Researchers say two-way communication is possible with people who are asleep and dreaming, specifically, with people who are lucid dreaming — that is, dreaming while being aware you’re dreaming.
Lucid dreaming is not common. So to study it, researchers looked for people who had experience with it and also trained people to try to make lucid dreaming more likely. Before the people taking part in the program went to sleep, they were also trained on how to communicate their answers. Special sensors (传感器) measured people’s eye movements or experts would judge their facial movements. For example, a typical question would be to ask what is 8 minus 6. A 19-year-old American man was able to respond by moving his eyes left-right, left-right — two times — to signal “2.” Researchers asked the question again, and he moved his eyes the same way two times again.
Out of the 158 trials among 36 participants, about 18% of the time, they were able to give correct answers. In another 18%, it wasn’t clear whether participants were responding or not. They were wrong 3% of the time. Most often, 61%, participants didn’t respond at all.
The researchers write that their findings offer “new opportunities for gaining real-time information about dreaming, and for changing the process of a dream”. And if more reliable communication methods can be worked out, it could help people with creative activities and ideas.
“People often use lucid dreaming or dreaming for a kind of artistic, creative inspiration,” says Karen Konkoly, a Ph.D. student at Northwestern University. “But in that dream state, your resources so far are only the ones that you have in the dream.” So with the help of a person awake, Konkoly says it could be possible to “combine those logical advantages of wake with the creative advantages of dreams and maybe have some more applications.”
22. What do we know about lucid dreaming?
A.Most people have experienced lucid dreaming. |
B.Lucid dreamers do not realize they were dreaming. |
C.The communication in lucid dreaming can go both ways. |
D.Lucid dreamers are better at math problem than others. |
23. Out of the 158 trials, approximately how many times did participants respond correctly?
24. What can the findings do in the future?
A.They can work out communication methods. | B.They can use dreams to inspire latest designs. |
C.They can help better understand dreaming. | D.They can change the course of people’s dreams. |
25. A dreamer needs the help of a person who is awake because the person is ______.
A.logical | B.artistic | C.creative | D.inspiring |