Evidence map›Paper›PMID 42865440›Full record

ArticleFrontiers in psychology2026

Virtual reality as a metacognitive training tool for lucid dreaming.

Andrea Signorelli, Francesco Tormen, Bruna Dal Bianco, Nicola De Pisapia

Abstract read
In one paragraph

Article in Frontiers in psychology, 2026. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Not yet cited in PubMed.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
0citing papers in PubMed
–field-weighted citation impact
1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.

2 · The registry

The trial behind it

Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.

Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

0 citing papers in PubMed.

No citing paper in PubMed yet.

4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

4 authors.

Andrea SignorelliConsciousness, Creativity and Cognitive Control Lab, Department of Psychology and Cognitive Science, University of Trento, Rovereto, Italy.
Francesco TormenItalian Buddhist Union Research Center, Rome, Italy.
Bruna Dal BiancoConsciousness, Creativity and Cognitive Control Lab, Department of Psychology and Cognitive Science, University of Trento, Rovereto, Italy.
Nicola De PisapiaConsciousness, Creativity and Cognitive Control Lab, Department of Psychology and Cognitive Science, University of Trento, Rovereto, Italy.

Funding

No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.

6 · The paper itself

Abstract

Introduction: Lucid dreaming (LD) involves awareness of being in a dream during REM sleep and depends on the reactivation of metacognitive and reality-monitoring processes. This study tested whether a virtual reality (VR) intervention designed to rehearse lucid-dream-relevant metacognitive routines increases LD rates beyond baseline training, and whether generic VR exposure produces similar effects. Materials and methods: Thirty-eight participants with low previous LD experience completed a 5-week program of daily dream diaries and reality checks, assigned to: VR-experimental ( Results: VR-experimental participants reported the highest number of lucid like dreams (26), followed by Control (11) and VR-control (4). A Poisson model with total recalled dreams as offset showed that lucid-like dream rates were significantly higher in VR-experimental than in VR-control, RR = 8.60, 95% CI [3.00, 24.64], p_Holm <0.001, and Control, RR = 4.00, 95% CI [1.97, 8.09], p_Holm <0.001. Responder rates showed a convergent pattern, with at least one lucid-like dream reported by 84.6% of VR-experimental participants, 61.5% of Control participants, and 33.3% of VR-control participants, showing that VR exposure alone was insufficient. Discussion/conclusion: Dream-oriented VR training preceded by OM meditation may facilitate LD by scaffolding metacognitive monitoring from wakefulness to REM sleep.

Indexed as

cognitive trainingdream consciousnesslucid dreaminglucid dreaming inductionmetacognitionopen-monitoring meditationreality monitoringvirtual reality

Identifiers

PMID42865440
PMCPMC13654971

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Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.