I was curious of how much the placebo effect could increase the chances of having a lucid dream. If it could have a big enough effect it could possibly make a phenomenally effective and easy technique for helping other people start lucid dreaming. I couldn't really test it out on myself of course but didn't really have anyone to test it on because none of my family had any interest in lucid dreaming. My friend does but it would not be very easy to do a good experiment on him.

I taught my nephew, who is 10, how to lucid dream last month so when he came to stay at my house for four days on August sixteenth. I knew it would be a perfect chance to do the test. He is pretty excited about lucid dreaming and can be a bit gullible some times.

I didn't have any placebo pill which would be just a pill made out of sugar that you tell the person taking it that it will have a certain effect while it will actually just make them think it will. Instead I got some sweat tarts and got only the blue ones in order to make it seem more consistent. I would have him take these once a night for four days and see if his recall, vividness or lucidness increased. On the last day I would tell him what it actually was and that it was a experiment. (notes: I now know that sweet tarts are not as good as a placebo pill because of their size making them harder to swallow, especially if the person is younger and has a smaller thought. Also they have a sweet taste that if identified could ruin the results. If you are going to use them make sure you tell them they are chewable and Berry flavored.)

After I had them I told my nephew about b6 and b5 vitamins being able to increase the likely hood of having lucid dreams. I wanted to make sure he knew it was vitamins because it would send a bad message if I made him think it was okay to take prescription pills without your doctors approval. He then asked if I had any as I knew he would and I said yes and he took them that night.

Morning one results:

No dreams recalled. He had to sleep on a blanket in the floor and said it made it harder to sleep but the placebo seems to have had no effect.

Morning two results:

again no recall. He also reported being uncomfortable again. He noticed the taste and I said its berry flavored and he was okay with it.

Morning three results:

This time he slept in a bed but still remembered no dreams. If he can't remember the dreams it is very hard to judge what effect it had so I have to say its not doing well.


The next day his mother, my sister, came over also and was spending that night here with us. She is a doctor and I told her about the test I was doing on him and she was concerned that he would get the wrong message and think it was okay to take things that your doctor didn't say was okay. She told him about it before I did which is quite annoying because I wanted to tell him all at once at the conclusion for sort of like a full debriefing. He left the next morning and didn't have any dream recall or lucids the whole time he was here.

Conclusion:

The placebo effect dose not seem to necessarily cause lucid dreaming. Of course things like comfort, amount of sleep and most importantly gullibility and susceptibility to the placebo effect have large effects on the results. It definitely needs more research on a large amount of people and in a sleep lab for really answers but it is enough for me to say it is not worth it to try and induce lucids in others with the placebo effect.


P.S. School started this week and my nephew told his friends about lucid dreaming. My nephew thought it would be a good idea to tell a kid that if they drank some "magic juice" (which was actually propel) it would make him have a lucid, because of what I did. A teacher overheard him and at their school they have a no tolerance rule. He got taken to the office and was nearly expelled because they had no way of proving it didn't have some kind of drug in it. his parents had to come and explain the whole thing was a fiasco!