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Northwestern UniversitySleep, Dreaming, and Virtual Reality for Mental Health Early Phase 1 70 Randomized Virtual
Clinical Trial NCT07408206 is designed to study Treatment for Anxiety. It is a Early Phase 1 interventional study that is recruiting, having started on 15 January 2026, with plans to enroll 70 participants. Led by Northwestern University, it is expected to complete by 31 December 2027. The latest data from ClinicalTrials.gov was last updated on 18 February 2026.
Brief Summary
People spend approximately one-third of their lives asleep, yet sleep is often underused as an opportunity to support psychological well-being. Contemplative traditions, including Tibetan Dream Yoga, have developed practices that use waking imagination and lucid dreaming to explore perception, awareness, and habitual patterns of thinking. Recent advances in sleep monitoring, dream communication, and lucid dream induc...Show More
Detailed Description
Dream Yoga is a contemplative practice with a documented history spanning more than a millennium, described in traditional manuals as a set of waking and sleep-based exercises intended to cultivate insight, perceptual flexibility, and altered self-referential processing. These practices include the intentional induction of lucid dreaming, in which individuals become aware that they are dreaming and may exert varying ...Show More
Official Title
Transformative Benefits of Contemplative Sleep Practices and a Novel Pathway to Deliver Benefits to the General Public
Conditions
AnxietyOther Study IDs
- STU00222189-MOD0004
NCT ID Number
Start Date (Actual)
2026-01-15
Last Update Posted
2026-02-18
Completion Date (Estimated)
2027-12-31
Enrollment (Estimated)
70
Study Type
Interventional
PHASE
Early Phase 1
Status
Recruiting
Keywords
lucid dreaming
dream yoga
contemplative practices
meditation
mind-body interventions
dream yoga
contemplative practices
meditation
mind-body interventions
Primary Purpose
Treatment
Design Allocation
Randomized
Interventional Model
Parallel
Masking
Double
Arms / Interventions
| Participant Group/Arm | Intervention/Treatment |
|---|---|
ExperimentalDream Yoga Inspired Intervention This customized contemplative training will guide participants in exploring techniques used in Tibetan Dream Yoga. Strategies in Tibetan Dream-Yoga manuals are thus transferred to a modern context and adapted as a group intervention. Goals will be set for dreaming that include gaining a degree of volitional influence over the dream. Wearable devices will be used to present cues during sleep both to provoke lucidity a...Show More | Dream Yoga Inspired Intervention This customized contemplative training will guide participants in exploring techniques used in Tibetan Dream Yoga. Strategies in Tibetan manuals are thus transferred to a modern context and adapted as a group intervention. Goals will be set for dreaming that include gaining lucidity, a degree of volitional influence over the dream. Participants will be instructed on how to work with their dream-world self-concept, wh...Show More |
Active ComparatorSleep Health Enhancement program A modified version of the Health Enhancement Program (HEP), which was developed as an active control condition for mindfulness-based interventions, with a particular focus on sleep hygiene. It controls for several non-specific factors such as expectations of positive change, group support, behavioural activation, facilitator attention, at-home practice, treatment duration, and format (MacCoon et al., 2012; Rosenkranz...Show More | Sleep Health Enhancement Program (SHEP) The control group will receive a modified version of the Health Enhancement Program (HEP), which was developed as an active control condition for mindfulness-based interventions, with a particular focus on sleep hygiene and dream journaling. It controls for several non-specific factors such as expectations of positive change, group support, behavioural activation, facilitator attention, at-home practice, treatment du...Show More |
Primary Outcome Measures
Secondary Outcome Measures
| Outcome Measure | Measure Description | Time Frame |
|---|---|---|
Changes in frontal midline theta | The intervention will preferentially increase frontal midline theta during a short period of breath meditation (one recording session before and one after the intervention); EEG power band-passed at 4-10 Hz will be quantified and related to findings on self-referential processing (Nondual Awareness Dimensional Assessment) | Baseline to 8 weeks |
Changes in Sleep Architecture | Sleep architecture will be compared with regard to time spent in each sleep stage, microarousals, slow-wave power, sleep spindles, and coupling between slow waves and spindles. Spectral power differences in different sleep stages. | Baseline and 8 weeks |
| Outcome Measure | Measure Description | Time Frame |
|---|---|---|
Changes in Lucid Dreaming Frequency | Lucidity will be assessed with a composite of questionnaires at week 1 and measuring changes at week 8 and using self-reports of lucid dreams recorded in daily dream journals and/or nightly reports during the 7-week intervention.Additionally participants will fill tge Self-report Questionnaires: 1. Lucid Dreaming Skills Questionnaire (LUSK) 2. Lucid Dream Control-Specific Experiences (LDC-SE) | Baseline to 8 weeks |
Changes in Cognitive Flexibility - Cognitive Flexibility Scale | Several facets of cognitive flexibility will be measured with the Cognitive Flexibility Scale | Baseline to 8 weeks |
Changes in Cognitive Flexibility - Probabilistic Reversal | Several facets of cognitive flexibility will be measured with several standard neuropsychological tests such as the Probabilistic Reversal Learning. | Baseline to 8 weeks |
Changes in Cognitive Flexibility - Stroop Test | Several facets of cognitive flexibility will be measured with standard neuropsychological tests such as the Stroop color-word test, Emotional Stroop. | Baseline to 8 weeks |
Participation Assistant
Eligibility Criteria
Eligible Ages
Adult, Older Adult
Minimum Age
18 Years
Eligible Sexes
All
Accepts Healthy Volunteers
Yes
- Individuals interested in participating will be screened for eligibility through a Qualtrics survey, a Score between 5-21 points in GAD-7.
Healthy, English-speaking adults (at least 18 years old) with high dream recall (at least 1/week).
We will exclude people who self-report any of the following:
- history of an established meditative practice
- psychological or psychiatric disorders (other than mild anxiety)
- sleep disorders, nightshift work in the past month, extreme chronotype or irregular sleeping pattern
- use of recreational drugs in the past month
- history of asthma, seizures or heart problems
- unwillingness to wear headband during sleep
Northwestern UniversityUniversity of Virginia294 active studies to exploreStudy Responsible Party
Ken Paller, Principal Investigator, Professor, Northwestern University
Study Central Contact
Contact: S. Gabriela Torres Platas, Ph.D., (847) 491-3741, [email protected]
2 Study Locations in 1 Countries
Illinois
Northwestern University, Evanston, Illinois, 60208, United States
Susan Florczak, Contact, 847-491-3741, [email protected]
Recruiting
Virginia
Contemplative Sciences Center, Charlottesville, Virginia, 22903-2628, United States
Michael Sheehy, Ph.D, Contact, (434) 982-6057, [email protected]
Contact, [email protected]
S. Gabriela Torres Platas, Ph.D., Principal Investigator
Recruiting