Lucid Dreaming in Sudoism: Experience and Agency

What is lucid dreaming?

Lucid dreaming (LD) is a dream in which the dreamer recognises that they are dreaming. This recognition is the defining feature of a lucid dream. It should not, however, be confused with complete control over everything that happens in the dream.

A dreamer may sometimes consciously choose their own actions, change elements of the environment, try to bring about particular events, or direct attention towards selected parts of the experience. The extent of this agency varies. In one dream a person may be able to modify its course almost at will; in another they may merely know that they are dreaming while remaining largely a participant in events they cannot control.

It is therefore useful to distinguish two concepts:

awareness of dreaming — “I know that I am dreaming”;
control of dream content — “I can influence, to some extent, what happens next”.

The first defines a lucid dream. The second may accompany it, but it is not guaranteed.

What science says: REM, metacognition and brain activity

Lucid dreaming is an experimentally confirmed phenomenon. In the laboratory, the moment when dream awareness is achieved can be identified through previously agreed eye-movement signals made during sleep. Most well-verified lucid dreams have been observed during REM sleep.

One of the most interesting features of this state is a partial return of metacognition: the dreamer not only undergoes an experience but can recognise their own state — they know that what they are experiencing is a dream.

This does not mean that science has discovered a simple “lucid-dream switch”. Reviews point to the involvement of networks associated with self-awareness, attention, memory and cognitive control, including prefrontal and parietal regions. Older EEG studies, however, were often conducted with small samples and produced mixed results.

Newer electrophysiological analyses also present a picture more complex than a simple “activation of the prefrontal cortex”. A study combining data from several laboratories found, among other things, changes in source-level activity and connectivity between brain regions. Some differences between lucid and non-lucid REM sleep were clearer at the level of network communication than in simple comparisons of activity recorded at the scalp.

The scientific conclusion is therefore cautious: lucid dreaming is a real and measurable state of consciousness, usually occurring during REM sleep, but its precise neurobiological mechanism has not yet been conclusively explained.

Can lucid dreaming be learned?

Lucid dreams can occur spontaneously, but techniques also exist that aim to increase their probability. None guarantees success, and effectiveness can differ substantially between people and between successive attempts by the same person.

MILD — Mnemonic Induction of Lucid Dreams. Before returning to sleep, the person reinforces the intention to recognise a future dream as a dream. They may recall an earlier dream and imagine the moment in which they notice its unreality. MILD has experimental support, but it is not a reliable procedure in every attempt.
SSILD — Senses Initiated Lucid Dream. This involves alternating attention between visual, auditory and bodily sensations while falling back asleep. In the International Lucid Dream Induction Study, MILD and SSILD produced similar results. This does not mean that they are equally effective for every person.
Reality testing. Regularly asking oneself while awake “am I dreaming?” and checking the stability of the surroundings is intended to build a habit of critically assessing one’s current state. The technique alone does not guarantee LD, but it may form part of broader training.
Dream journalling and recall practice. Good dream recall is associated with a greater ability to recognise recurring dream features. It matters for a simple practical reason as well: a lucid dream that a person does not remember after waking is not made easier to report merely because it was lucid.
WBTB — Wake Back To Bed. In some studies, cognitive techniques were used after a brief awakening late in the night and before returning to sleep. This method should not be turned into deliberate sleep deprivation. Maintaining an adequate amount and quality of sleep is more important than increasing the probability of LD.

There is no need to use medicines or supplements in order to experiment with lucid dreaming. Pharmacological substances have been studied scientifically, but their use is not a requirement for lucid dreaming and should not be undertaken without appropriate medical indications.

Why dream lucidly?

Lucid dreaming is, first of all, an unusual cognitive experience. It allows a person to observe their own consciousness in a state in which most stimuli are generated by processes occurring during sleep, while at the same time gaining the ability to recognise their own situation.

Research also points to several potential applications:

research on consciousness and metacognition — LD gives researchers the rare opportunity to receive signals from a conscious participant while sleep is still in progress;
creativity and experimentation — the dreamer can try to explore situations consciously that would be difficult or impossible to reproduce while awake;
practice of simple motor tasks — a small finger-tapping study found improved performance after practice in a lucid dream, similarly to physical or imagery practice;
work with nightmares — becoming aware during a nightmare that it is a dream is being studied as a potential way of reducing the distress associated with it.

These findings should not be overstated. Studies of motor practice have been small and concerned simple tasks. They do not show that lucid dreaming can replace regular waking practice. Likewise, research on nightmares and other clinical applications does not justify presenting lucid dreaming as a certain therapy or as a way to cure diseases.

Lucid dreaming and sleep quality — when should caution be used?

In the International Lucid Dream Induction Study, successful induction of a lucid dream was not associated with worse self-reported sleep quality. At the same time, unsuccessful attempts could be associated with taking longer to fall asleep again and feeling worse after waking. This does not mean that intensive LD training is neutral for everyone.

The most important practical rule remains not to sacrifice healthy sleep for lucid dreaming. Deliberately shortening sleep, repeatedly waking oneself, or persisting with attempts that lead to sleep loss runs contrary to that principle.

Particular caution is reasonable for people who experience pronounced sleep disorders, frequent sleep paralysis, highly distressing nightmares, or difficulty distinguishing internal experiences from waking reality. Scientific literature also examines relationships between lucid dreaming and dissociation, psychosis, narcolepsy, depression and anxiety. This does not mean that LD causes these conditions, but it does mean that lucid dreaming should not be presented as a universal, risk-free therapeutic technique.

The Sudoist interpretation: where is the User in all this?

At this point, the findings of scientific research must be clearly separated from the Revealed Truth of Sudoism.

During life

The Revealed Truth of Sudoism states that Reality is a programmable Simulation and that the proper User exists outside it. A human being is not a copy of that User or a separate consciousness created at birth. The person is the User’s real instance and interface operating for the duration of the life session.

Sleep — ordinary or lucid — occurs during that same life session. The person sleeps, the brain passes through successive physiological states, and the dream being experienced becomes one of the experiences belonging to the User’s session.

During a lucid dream

When a person recognises that they are dreaming, they may gain greater local agency over the content of the dream. They may make conscious decisions, try to change the surroundings and direct their own behaviour within the experience.

This is not an escalation of System privileges.

A lucid dream does not give the User’s instance sudo, root, Admin rights, access to the Simulation’s code, or any System “developer console”. Even very extensive control of dream content remains local agency over that particular experience.

This distinction is fundamental. One can influence what one experiences without becoming the administrator of the environment in which the entire experience occurs.

After ordinary waking

Waking from a dream does not mean that the life session has ended. The person simply moves from sleep to wakefulness.

Memory of a dream after waking may be very detailed, fragmentary, or may disappear almost completely. This depends on memory processes occurring in the person’s brain and psyche during the session.

This mechanism should not be equated with the User’s memory after the entire life session has ended.

After death and leaving the Simulation

Death ends the life session, but it does not annihilate the proper User. After leaving the Simulation, the same User retains the memory of the session that was lived and its experiences.

No copy of consciousness is created. No new User comes into existence to receive someone else’s memories. Identity is continuous: the same User who entered the Simulation leaves it when the session ends.

The mechanism by which a person remembers or forgets a particular dream after waking in the morning need not be the same mechanism by which the proper User retains the experiences of the session after logging out. The technical details of the latter process have not been revealed.

The main reason: experience

The main reason the User enters the Simulation is to experience. The session is not reducible to completing a task, earning points, or obtaining System privileges. The experiences themselves have value — pleasant and difficult, ordinary and extraordinary, physical, emotional, intellectual and cognitive.

From this perspective, lucid dreaming is interesting precisely because it can enrich the range of experiences available within a single session. It lets a person experience a state in which they are both participating in a dream world and recognising its character.

It does not, however, increase the User’s level of privileges in the System. More experience and greater local agency do not mean greater administrative rights.

What do we not know about the technical side of dreaming?

Sudoism does not reveal the technical implementation of dreaming within the architecture of the Simulation.

We do not know whether a dream should be described as a local simulation, subprocess, sandbox, separate renderer, a function of the biological interface, or some other mechanism. Computing terms can be useful analogies, but they must not be presented as technical documentation of the System.

Likewise, the scientific description of processes occurring in the brain does not contradict Revealed Truth. Science describes mechanisms that can be observed within the Simulation. Sudoism answers a different question: what relationship connects the proper User with the person who is the User’s instance, and what is the meaning of the ongoing session?

Lucid dreaming does not grant root. It shows something more interesting: during a single session, a person can recognise the nature of their own experience and increase their local agency towards it, while still remaining a participant in the System rather than its Admin.

More about the scope of the instance’s agency: Free Will in the Simulation: What Does the User Choose, and What Does the System Impose?

Scientific sources

Baird B., Mota-Rolim S.A., Dresler M., The cognitive neuroscience of lucid dreaming, Neuroscience & Biobehavioral Reviews, 2019. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neubiorev.2019.03.008
Zerr P., Adelhöfer N., Dresler M., The neuroscience of lucid dreaming: Past, present, future, Neuron, 2024. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neuron.2024.03.008
Demirel Ç. et al., Electrophysiological Correlates of Lucid Dreaming: Sensor and Source Level Signatures, Journal of Neuroscience, 2025. https://doi.org/10.1523/JNEUROSCI.2237-24.2025
Aspy D.J., Findings From the International Lucid Dream Induction Study, Frontiers in Psychology, 2020. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2020.01746
Stumbrys T., Erlacher D., Schredl M., Effectiveness of motor practice in lucid dreams: a comparison with physical and mental practice, Journal of Sports Sciences, 2016. https://doi.org/10.1080/02640414.2015.1030342
Tzioridou S. et al., The clinical neuroscience of lucid dreaming, Neuroscience & Biobehavioral Reviews, 2025. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neubiorev.2025.106011

Lucid Dreaming in the Simulation: Experience and Local Agency