Lecturer wins prestigious international award for research into lucid dreams

Congratulations to David Saunders, Lecturer in Psychology and PhD researcher, who was recently presented with a prestigious award by the International Association for the Study of Dreams.

David received the ‘The Ernest Hartmann Student Research Award – Honourable Mention’ at the association’s research conference in Kerkrade, Holland. While attending the five day conference, David had the opportunity to present and discuss his doctoral research to attendees from around the world.

“My doctoral research is in the growing field which investigates the disassociated consciousness state of lucid dreaming, or being aware that one is dreaming while remaining within the dream” David explained.

“I was delighted to be the recipient of this research award, presented by the world’s leading dream research association. It is particularly humbling as the awarding panel is comprised of leading researchers in the field whose work I have been reading for years, from institutions such as Harvard so I could not receive any greater validation of my doctoral work here at the University of Northampton.”

David’s award was received for the second study in his thesis entitled ‘exploring the role of Locus of Control, Need for Cognition and Field Independence in the Incidence of lucid dreaming: A 12 week Induction study’. The paper aimed to contribute towards the understanding of the source of cognitive and perceptual differences previously observed between lucid dreamers and the general population. This is the second year that David has won The Ernest Hartmann Student Research Award Honourable Mention; the first study of his thesis received the award last year and has recently been published by Elsevier.  The second study is intended to be published in the journal Dreaming.

For more information regarding the University of Northampton’s Psychology degree and postgraduate awards, visit the respective course pages.