Thread: Prospective Memory and Lucid Dreaming

Really abstract thought here, I hope i'm not shooting myself in the foot.. But.. There might be a relationship to prospective memory which triggers the protein release? So in effect, much better sleep is reported when the protein is released on a consciousness cue rather than a physical cue from the body which needs to wake up for whatever reason. If the body has to wake itself up i think it means the consciousness is not acting in accordance with the body. (unconscious sleep. dreams of intense desire without a shred of lucidity.. all harmfull activities that consume energy and leave no room for any prospective memory)

No, it's actual a pretty good question, I've wondered about that as well! A definitive answer would be provided by an analysis of the CLOCK and BMAL1 genes (they regulate the fluctuation of PER) and the conclusion that they too have impact on PM, something we still don't know. While in one hand PER seems to influence long-term memory, on the other it seems highly implausible the idea of using PM based on time with biological clocks.

You have definitely peaked my interest. Can you name a few?

Incubation, EILD (direct incorporation makes it so not using PM is no longer unrealistic), simple recognition memory techniques...even long-term lucid dreamers can react with lucidity without PM due to simple conditioning. Also, you can tell whether PM is "kicking in" or not in many lucid dream reports: become especially alert to the "I become lucid" antecedent: did the person realized that they were dreaming (due possibly cue association) or did they actually remembered they had to respond to the cue? Subtle differences, but the difference between a MILD or another technique, PM usage or simple retrospective memory product.

I think this was once thought to be the case, but from what I've read the current belief-- assuming we're talking about the same thing here-- is that prospective memory is an independent function with it's own allotted RAM, so to speak.

Do you have the study that mentions that? According to Daniel 1990 (one of the top experts on the topic), RM is indeed used on PM. At the same time, Burgess, P.W. & Shallice's review also showed no independent functioning, so you got me curious.

The bottom line seems to be that the primary difference between the waking and sleeping state is memory, and so introducing memory by any means can result in lucidity.

This is why oversimplification is dangerous: Memory is too of a vague term here, as there are many types of memory that seem perfectly intact during the whole duration of dreams, like semantic memory. On the other hand, how can we introduce memory? Even if you recall everything you did related to a cue (like why are you seeing your cousin in front of you when she lives in the other side of the country) does not induced lucidity. Also, this study reveals self-reflective functions as the correlates of lucidity. Observing that one can become lucid even without memory, how do you account for this?

I think you in particular, will have some "ah-ha" moments when you see some of the other things, relative to LDIng, that I've learned from recent studies on the subject.

This topic was certainly a positive surprise, so will also look forward to your next ones