Inside a lucid dream, you happen to be aware that you're dreaming1 and might even be capable of control different aspects of your dream. Lucid dreaming happens in the course of fast eye movement (REM) sleep2, the stage of sleep in which substantially of the dreaming occurs. About 20% of people experience lucid dreaming as soon as a month, along with a compact number of people manage to possess lucid dreams quite a few occasions a week. Up to half of people under no circumstances experience a lucid dream.



Some researchers propose lucid dreaming as a tool that can improve your well-being, increase self-confidence and creativity, and help you accomplish ambitions and solve problems within your waking life - although the proof for these benefits is debatable3. Early investigation suggests lucid dreaming could also have therapeutic potential4 for people who experience nightmares on account of post-traumatic anxiety disorder.



For many people, lucid dreaming is usually a pleasant experience they would like to have much more usually. Having said that, given that dreams take place while you happen to be asleep, it takes practice and effort to accomplish so. Enter lucid dream masks, a brand new tool that may possibly make the process simpler.



What Are Lucid Dream Masks?

Most lucid dream masks look similar to a conventional sleep mask. They are produced from soft supplies that ought to feel comfortable on your face when you sleep. Exactly where they differ is their technologies. Lucid dream masks contain built-in sensors that monitor your sleep stages and characteristics that gently alert you any time you reach REM sleep, assisting you come to be conscious of the opportunity to begin lucid dreaming without having totally waking you up5.



How Do Lucid Dream Masks Work?

Lucid dream masks use timers or movement sensors to estimate when the dreamer is in REM sleep. Then, according to their distinct function set, lucid dream masks alert the dreamer using audio, visual, or tactile cues:



Audio Cues: Audio cues may possibly involve sounds, or voice messages recorded by the dreamer themselves.

Tactile Cues: This type of cue may well incorporate a pattern of vibrations.

Visual Cues: These cues frequently contain a series of flashing lights, delivered through LED lights built into the mask.

These signals are meant to become stimulating adequate to alert the dreamer, with out becoming so disruptive as to rouse them from sleep. Due to the fact the particular person is dreaming, the cue may well become a part in the dream atmosphere. By way of example, the visual cues may show up as lights in the dream, or the audio signals could sound like a phone ringing.



Most lucid dream masks permit you to adjust the intensity in the dream cues, either directly on the device with an adjustable switch or digitally through an app or website. No matter if the mask emits light, audio, or tactile cues, it is actually as much as the dreamer to recognize the signals and understand that they're experiencing a dream.



How Do Lucid Dream Masks Know You happen to be in REM Sleep?

The simplest lucid dream masks use a timer to estimate any time you have entered REM sleep. Nonetheless, the timing of REM sleep can differ from particular person to particular person, depending on their age and if they drink alcohol6, take drugs, or have a sleep disorder7, which usually overlaps using a neurological or psychiatric disorder. A lucid dream mask that relies solely on a timer could provide light cues through a non-REM stage of sleep, disturbing the person’s sleep excellent as an alternative to assisting them lucid dream.



Other lucid dream masks use infrared sensors to determine REM by monitoring alterations within your eye movement. In the course of REM sleep, your eyes move rapidly from side to side, a key feature of REM that differentiates it from other stages of sleep.



Other lucid dream masks contain EEG electrodes to monitor changes in brainwave activity and an accelerometer to monitor body movements. These types of masks use brainwave and physique movement activity to determine REM. Your brain waves speed up in the course of REM, as well as your brain temporarily paralyzes your body to stop you from acting out your dreams.



Do Lucid Dream Masks Truly Trigger Lucid Dreams?

Wearing a lucid dream mask will not assure you'll experience a lucid dream, in particular when you are new to lucid dreaming. Even with frequent practice, lucid dreams are rare8. When a person has mastered standard lucid dreaming techniques, a lucid dream mask may well improve their likelihood of experiencing one. Lucid dreaming techniques9 consist of:



Reality Checks: Through the day, a person repeatedly asks themselves if they may be awake. This assists them get in the habit of being able to distinguish whether or not they are awake or asleep.

Mnemonic Induction of Lucid Dreams (MILD): Along exactly the same lines, an individual also learns to distinguish involving dreams and reality when they are sleeping. They may sleep for five hours, then wake up and say one thing like, “Next time I’m dreaming, I'll remember I'm dreaming,” to encourage lucid dreams for the duration of their subsequent stage of REM sleep.

Wake-up-Back-to-Bed (WBTB): WBTB works hand in hand with MILD. It refers to purposeful sleep interruption in which the individual wakes up and goes back to sleep within 30 minutes to two hours.

The last two approaches in certain, WBTB and MILD, have already been shown to improve the frequency of lucid dreams, even among newbies. A person’s likelihood of experiencing a lucid dream triples right after WBTB. Immediately after practicing these methods for five weeks, 50% of novices had been capable to experience at the very least one lucid dream.



When used in tandem with these procedures, a lucid dream mask may perhaps make someone a lot more probably to experience a lucid dream. One early study had participants put on a lucid dream mask through sleep, which sent light cues when they entered REM sleep. To test against a potential placebo impact, the participants knew the mask was a lucid dream mask, but they didn't understand that it had been programmed to only send the light cues each and every other evening.



Whilst participants reported lucid dreams on nights the dream mask sent light cues at the same time as on nights it didn't, they had been a lot more than twice as likely to have a lucid dream on nights the mask sent cues. They were also significantly far more likely to say they noticed the lucid dreaming cues on nights the mask was on, top researchers to conclude that the light cues have been powerful in increasing the person’s likelihood of lucid dreaming.