Thread: Scientists at MIT successe in controlling rat dreams using audio cues

Nice find - this ties in nicely with Robert Stickgold's tests determining that rats who have been running a maze will fire the same sequences of neurons when sleeping (meaning they're running it again in their dreams), and that they consolidate the memories in both REM and NREM sleep and can more successfully run the maze the next day. Of course, lucid dreamers are already well aware of the usefulness of audio and light cues to spark particular memories while dreaming, and so are marketers supplying lucid alarms and light devices..

Originally Posted by Darkmatters

Nice find - this ties in nicely with Robert Stickgold's tests determining that rats who have been running a maze will fire the same sequences of neurons when sleeping (meaning they're running it again in their dreams), and that they consolidate the memories in both REM and NREM sleep and can more successfully run the maze the next day. Of course, lucid dreamers are already well aware of the usefulness of audio and light cues to spark particular memories while dreaming, and so are marketers supplying lucid alarms and light devices..

yup darkmatters I've seen what your talking about on a documentary on youtube caled Nova/ dream documentary or something like that, anyway the way this finding could be helpful for us is by associating a song with lucid dreaming like for me it will be (good life one republic) and every time i play it ill do something related to lucid dreaming like reality checks or reading my dream journal (which doesn't exist yet ) or reading about lucid dreaming , in the night ill set my alarm using the same song and let it play in the background while sleeping and see what happens , what do you thing of that idea .

Sounds like a good plan! Can you stay asleep when a song suddenly starts playing? Hmm… I guess I can, considering all the times I managed to sleep through my alarm, or did I just fall back asleep and not even remember waking?

Originally Posted by Darkmatters

Sounds like a good plan! Can you stay asleep when a song suddenly starts playing? Hmm… I guess I can, considering all the times I managed to sleep through my alarm, or did I just fall back asleep and not even remember waking?

I usually wake up whenever an alarm rings but i can lower the volume so that i don't wake up but currently am trying a technique advised buy a fellow lder , its about setting an alarm that shuts off by itself without the need to shut it manually , the idea is that you don't move and try a wild , when you don't move your body is still asleep and inducing a wild is at least 50 % easier .

Yeah, that would definitely help! Be sure to also use a mantra telling yourself to become lucid when you hear the music. Or if after some time that isn't working just switch to DEILD attempts - sounds like you're ideally set up for it with the smart alarm and music and all.

EDIT - Oh my bad!! I just re-read your post, and DEILD is exactly what you're doing! How did I not realize that?!

Just do it like this. Create a maze and fill it with posters that remind you of lucid dreaming and dream goals. Every night before you go to sleep walk through this maze and play Queen - Bohemian rhapsody on ur Ipod. Then play it while you sleep.

You will either dream of bycicles or dream of this maze.

But in all seriousness. Here's a real gameplan; Have one lucid dream while you are recording yourself on an EEG. IamCoder has good apparatus that measures lucidity. Or so i thought, atleast you need to be sure that you are lucid in these dreams. Now.. When this lucidity is recorded. You need to install this cue. I think a smell can be quite useful but perhaps a sound is more versatile.

You have now induced this sound with this particular lucid dream you where having. So technically, when you replay this sound during sleep this should result in having that same dream setup.. So you can continue from that vantage point! It's genius, if i say so myself. Otherwise, I would recommend playing a game like LSDemulator and associate it with a song or sound or smell. And have the scenes in this game and environment as your lucidity homebase. Then play the sound during sleep. I see new technology on it's way

For now though I think we have to settle with your idea! Honestly, I would work with a certain smell. They provoke deep memories. There is one smell that invokes an instant change of consciousness in me and that is the smell of burned plant material. If you have like Lavendel or something it is perfect. I truly recommend (and should heed my own advise) to have a strong smell while you are doing these things, like Dream journaling. Then have this particular strong smelling odor from a plant weaven into the pillow on which you sleep. It will take some work but I think it pays off in the end. Maybe you will have trouble as such because if you sleep with this odor each night that you will get used to it. But honestly, we don't know that yet.

To elaborate some more, we could have different odors or sounds associated with different mindsets. Like.. Lavendel for therapeutic work. Mint for healing. Bohemian rhapsody for having dream sex.

Originally Posted by Dthoughts

Just do it like this. Create a maze and fill it with posters that remind you of lucid dreaming and dream goals. Every night before you go to sleep walk through this maze and play Queen - Bohemian rhapsody on ur Ipod. Then play it while you sleep.

You will either dream of bycicles or dream of this maze.

But in all seriousness. Here's a real gameplan; Have one lucid dream while you are recording yourself on an EEG. IamCoder has good apparatus that measures lucidity. Or so i thought, atleast you need to be sure that you are lucid in these dreams. Now.. When this lucidity is recorded. You need to install this cue. I think a smell can be quite useful but perhaps a sound is more versatile.

You have now induced this sound with this particular lucid dream you where having. So technically, when you replay this sound during sleep this should result in having that same dream setup.. So you can continue from that vantage point! It's genius, if i say so myself. Otherwise, I would recommend playing a game like LSDemulator and associate it with a song or sound or smell. And have the scenes in this game and environment as your lucidity homebase. Then play the sound during sleep. I see new technology on it's way

For now though I think we have to settle with your idea! Honestly, I would work with a certain smell. They provoke deep memories. There is one smell that invokes an instant change of consciousness in me and that is the smell of burned plant material. If you have like Lavendel or something it is perfect. I truly recommend (and should heed my own advise) to have a strong smell while you are doing these things, like Dream journaling. Then have this particular strong smelling odor from a plant weaven into the pillow on which you sleep. It will take some work but I think it pays off in the end. Maybe you will have trouble as such because if you sleep with this odor each night that you will get used to it. But honestly, we don't know that yet.

To elaborate some more, we could have different odors or sounds associated with different mindsets. Like.. Lavendel for therapeutic work. Mint for healing. Bohemian rhapsody for having dream sex.

yes i think a smell would be a really good idea since it wont wake you up and at the same time it will reach your subconscious mind although the ear is the most receptive while sleeping but we dont need much only a cue to the brain plus you can get a automatic odor dispenser and set it up at 2 hours intervals or something.

yeah, i'm thinking of making something like that. indeed, because it does not wake you up. but an audio cue sounds (lol) just as useful. Just have to figure out which one works best for which occassion, i reckon there are different uses there. Actually, I have read somewhere that light flash is actually most effective, not sure why. But I reckon if you can associate a certain image.. Like a Salvador Dali painting with a sound,smell and have it turn up in dreams you are almost certainly inclined to trigger full lucidity. I'd say a sound is most useful because you can just have a little bell or something ring for a moment but i'm afraid that will just wake you up. The reason i mentioned odor is because it is very strong for recalling traumas, or long lost memories. In my experience. But say... Where is my mind by the Pixies is used in a videoclip taken from Waking life.. And that also reminds me of lucid dreaming because I used to watch it so much and now associate it with the film. I think once we understand these mnemonic triggers we can have way more advanced techniques which are honestly (like mild) kind of flimsy at the moment.

I really went with your idea and thought of a practical skill that we can develop. But instead of doing just dream journaling, which is fine ofcourse, I thought of making I.E. a 30 minute practice you do on ocassion where you burn this specific incense and meditate on your goals. You can imagine we can just use this 'dream machine' to release this specific odor on the night that you are going to achieve this goal.