This week one of the Oneiromancer loggers/testers had the following dream:
RobertMc1982 said:
I've been working out for almost two months straight with no deload, lifting heavy (for me) almost exclusively, and focusing on getting stronger and increasing the big 3 compound lifts. Yesterday, however, was the first day of a deload I've planned to let myself repair, and apparently it was in my subconscious because I dreamed that I was at the gym still working out with heavy weights. I remember telling myself that I was supposed to be deloading, so I started doing some light rear delt fly’s instead of whatever compound lift I had been doing.Then, I was suddenly at my first powerlifting meet. I had a coach and everything. The only lift I remember doing was bench press, but I only remember laying there getting the press command from the judge. I didn’t see the weight, but I pushed it up effortlessly. Afterwards, my coach, teammates, and wife were all congratulating me on what a great job I did, and my coach was telling me how awesome of a first meet I just had. He gave me a card with the numbers from my lifts, and the only one I could see was the number for the bench press I had just done. 370. I remember thinking, “this is impossible.. I just did 315 the other day and it was HARD! Did I really just do this??”. Next thing I knew, I was walking around this building (I have no idea where I was at this point) with my coach and we came across a 315 lb dumbbell on the floor. He was like, ”go ahead and pick it up.” I squatted down to deadlift it with a double overhand grip, but could barely budge it. I then tried a mixed grip, and was able to lift it to my waste, but it was very hard to walk with it. My coach said, “you just bench 370 pounds, that dumbbell is light weight to you now. It’s yours, just take it with you.” Almost instantly, the dumbbell did feel much lighter, and I was able to carry it around with one hand. We were walking around with people congratulating me on the meet, and I even threw the dumbbell onto my shoulder. We did this for what seemed to be a few more minutes, and then I finally woke up.
It made me think about the untapped potential for using dreaming, particularly lucid dreaming, for sports performance.
There's a theory that dreams are for rehearsing events that you may have to face in real life. This can take the form of establishing a response to threats, but it can also be utilized to improve performance in upcoming tasks.
Researchers found that lucid dreamers who practiced tossing coins into a coffee cup in their dreams performed better at the task than those who did not practice.
In other research, participants were asked to perform knee-bends in their sleep; heart rate and respiration increased consistent with an exercise response.
In several anecdotal reports, amateur and professional athletes claimed that they used lucid dreams to improve their actual waking performance (e.g., Tholey, 1990). LaBerge and Rheingold (1990) reported several amateur athletes were able to improve their skills during lucid dreams (e.g., a long distance runner practiced his running technique, a tennis novice learned his tennis serve, and a woman enhanced her skating skills). Tholey (1990), a German sports psychologist and a pioneer in lucid dream research, provided further examples of professional athletes (Alpine skiers, equestrians, and martial artists) who used lucid dream practice on a frequent basis
The practice of mental rehearsal and visualisation of goal-achievement is now well established in sport, with sports psychologists routinely advocating it for better performance and motivation. The lucid dream environment allows the dreamer to go beyond a simple visualization, into a full "virtual reality" environment in which to practice and rehearse achievements.
In Star Trek TNG the ship's crew would use the Holodeck for training and recreation purposes; recreating situations virtually to enable a safe environment for practice, analysis, and experimentation. In "The Matrix" they used the virtual workspace of the Construct for the same thing.
The lucid dream environment allows the dreamer the same control over their environment, and the freedom to interact with it as they please.
One advantage that lucid dreaming has over both mental practice and modern virtual reality simulators is that lucid dreaming offers the potential for practice with a body (complete with kinaesthetic sensations) in an environment that is experienced with as much vividness and realism as would be encountered in waking experience. In addition, the lucid dreamer, being limited only by his or her imagination and attentional stability, has far greater potential for control over his or her own body, actions, and environment than in mental rehearsal, virtual reality environments, or waking life.
Supporting data and further reading:
Practicing in Dreams Can Improve Your Performance. Harvard Business Review April 2012.
Lucid Dream and Sport -Daniel Erlacher
Frontiers in dream research. International Journal of Dream Research Volume 1, No. 1 (2008)