Lucid dreaming and the mind-body relationship: a model for the cognitive and physiological variations in rapid eye movement sleep.

The psychophysiological properties of the lucid dream state were examined to evaluate the relationship between lucid and nonlucid dreaming, emphasizing the fact that the components of self-reflectiveness and other cognitive features commonly associated with lucid dreams occur in all dreams to various extents. Although lucid dreams are clearly toward one end of the continuum, they still share many of the characteristics present in most dreams. In this respect, exploration of lucid dreams may not necessarily be a misguided path toward the understanding of dreaming in general. A simple model was described to illustrate the mind-body relationship in various forms of REM dreaming.