Scientists have taught lucid dreamers to simulate encounters with aliens and UFOs during REM sleep

According to the study , lucid dreams, in which people are partially aware and can control their dreams during sleep, can explain the so-called stories about alien abductions.

Allegations of such abductions date back to the 19th century. The circumstances of the abduction often seem fabulous and cause a sense of horror and paralysis. It is known that certain sleep states also cause such feelings, which makes Russian researchers wonder whether experiments in sleep can provide a clue to the alleged extraterrestrial experiences. Scientists encouraged lucid dreamers to dream of encounters with aliens or unidentified flying objects (UFOs) and found that a number of sleepers reported dreams that resembled actual descriptions of alleged alien abductions. 

During lucid dreams, the dreamers are aware that they are dreaming, and then they can use this awareness to control what is happening in the dream. About 55% of people experience lucid dreams once or several times in their lives, and 23% have lucid dreams at least once a month, according to a 2016 study published in the journal Consciousness and Cognition, which analyzed sleep research over five decades. 

Recently, researchers from the Center for Phase Studies (PRC), a private center in Moscow that studies lucid dreams, conducted experiments with 152 adults who identified themselves as lucid dreamers, instructing them to "find or summon aliens or UFOs" during lucid sleep. This was reported by scientists on July 2 in the International Journal of Dream Research .

The researchers found that 114 participants reported that they dream of a successful interaction with aliens. Of these, about 61% described meeting "aliens" who resembled aliens from science fiction novels and movies, while 19% met aliens who "looked like ordinary people," according to the study. 

"One participant said that she saw "little people" with blue skin, huge heads "and huge bulging eyes," the authors of the study reported. 

When the aliens invited her to their spaceship:

"I was blinded by a very bright light, like from a searchlight," she said. "My vision disappeared, I felt dizzy and light-headed." 

Another participant said that he dreamed that he was lying in his bed when it seemed to him that he was "being dragged somewhere", and he found himself in a room with a white silhouette that reached his chest and began "doing something inside with tools," the researchers wrote.

Conversations with aliens in a dream took place in 26% of meetings, and 12% of participants talked to aliens in a dream and interacted with them physically. UFOs appeared at 28% of meetings, and 10% of dreamers who saw UFOs told how they were taken inside an extraterrestrial spacecraft.

Of those who described their meetings as "realistic", 24% also experienced sleep paralysis and severe fear. Such emotions often accompany reports of alleged alien abductions, and although people describing an alien abduction may sincerely believe that what they experienced was real, these people probably experienced an extraterrestrial encounter during a lucid dream, the authors of the study reported.

Feelings of paralysis, fear and helplessness in vivid dreams can be so strong that they blur the line between dreams and reality, so it's not surprising that people who may have unconsciously dreamed dreams instead insist that they actually met with aliens who stole them and transported them. they are attracted to UFOs, said the chief researcher and founder of the People's Republic of China, Mikhail Raduga.

"For these unsuspecting people," the abductions are real, " he said Rainbow Live Science in an email. "They just don't know how to explain it."