Lucid nightmares: what are they and why do they appear?

One of the most reported experiences in sleep studies is that of being aware of and even in control of one's own sleep. There are even techniques and training to induce this type of experience and achieve pleasant emotions even when we sleep. But pleasant experiences are not the only ones that usually occur.

On the contrary, there is another frequently reported experience: having lucid dreams characterized by an experience of anxiety and by the inability to return to wakefulness. It's all about lucid nightmares.

We will see below what are the main characteristics of these nightmares and how they have been explained by some scientific research.

• Related article: "How to have lucid dreams? Science explains it to us"

What are lucid nightmares?

We know those dreams lucid where the person is aware that he is dreaming. They are usually positive experiences, whose content generates pleasant emotions, and whose course is easily influenced by the dreamer. However, this is not always the case.

Lucid nightmares are a type of lucid dreaming.

characterized by a terrifying context and by the lack of control during sleep. Like common nightmares, lucid nightmares generate anguish and anxiety, but in the case of seconds an extra stressor element is added: there is an intention to wake up, but there is an inability to achieve it.

These dreams were first described in 1911, when the Dutch psychiatrist and writer Frederick van Eeden coined the term "lucid dream", referring to mental clarity during the dream state, as well as the awareness of being in said state state.

Main features

In a study conducted by psychologist Tadas Stumbrys (2018), specialist in scientific sleep studies, Online surveys were applied to more than 600 participants to learn about their experiences with lucid nightmares. As a result, the following common characteristics were found:

• There is awareness of the dream state.
• However, there is an important feeling of lack of control.
• Intense fear lingers.
• Violent characters appear that seem to have autonomy beyond the person who dreams, and even decide in a way contrary to the wishes of the same person.
• There is an inability to wake up.

The same study showed that lucid dreams were common in more than half of the population surveyed, but lucid nightmares were reported by less than half. They also found that those people who had frequent lucid dreams also had greater control over the plot of your dreams, as well as enhanced abilities to reduce anxiety during nightmares lucid. That is to say, they perceived them as less threatening.

However, these same people also experience lucid nightmares more frequently (compared to people who do not usually have lucid dreams), and the intensity of the distress experienced does not depend on the frequency of the dreams lucid. With which, although they have greater control over feelings of anxiety during sleep, they are more exposed to living them.

Why do they happen?

As we said, the content of lucid nightmares is by definition threatening. Sometimes it can generate near-death experiences, and even these experiences can correspond to real life upon awakening. An example is the record of cases of people who, after dreaming that someone shoots their heart, wake up in the middle of a myocardial attack (McNamara, 2012).

But, is it a set of hallucinations? How do lucid nightmares occur? It's not really hallucinations, since there is full awareness that movements, actions, emotions, the environment and the characters that are being experienced are not part of the objective reality of wakefulness, although it may seem so. contrary.

Lucid nightmares, like lucid dreams, emerge in REM sleep (Rapid Eye Movement) which means rapid movement of the eyes, and is the phase of greatest brain activity. This activity is, in fact, similar to that of the waking state, however it includes a mild blockade of neurons responsible for voluntary motor regulation.

But lucid nightmares do not only occur in REM sleep, they occur during the transition from REM to Non-REM sleep, or in a phase of partial REM entry. The No REN is the slow wave phase and is characterized by introducing us to deep sleep. Shows variations in brain activity and may contain hallucinations on entry or exit.

Thus, lucid nightmares occur in a state of partial sleep, where the brain does not register a complete activity of rest, but neither does it register wakefulness.

• You may be interested in: "The 5 phases of sleep: from slow waves to REM"

Characteristics of brain activity in lucid nightmares

Unlike ordinary dreams, during the REM phase of lucid dreams the brain shows increased activity of the prefrontal and occipitotemporal cortex, as well as the parietal lobes. These areas are the ones that are theoretically deactivated during the REM phase in common dreams.

This seems to indicate that lucid dreaming is a phenomenon that does begin in this phase (maintaining some of its characteristics, such as muscular paralysis), but it does not fully develop in REM, since has important differences at the brain level.

In the same way, the aforementioned brain areas can explain the state of consciousness of dreams and the lucid nightmares, as well as logical thinking, decision making, and stimuli-generated distress threatening coupled with the inability to wake up.

However, explanations about the particular content of lucid nightmares, their duration, and its frequency, as well as the individual experience of anguish, require deeper approximations.

Bibliographic references

• McNamara, P. (2012). Lucid dreaming and lucid nightmares. PsychologyToday. Retrieved September 21, 2018. Available in https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/dream-catcher/201207/lucid-dreaming-and-lucid-nightmares.
• Stumbrys, T. (2018). Lucid nightmares: A survey of their frequency, features, and factors in lucid dreamers. Dreaming, 28(3), 193-204.
• Stumbrys, T., Erlacher, D., Schädlich, M. and Schredl, M. (2012). Induction of lucid dreams: A systematic review of evidence. Consciousness and Cognition, 21(3): 1456-1475.