The author of this journal article starts off by introducing the idea of motor practicing in lucid dreams. Motor practice in lucid dreams is a form of mental rehearsal where the dreamer can consciously rehearse motor skills in the dream state while being physically asleep. The article then mentions a previous pilot study that showed that practicing a certain skill in a lucid dream can improve subsequent performance. That previous study was quite outdated so based off the same idea of that previous study; they decided to design another more dated study/experiment on the effectiveness of motor practice in lucid dreams. This study however, aimed to replicate the previous study’s findings with a different task (this time its finger tapping)
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However, they predicted that the gains (improvement) from physical practice will be higher than the gains from mental practice and lucid dreaming practice will fall in between the two. They say this because previous studies done by Tholey, LaBerge, and Zimbardo, proved that “the cognitive simulation in the dream state is much more realistic and the perception in lucid dreams appears to be much closer to actual perception than to waking imagination.”
The sample for the experiment included 68 individuals (32 males 36 females) who completed an online experiment. Their ages ranged from 19 to 54 years (the average age was around 31 years). These participants were recruited through lucid dream discussion boards or social networking sites and assigned to groups based on how they sleep. For example people who were frequent lucid dreamers would be assigned to the LDP group. There were 4 groups in total. The LDP group, the MP group, the PP group, and the control (no practice) …show more content…
Instructions were sent by email and all participants were asked to choose a time schedule for the experiment so that the time difference between the evening pre-test and post-test would be 10 h. The MP and PP participants were assigned corresponding practice times (from the bed time) and durations as the LDP group. All participants were asked to set an alarm clock to awaken at least 30 min before the post-test time so that their performance would not be impaired by sleep inertia. Each of the four groups was given different procedures for this
However, they predicted that the gains (improvement) from physical practice will be higher than the gains from mental practice and lucid dreaming practice will fall in between the two. They say this because previous studies done by Tholey, LaBerge, and Zimbardo, proved that “the cognitive simulation in the dream state is much more realistic and the perception in lucid dreams appears to be much closer to actual perception than to waking imagination.”
The sample for the experiment included 68 individuals (32 males 36 females) who completed an online experiment. Their ages ranged from 19 to 54 years (the average age was around 31 years). These participants were recruited through lucid dream discussion boards or social networking sites and assigned to groups based on how they sleep. For example people who were frequent lucid dreamers would be assigned to the LDP group. There were 4 groups in total. The LDP group, the MP group, the PP group, and the control (no practice) …show more content…
Instructions were sent by email and all participants were asked to choose a time schedule for the experiment so that the time difference between the evening pre-test and post-test would be 10 h. The MP and PP participants were assigned corresponding practice times (from the bed time) and durations as the LDP group. All participants were asked to set an alarm clock to awaken at least 30 min before the post-test time so that their performance would not be impaired by sleep inertia. Each of the four groups was given different procedures for this