Investigating the transfer of physical stimuli to the dreamed body: A comparative study of muscular, vestibular, and haptic stimulation on dream incorporation
6 affiliations
- 1Institute of Sports Science (ISPW), University of Bern, Bern, Switzerland
- 2School of Health Professions, Institute of Physiotherapy, Zurich University of Applied Sciences (ZHAW), Winterthur, Switzerland
- 3Department of General Psychology, University of Padova, Padua, Italy
- 4Department of Developmental Psychology and Socialisation, University of Padova, Padua, Italy,
- 5Technology Platform for Research, Faculty of Human Sciences, University of Bern, Bern, Switzerland
- 6Donders Institute for Brain, Cognition and Behaviour, Radboud University Medical Centre, Nijmegen, The Netherlands
Abstract
The relationship between the dreamed body and the physical body remains an open question in sleep and dream research. This study examined whether somatosensory stimulation applied during REM sleep modulates the corresponding dream content under controlled conditions. Using a within-subject design, we compared three stimulation modalities—electrical muscular, galvanic vestibular, and haptic vibration—each paired with a modality-specific sham stimulation. Twenty-four participants completed one adaptation night followed by three consecutive experimental nights in the sleep laboratory. Dream reports were collected following rapid eye movement sleep awakenings after stimulation or sham periods, yielding a total of 120 reports. Dream incorporation of bodily sensations and actions was observed across all conditions; however, generalized linear mixed-effects analyses revealed no statistically significant differences between stimulation and sham conditions for any modality. No evidence for reliable modality-specific dream incorporation was observed under rigorous sham-controlled conditions. Rather than demonstrating robust stimulation-specific effects, these findings suggest that contextual and expectancy-related influences substantially contribute to bodily dream content under laboratory conditions while highlighting methodological challenges in dream incorporation research. By combining multiple somatosensory stimulation modalities with rigorous sham-controlled procedures, the present study provides a methodological benchmark for future investigations of dream incorporation and dream engineering.
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BibTeX
@article{peters2026investigating,
title = {{Investigating the transfer of physical stimuli to the dreamed body: A comparative study of muscular, vestibular, and haptic stimulation on dream incorporation}},
author = {Emma Peters and Jakob Poehlmann and Xinlin Wang and Kathrin Fischer and Stefano Maraschin and Gian Jäger and Gabriel Bolliger and Ralf Kredel and Simon Maurer and Martin Dresler and Daniel Erlacher},
journal = {PLOS One},
year = {2026},
month = oct,
doi = {10.1371/journal.pone.0358438},
url = {https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0358438},
note = {CC BY 4.0},
}
RIS
TY - JOUR
TI - Investigating the transfer of physical stimuli to the dreamed body: A comparative study of muscular, vestibular, and haptic stimulation on dream incorporation
AU - Emma Peters
AU - Jakob Poehlmann
AU - Xinlin Wang
AU - Kathrin Fischer
AU - Stefano Maraschin
AU - Gian Jäger
AU - Gabriel Bolliger
AU - Ralf Kredel
AU - Simon Maurer
AU - Martin Dresler
AU - Daniel Erlacher
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/10/14
JO - PLOS One
DO - 10.1371/journal.pone.0358438
UR - https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0358438
AB - The relationship between the dreamed body and the physical body remains an open question in sleep and dream research. This study examined whether somatosensory stimulation applied during REM sleep modulates the corresponding dream content under controlled conditions. Using a within-subject design, we compared three stimulation modalities—electrical muscular, galvanic vestibular, and haptic vibration—each paired with a modality-specific sham stimulation. Twenty-four participants completed one adaptation night followed by three consecutive experimental nights in the sleep laboratory. Dream reports were collected following rapid eye movement sleep awakenings after stimulation or sham periods, yielding a total of 120 reports. Dream incorporation of bodily sensations and actions was observed across all conditions; however, generalized linear mixed-effects analyses revealed no statistically significant differences between stimulation and sham conditions for any modality. No evidence for reliable modality-specific dream incorporation was observed under rigorous sham-controlled conditions. Rather than demonstrating robust stimulation-specific effects, these findings suggest that contextual and expectancy-related influences substantially contribute to bodily dream content under laboratory conditions while highlighting methodological challenges in dream incorporation research. By combining multiple somatosensory stimulation modalities with rigorous sham-controlled procedures, the present study provides a methodological benchmark for future investigations of dream incorporation and dream engineering.
SN - 1932-6203
ER -