Dreaming? Yes. Conscious? Also Yes.

Imagine falling asleep, becoming aware that you’re dreaming, and being able to answer questions and solve problems while you’re fast asleep. As impossible as it sounds, researchers have shown that lucid dreamers can answer questions during REM sleep and even perform complex tasks within dream environments. But how does lucid dreaming work, why can some people consciously control their dreams, and did this unusual ability serve a greater evolutionary purpose?

A study shows that individuals who are asleep and in the midst of a lucid dream ( which can be described by the individual as being aware of the fact that they are currently dreaming) can perceive questions from an experimenter and provide answers using electrophysiological signals. Through a process analyzing rapid eye movement (REM), ranging from individuals who often had lucid dreams to those who did not at all, they found that they were able to showcase abilities ranging from analysis of new information, keeping information within their memory, to even computing simple replies to stimuli as seen in Figure 1. These replies consisted of distinctive eye movements and facial muscle contractions, constituting correctly answered questions on 29 occasions across 6 of the individuals tested (Karen et al.).

Figure 1: Overview of the experimental setting made by experimenters to test responses (Karen et al.)

Some even wonder if we can do tasks while in REM sleep, a thought that researchers at REMspace decided to test. Using participants who were well-versed in lucid dreaming, they used electromyographical (EMG) sensors which detected leg and arm muscle movements and diodes on their eyes to indicate obstacles. This technology was used to convert EMG impulses into controlling a virtual car. Many participants were even able to drive said virtual car, successfully avoiding digital obstacles placed in the simulation, or both (Raduga and Shashkov) as seen in Video 1.

Video 1: Two-way control of a virtual object from a lucid dream (REMspace)

This leads to another question: how exactly is this able to happen scientifically? The neurobiology of lucid dreaming is still not completely known. A key idea that is a good hypothesis is that in certain areas of the brain, such as the amygdala, medial prefrontal cortex and anterior cingulate cortex, the blood flow increases more than when we are awake or in deep sleep as seen in Figure 2. This higher blood flow matches the highly visual dreams we typically experience during REM sleep. So this sudden shift from dream mode to awake mode may cause a partial activation of our brains, allowing for awareness that the experience is a dream, decision-making inside the dream, responses to external cues or experimenters, or even memory of goals formed while awake (Baird et al.).

Figure 2: Increased brain activity ( in anterior prefrontal cortex)  and stronger functional connectivity in regions linked to self-awareness and higher-order cognition during lucid dreaming (Baird et al.)

From an evolutionary standpoint for this phenomenon, we also do not have a certain confirmed answer as to why humans are able to do this. Some theories have arisen to better understand human beings and the vast secrets of our minds. Researcher A. Revonsuo proposed a hypothesis suggesting dreaming evolved as an ancient biological defence mechanism. Within one’s dreams, we are able to construct a complex model of the world, often recreating certain types of waking experiences. He proposed that by simulating dangerous or life-threatening scenarios in a safe environment, the brain allowed ancestral humans to rehearse threat perception, avoidance, and fight-or-flight responses without real-world consequences. We may see examples of this from children’s dreams, recurrent dreams, nightmares, post-traumatic dreams, and the dreams of hunter-gatherer groups (Revonsuo).

Lucid dreaming acts as a bridge from this simulated world to conscious awareness. This is a byproduct of the highly evolved self-reflective consciousness that characterizes humans. Rather than evolving as a trait with a specific adaptive purpose, lucid dreaming may result from metacognition, self-awareness, and executive control becoming active during sleep, allowing individuals to recognize that they are dreaming and, in some cases, influence the dream experience. This suggests that lucid dreaming may reflect the unique capacity of the human brain to monitor and reflect upon its own mental states, even while asleep (Mota-Rolim et al.). While many questions remain unanswered, lucid dreaming demonstrates that the boundary between wakefulness and sleep is far more complex than once imagined.

Works Cited

Baird, Benjamin, et al. “The cognitive neuroscience of lucid dreaming.” National Library of Medicine, National Library of Medicine, 1 May 2020, https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC6451677/. Accessed 23 October 2026. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neubiorev.2019.03.008 

Karen, Konkoly R., et al. “Real-time dialogue between experimenters and dreamers during REM sleep.” PMC, 28 May 2021, https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC8162929/. Accessed 28 October 2026. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cub.2021.01.026

Mota-Rolim, Sergio A., et al. ““Is this a Dream?” – Evolutionary, Neurobiological and Psychopathological Perspectives on Lucid Dreaming.” Frontiers, Frontiers in Psychology, 8 February 2021, https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/psychology/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2021.635183/full. Accessed 23 October 2026. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2021.635183

Raduga, Michael, and Andrey Shashkov. “Two-way control of a virtual avatar from lucid dreams.” OSF, 20 June 2024, https://osf.io/preprints/psyarxiv/xzmwh_v1. Accessed 28 October 2026. https://doi.org/10.31234/osf.io/xzmwh

REMspace. “Two-way control of a virtual avatar from lucid dreams Post author.” REMspace, REMspace, 2024, https://remspace.net/blog/two-way-control-of-a-virtual-avatar-from-lucid-dreams/.

Revonsuo, A. “The reinterpretation of dreams: an evolutionary hypothesis of the function of dreaming.” National Library of Medicine, National Library of Medicine, 23 December 2000, https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/11515147/. Accessed 23 October 2026. https://doi.org/10.1017/s0140525x00004015