Why April 12th?

First Documented Signal - Dr Keith Hearne 

April 12th marks a quiet yet meaningful turning point in the history of dream research.
 

On this day in 1975, a young doctoral student named Keith Hearne, working with his subject—a volunteer lucid dreamer named Alan Worsley—recorded the first documented signal from within a lucid dream using an electrooculogram (EOG).
 

“Suddenly, out of the jumbled senseless tos and fros of the two eye-movement recording channels, a regular set of large zigzags appeared on the chart.
Instantly, I was alert and felt the greatest exhilaration on realizing that I was observing the first-ever deliberate signals sent from within a dream to the outside.

The signals were coming from another world—the world of dreams—and they were as exciting as if they were emanating from some other solar system in space.”
— Dr. Keith Hearne
 

This quiet experiment proved that lucidity in dreams was not just anecdotal—it could be objectively measured and scientifically studied.
 

However, because Hearne’s research was conducted quietly at Hull University in the UK and later published in the Journal of the Society for Psychical Research—a niche, "peer-reviewed" parapsychology journal—it received little recognition from the mainstream scientific community.
 

Peer-reviewed, journals in the parapsychology field are widely regarded as lacking the methodological rigor and credibility expected of conventional science. Often associated with speculative subjects like ESP and telekinesis, they tend to fall outside the bounds of respected academic discourse and are typically far easier to publish in than established scientific outlets.
 

In this context, Hearne’s decision to submit such important work to a fringe journal—rather than pursuing more rigorous or widely-read platforms—was arguably a pivotal mistake. Understandable, perhaps, given the publishing climate of the time, but one that all but ensured the study would be met with skepticism and overlooked. In hindsight, it likely delayed wider recognition of his contribution.

Mainstream Scientific Validation – Dr. Stephen LaBerge
 

Just under three years later, on January 13, 1978, Dr. Stephen LaBerge independently conducted a similar experiment at Stanford University—this time using himself as the test subject. During REM sleep, he successfully became lucid and performed pre-agreed eye movements to signal his conscious awareness from within the dream.

But LaBerge’s research went far beyond a single test or subject. Unlike Hearne, he employed full polysomnographic monitoring—including EEG to confirm brainwave activity, EOG for eye movements, and EMG to measure muscle atonia—ensuring that all signals were sent during verified REM sleep. In subsequent studies, he expanded the experiments to include multiple trained lucid dreamers, all of whom successfully repeated the signalling under the same rigorous conditions.

By 1981, he succeeded in publishing the first peer-reviewed scientific paper verifying the phenomenon.

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Unlike Hearne, LaBerge persisted in submitting his results to major scientific journals. After initial rejections from Science and Nature, his findings were eventually published in Perceptual and Motor Skills (1981). This milestone provided the first mainstream scientific validation of lucid dreaming—helping shift the phenomenon from fringe curiosity to a credible subject of academic inquiry.

An Appreciative Nod of Respect
 

With many possible dates available, Daniel Love chose April 12th to help draw attention to this historical first step—reviving an overlooked milestone and using it to represent something more:
 

• That even quiet, underappreciated discoveries can shape the future.

• That lucid dreamers should always investigate their sources.

• And that the journey toward truth is often built on the forgotten work of those who came before.

His intention was to build a symbolic bridge—linking the early days of dream science with today’s global exploration of lucidity.
 

It is a date that reminds us of humble beginnings—and how far we can still go.
 

Lucid Dreaming Day isn’t about one man, one moment, or one experiment.
 

It’s a celebration of all the quiet steps forward that brought us here—and all those still to come.

Why Not January 13th?

While January 13th (LaBerge’s first eye-signal experiment) is also historically significant, April 12th was chosen for its symbolic value, and because it had been largely forgotten—it marks the quiet first step, a fitting metaphor for the inner world of lucid dreaming itself. It’s a celebration of the moment humanity first reached out from a dream and proved it was conscious.