Sound cues steered dreams and improved puzzle-solving

"It's like the movie Inception, but without Leonardo DiCaprio, unless you imagine him. Researchers used carefully timed sound cues to nudge dream content, and in some cases, boost next-morning problem solving. Could dreamtime product placement come next? The team, based at Illinois' Northwestern University, used a technique known as targeted memory reactivation (TMR) to trigger dreams of puzzles that sleep study participants were unable to solve while awake."

"According to their findings, among the 12 of 20 participants whose dreams incorporated the cued puzzles, solving rates rose from 20 percent to 40 percent - still not a majority, but a statistically significant jump. The TMR technique used in the study involved playing certain audio cues while participants tried solving the puzzles in order to associate each puzzle with a specific sound."

"The researchers also found that the effect held among the 12 of 20 participants whose dreams incorporated the cued puzzles, even when they were not lucid - that is, not consciously aware they were dreaming or deliberately steering the dream. The team recruited people with prior lucid-dreaming experience because they are better able to control dream content and search for insight while asleep, but participants were not consistently lucid during the cued dreams."

Targeted memory reactivation (TMR) uses audio cues linked to waking experiences to trigger related dream content during sleep. Puzzles were paired with specific sounds during waking attempts, and sounds associated with unsolved puzzles were replayed while participants slept. Among participants whose dreams incorporated the cued puzzles, morning solving rates rose from 20 percent to 40 percent, a statistically significant improvement. The effect appeared even without lucid dreaming, including instances where dream characters assisted with problem solving. Participants with prior lucid-dreaming experience were recruited but were not consistently lucid during cued dreams.

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