signal and then woke them up and asked them about their experiences. It turned out that a 40 Hz stimulation induced lucid dreams 77 percent of the time.
As Helen Thomson notes, the research could ultimately be used to help people with PTSD:
The team suggests that brain stimulation might help people with post-traumatic stress disorder who have recurring nightmares. Perhaps by triggering lucid dreaming, people with PTSD can take control of their dreams and make them less frightening. “That’s what we are looking at now,” says Voss, although the results are not yet available. It is a promising suggestion, says Michael Schredl, who works in the sleep laboratory at Heidelberg University, Germany. He says it will be difficult to expand the applications to help treat mental disorders, but “the idea of studying patients with nightmares or PTSD would be very interesting”.
The Dish 