In a recent study published in Consciousness and Cognition, researchers at Northwestern University showed that a smartphone app using sensory cues can significantly increase the frequency of lucid dreams—dreams in which a person is aware they are dreaming while still asleep. This study marks the first attempt to apply a lucid-dreaming method called Targeted Lucidity Reactivation outside of a lab environment, demonstrating that even a simple at-home approach can help users experience more lucid dreams.
Lucid dreaming has drawn increasing public interest for its potential benefits, including enhancing creativity, overcoming nightmares, and providing a space for personal growth and skill practice. Traditional techniques for inducing lucid dreams involve cognitive exercises, such as keeping a dream journal, performing reality checks, and practicing intention-setting before sleep.
Although these techniques can be effective, they require significant dedication and consistency. A streamlined, at-home approach could make lucid dreaming more accessible to the general public. The researchers wanted to explore whether a simplified, app-based approach using Targeted Lucidity Reactivation—a method previously successful in a controlled lab setting—could be adapted for use outside the lab with minimal technical requirements.
In Targeted Lucidity Reactivation, participants undergo training to associate a sound cue—such as a tone or melody—with becoming aware that they are dreaming. This same sound is then played during sleep to prompt lucidity within a dream, leveraging the brain’s ability to recognize the cue and reawaken a state of self-awareness while dreaming.
“I have always been fascinated in lucid dreaming because it provides a space to experience yourself in an entirely new way,” said study author Karen Konkoly, a postdoctoral psychology fellow and member of Ken Paller’s Cognitive Neuroscience Laboratory.
“Looking around in a lucid dream, you realize that everything before you is generated by your mind, including your sense of self. Moreover, lucid dreaming is a fascinating model for studying consciousness. Since we’ve been developing more effective ways to induce lucid dreams in the sleep laboratory, we wanted to take a step towards making these advances available for individuals to use on their own.”
The study consisted of two experiments to test whether a smartphone-based Targeted Lucidity Reactivation method could increase lucid dreaming frequency. The first experiment involved 19 participants, all Android users with a history of dream recall, who completed a one-week protocol involving nightly training with a specialized app. In the second experiment, the researchers recruited a larger sample of 416 participants who used the app for multiple nights, allowing for a more comprehensive look at the effectiveness of Targeted Lucidity Reactivation cues in a diverse group.
In Experiment 1, participants used an app that played specific sounds—a sequence of beeps or a violin tone—to create an association between these sounds and a lucid state of awareness. Each night before sleep, participants completed a 20-minute training exercise where the app’s sound cues prompted them to enter a “lucid mindset.”
Once asleep, the app replayed these cues intermittently after a six-hour delay, using a gradual volume increase to avoid sudden awakenings. Participants reported any dreams they remembered each morning, noting if they experienced lucid awareness or incorporated the sound cue into their dream.
This first experiment found that using the app increased lucid dreaming frequency from an average of 0.74 dreams per week (prior to the study) to 2.11 during the week of app use. Many participants credited the app’s cues with prompting lucidity directly or indirectly.
Experiment 2 built on these results with a more complex design. This time, participants were divided into three groups to clarify the effect of the Targeted Lucidity Reactivation cues. The first group, receiving cues every night, served as the main experimental group. The second and third groups were control conditions: one received “untrained” cues—sounds not used in the pre-sleep training—and the other received no sound cues on alternate nights. This design helped distinguish increases in lucid dreaming due specifically to Targeted Lucidity Reactivation and those possibly caused by arousal from sound cues in general.
With 50 participants completing the full seven-night protocol, the study provided insight into the distinct impact of Targeted Lucidity Reactivation cues compared to other sounds. Participants receiving these cues reported significantly more lucid dreams on training nights than those receiving untrained or no cues, reinforcing that pairing cues with lucidity training was essential for effective lucid dreaming.
“Tweaking sleep opens the door for people to change their dreaming,” Paller said. “We are taking a sleep-engineering approach to using sleep for personal benefits, for practicing skills, solving problems, and for spiritual and personal growth.”
The combined results from both experiments support Targeted Lucidity Reactivation’s potential as an accessible, smartphone-based method for promoting lucid dreaming. While the cues showed a clear benefit, the study also highlighted challenges, such as the potential for cues to disrupt sleep if mistimed, since the app could not detect when participants entered rapid eye movement (REM) sleep.
To improve the precision of Targeted Lucidity Reactivation in the future, researchers are considering incorporating wearable technology capable of detecting REM sleep, allowing cues to play at the optimal time for triggering lucidity without disturbing sleep. The Northwestern team has already begun collaborating with InteraXon, the company behind the Muse-S headband, which could allow for more precise sleep-stage detection and improve the effectiveness of the Targeted Lucidity Reactivation method.
The study, “Provoking lucid dreams at home with sensory cues paired with pre-sleep cognitive training,” was authored by Karen R. Konkoly, Nathan W. Whitmore, Remington Mallett, Christopher Y. Mazurek, and Ken A. Paller.
