The Link Between Lucid Dreams and Ghosts
Do people who control their dreams also sense the paranormal?
People who report paranormal experiences tend to have more lucid dreams, nightmares, and sleep paralysis.
In 2020, researchers from the UK recruited 455 people online who had all experienced lucid dreaming at least once. They wanted to understand whether the same mental quirks that make us question reality during the day might also make us more likely to have strange experiences at night—and whether this connects to believing in the paranormal. The study was conducted in the UK, which may limit generalizability to other cultures as sleep habits and paranormal beliefs vary across societies.
Key Findings
- People who reported more paranormal experiences also reported more frequent lucid dreams, nightmares, and sleep paralysis episodes.
- However, merely believing in the paranormal—without claiming personal experiences—only correlated with nightmares and sleep paralysis, not lucid dreaming.
- Most importantly, people who struggled with reality testing—meaning they often weren't sure if something was real or imagined—showed the strongest links to both sleep weirdness and paranormal experiences.
What Is This About?
The researchers asked participants to fill out online questionnaires about their sleep experiences—including how often they control their dreams, how often they have nightmares, and how often they experience sleep paralysis. They also measured participants' tendency to have trouble telling what's real versus imagined (called reality testing), plus their paranormal beliefs and experiences. Then they looked for statistical patterns connecting these factors. Everyone in the study had already experienced lucid dreaming, so the researchers were comparing people who have these experiences rather than comparing dreamers to non-dreamers.
Online survey using established self-report questionnaires measuring sleep phenomena (lucid dreaming control, nightmares, sleep paralysis), reality testing deficits (IPO-RT), and paranormal beliefs/experiences
Weak positive correlations between dissociative sleep experiences and paranormal measures; reality testing deficits associated with both sleep phenomena and paranormal experiences
How Good Is the Evidence?
The correlations were 'weak'—typically explaining less than 10% of the differences between people. This is comparable to the relationship between coffee drinking and heart disease risk in some studies: statistically real, but not strong enough to predict individual outcomes.
Supporters of paranormal phenomena argue that these correlations show sensitive individuals are more open to both dream awareness and genuine psychic experiences, suggesting these are related aspects of expanded consciousness. Skeptics counter that this confirms paranormal experiences are cognitive glitches—people who cannot distinguish internal thoughts from external reality are bound to misinterpret sleep hallucinations as ghosts or spirits. The researchers themselves emphasize cognitive processes as key but remain neutral on whether this explains away or enables genuine phenomena.
Mainstream: Strange sleep experiences and paranormal beliefs are both products of poor reality monitoring and dissociative tendencies, with no supernatural component. Moderate: Some people have a cognitive style that makes them more prone to both vivid dream states and anomalous experiences, regardless of whether those experiences have objective reality. Frontier: Lucid dreaming and related states might be genuine portals to expanded consciousness, and the correlation with paranormal experiences suggests these are related phenomena rather than cognitive errors.
Many think this study proves that paranormal experiences are 'just dreams' or hallucinations. But the study only shows correlations—it cannot tell us whether strange sleep experiences cause paranormal beliefs, or whether people who are prone to both simply have different cognitive wiring. It also doesn't prove that paranormal experiences aren't real; it only shows they cluster with certain sleep phenomena.
To settle whether these connections reflect genuine cognitive differences or reporting biases, we would need longitudinal studies tracking people over time to see if sleep changes predict later belief changes, plus neuroimaging to see if 'reality testing deficit' corresponds to actual brain differences. This study meets the criteria for identifying patterns in self-reported experience with a medium-sized sample, but cannot establish causality or objective validity.
Significant positive correlations between sleep and paranormal measures were weak.
Stance: Mixed
What Does It Mean?
It's like how some people are more prone to getting lost in daydreams or momentarily forgetting whether they locked the door. This study suggests that same 'reality monitoring' skill—or lack thereof—might make you more likely to experience sleep paralysis as terrifying hallucinations or to feel like you're controlling your dreams.
This study illustrates the difference between correlation and causation—just because two things happen together doesn't mean one causes the other, and third factors (like overall suggestibility) might explain both.
Understanding Terms
What This Study Claims
Findings
Reality testing deficits correlate positively with all paranormal and sleep-related measures, with the Auditory and Visual Hallucinations subscale showing the strongest associations.
weakParanormal belief (without claimed experience) correlates with nightmares and sleep paralysis but not with lucid dreaming frequency or control.
weakPeople who report paranormal experiences tend to experience more frequent lucid dreams, nightmares, and sleep paralysis episodes compared to those who only hold paranormal beliefs without experiences.
weakInterpretations
Self-generated cognitive processes play a significant role in conscious control of lucid dreaming and related dissociative sleep states.
moderateThis summary is for general information about current research. It does not constitute medical advice. The scientific interpretation of these results is debated among researchers. If personally affected, please consult qualified professionals.