Sparrow_2018_Conscious.Cogn_63_74

An experimental home study examined the impact of a pre-sleep protocol for enhancing self-awareness, lucidity, and responsiveness in dreams. It included ingesting the cholinesterase inhibitor galantamine--which is widely reported to increase the frequency of lucid dreaming--prior to engaging in middle-of-the-night meditation and the imaginary reliving of a distressing dream while exercising new responses. Thirty-five participants completed an eight-night study, which included pre- and post-baseline nights and six conditions: waking for 40min before returning to bed, called Wake-Back-to-Bed (WBTB); Wake-Back-to-Bed plus placebo (WBTB+P); Wake-Back-to-Bed plus galantamine (WBTB+G); meditation and dream reliving (MDR); meditation and dream reliving plus placebo (MDR+P); and meditation and dream reliving plus galantamine (MDR+G). The outcome measures included lucidity, reflectiveness, interactive behavior, role change, constructive action, and fear and threat, as measured by the participants' self-ratings. The results support the use of this protocol in further studies of lucid dream induction and nightmare/trauma resolution.