Lucid dreaming increased during the COVID-19 pandemic: An online survey

Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic changed people's lives all over the world. While anxiety and stress decreased sleep quality for most people, an increase in total sleep time was also observed in certain cohorts. Dream recall frequency also increased, especially for nightmares. However, to date, there are no consistent reports focusing on pandemic-related changes in lucid dreaming, a state during which dreamers become conscious of being in a dream as it unfolds. Here we investigated lucid dreaming recall frequency and other sleep variables in 1,857 Brazilian subjects, using an online questionnaire. Firstly, we found that most participants (64.78%) maintained their lucid dream recall frequency during the pandemic, but a considerable fraction (22.62%) informed that lucid dreams became more frequent, whereas a smaller subset (12.60%) reported a decrease in these events during the pandemic. Secondly, the number of participants reporting lucid dreams at least once per week increased during the pandemic. Using a mixed logistic regression model, we confirmed that the pandemic significantly enhanced the recall frequency of lucid dreams (p = 0.002). Such increase in lucid dreaming during the pandemic was significantly associated with an enhancement in both dream and nightmare recall frequencies, as well as with sleep quality and symptoms of REM sleep behavior disorder. Pandemic-related increases in stress, anxiety, sleep fragmentation, and sleep extension, which enhance REM sleep awakening, may be associated with the increase in the occurrence of lucid dreams, dreams in general, and nightmares.

Fig 1. Descriptive analysis of the reported frequency of lucid dreams before and during the COVID-19 pandemic.

(A) The number of subjects decreases as the frequency of lucid dream recall increases, but the number of frequent lucid dreamers increased during the pandemic. (B) Most participants maintained the level of declared frequency of lucid dreams despite the pandemic, but a considerable fraction of them informed that lucid dreams became more frequent. (C) When using the Gackenbach criterion for low and high frequencies of lucid dreaming, it is notable that the proportion of frequent and infrequent lucid dreamers is almost the same, and that the percentage of frequent lucid dreamers is discretely higher during the pandemic.

Fig 2. Representation of main effects unveiled by the mixed logistic statistical model.

(A) The proportion of high lucid dreamers before and after the pandemic. (B) The proportion of respondents declaring high frequency of lucid dreams according to the corresponding category for age. Because these categories are somewhat arbitrary, a rough smoothing for the relation between the variables (blue line) was added to the plot to improve interpretation. (C) The proportion of high lucid dreamers conditioned to the number of residents sharing the house. In the absence of any clearer representation, the relationship between these variables is summarized by a straight (blue) line to enhance visual inspection.

Fig 3. Representation of the associations unveiled by the logistic regression model.

For each predictor used to embody such a model (A = nightmares, B = dreams, REM sleep behavior disorder symptom, D = sleep quality), the association is represented by the differences (among corresponding predictor’s levels) regarding the proportion of respondents declaring increased frequency of lucid dreams during the pandemic.