Succeeded in communicating with sleeping people

It is said that it is not good to reply to sleepiness, but communication is usually not established with people who are sleeping in the first place. However, a new study reports that it has succeeded in communicating with sleeping people.

Real-time dialogue between experimenters and dreamers during REM sleep: Current Biology

Lucid dreamers can hear and answer questions while still asleep, scientists find | Live Science
https://www.livescience.com/real-time-communication-while-dreaming.html

The research was conducted by cognitive neuroscientist Karen Concory of Northwestern University, Illinois. The research results are published in the academic journal 'Current Biology'.

Concoly and his colleagues are still dreaming to find out exactly what the dream is about, as people forget the details of the dream after waking up and can't remember it correctly, so research on the dream hasn't progressed. I thought about getting information while I was there, that is, while I was sleeping.

The research team consists of members from four countries: the United States, Germany, France, and the Netherlands, each conducting different experiments.

An American experiment was to 'verbally ask math problems during REM sleep and have them answer with eye movements,' with 22 participants saying that they remember their dreams at least once a week.

The German experiment was to 'provide math problems with sound and light during REM sleep and have them answer with eye movements', and 10 people who have dreamed lucid dreaming more than 35 times in the past participated.

A French experiment identifies 'questions that can be answered yes / no', tactile sensations, speeches, and light stimuli, and answers by contraction of facial muscles. One person who often lucid dreaming with narcolepsy (insomnia). Participated.

The Dutch experiment, like the United States, verbally raises math problems, and three people participated, who remembered the contents of their dreams at least three times a week and at least one of them was a lucid dream.

In all experiments, three experts checked whether participants were in REM sleep.

As a result, 6 out of 36 people who participated in the experiments in 4 countries responded correctly. Of the total of 158 tests, 29 (18.4%) got the correct answer. In addition, there were 5 false responses (3.2%), 28 ambiguous responses (17.7%), and the most common response was 'no response' (96 responses (60.8%)).

'I wish I could communicate, but I couldn't believe it when there was a real reaction,' Concory told the news site LiveScience.

Regarding the results of the experiment, Pileriin Sikka of the University of Schevede, Sweden, said, 'Two-way communication that works from the outside to the inside of the dream and the reaction comes back from the inside is like science fiction,' said four independents. While acknowledging the efforts of the researchers regarding what the group did, only six responded, questioning whether it could be generalized.

Robert Stickgold, a professor at Harvard Medical School, also described it as 'a groundbreaking research' and 'a new and exciting window for dream research'. 'How to apply it in reality?' It's not clear if we'll be able to answer more complex questions, 'he told Live Science.