A neuroscientific dialog on lucid dreaming

Speakers:
Natalia López-González Del Rey. PhD candidate at HM CINAC, natural lucid dreamer.
Guglielmo Foffani. senior investigator at HM CINAC, trained lucid dreamer.

Description:
Lucid dreams are dreams in which the dreamer is aware of dreaming while continuing to sleep. Even though the concept and practice of lucid dreaming have been known for thousands of years (Mota-Rolim et al., Front Psychol 2020), lucid dreams officially entered the formal neuroscientific literature only about four decades ago, thanks to the pioneering experiments of Hearne (1978) and LaBerge (1980). More recently, lucid dreaming has been employed to investigate motor function in absence of external movement (Dresler et al., Curr Biol 2011; LaBerge et al., Nat Commun 2018), brain mechanisms of metacognition and self-awarness (Voss et al., Nat Neurosci 2014; Filevich et al., J Neurosci 2015), and even to establish a bidirectional communication between the oneiric realm and the outside world (Konkoly et al., Curr Biol 2021). About 55% of people report having had at least one lucid dream in a lifetime, and about 23% of people can be considered frequent lucid dreamers (one or more lucid dreams per month) (Saunders et al., Conscious Cogn 2016). This satellite event will propose a dialogue on lucid dreaming between the organizers and the audience. How can we learn to lucid dream? What can we learn in a lucid dream? What are the neuroscientific and epistemological challenges of lucid dreaming? No previous lucid dreaming experience is required, just curiosity.

Program:
The dialog will occur in a flexible interactive format. Approximate duration: 1 hour.