How Lucid Dreaming Works

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Abstract

lacked the technology to prove if lucid dreaming was real or not, but a series of recent studies have shed light on the phenomenon.</p><p id="e33d">Scientists have designed experiments, and they’ve been able to show objectively that when people say that they’re doing something in their dream that they actually are.</p><p id="5034">In 2012, scientists reported results from one of the first experiments that objectively measured lucid dreams using fMRI scanners. fMRIs measure the rate of blood flow to different areas of the brain, so they can relay information about a person’s thoughts and actions simply through a series of images. For the study, scientists first asked participants to clench their fists while they were awake. This lit up key areas of the brain on the fMRI scanner. After that participants were asked to fall asleep and dream about clenching their fists. Sure enough, similar regions of the brain lit up in both cases. Lucid dreaming comes naturally to some, but many of us have never experienced the sensation. However, that doesn’t mean it’s impossible.</p><h2 id="e3af">How can we actually become more capable of lucid dreaming?</h2><p id="0d81">Well, it’s a little bit tricky, but you can certainly try to tell yourself that you remember that you’re dreaming whilst you’re dreaming before you actua

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lly fall asleep. So, try to go through a mantra chant. Some people actually try to do deliberative things whilst they’re sleeping, like turning on the lights in a room. And that helps them to know they are dreaming at the moment of dreaming itself and therefore they gain lucid control.</p><p id="a902">Those who can already control their dreams with ease say lucid dreams aren’t only for entertainment but can also expand one’s conscious boundaries. Lucid dreamers have also reported frightening accounts where they have trouble distinguishing reality from the dream. Sometimes, this can be a sign of mental illness and should be taken seriously.</p><h2 id="7937">But why do some people can lucid dream but not others?</h2><p id="1964">There’s still a lot we have to learn about the causes and effects of lucid dreaming. It seems to be only around 20% to 30% of the population are actually natural lucid dreamers. So perhaps if it was so beneficial, Mother Nature would have had all of us being capable of lucid dreaming. And that we do not perhaps mean that it’s not necessarily beneficial. But we actually don’t know maybe those twenty to thirty percent of people who do lucid dreams are at the forefront of hominid evolution and they are going to be the next species of preference. We just don’t know.</p></article></body>

The Science of Lucid Dreaming

What if we could control our dreams? When most of us dream, our thoughts and actions are involuntary, the dream plays out as if we were watching a movie. But not all dreams are the same. There is another kind of dreaming called lucid dreaming, which is more like playing a video game than watching a movie.

By definition, lucid dreaming is simply the act of knowing that you’re dreaming. Whilst you’re dreaming. Most people actually think of lucid dreaming more in the sense of actually controlling what you’re dreaming. So, you gain volitional control and you decide what’s going to happen during your dream.

Frequent lucid dreamers claim they can control many parts of the dream, such as teleporting themselves to another location learning to improve real-life skills or even eating fire. It might sound far-fetched and until recently we lacked the technology to prove if lucid dreaming was real or not, but a series of recent studies have shed light on the phenomenon.

Scientists have designed experiments, and they’ve been able to show objectively that when people say that they’re doing something in their dream that they actually are.

In 2012, scientists reported results from one of the first experiments that objectively measured lucid dreams using fMRI scanners. fMRIs measure the rate of blood flow to different areas of the brain, so they can relay information about a person’s thoughts and actions simply through a series of images. For the study, scientists first asked participants to clench their fists while they were awake. This lit up key areas of the brain on the fMRI scanner. After that participants were asked to fall asleep and dream about clenching their fists. Sure enough, similar regions of the brain lit up in both cases. Lucid dreaming comes naturally to some, but many of us have never experienced the sensation. However, that doesn’t mean it’s impossible.

How can we actually become more capable of lucid dreaming?

Well, it’s a little bit tricky, but you can certainly try to tell yourself that you remember that you’re dreaming whilst you’re dreaming before you actually fall asleep. So, try to go through a mantra chant. Some people actually try to do deliberative things whilst they’re sleeping, like turning on the lights in a room. And that helps them to know they are dreaming at the moment of dreaming itself and therefore they gain lucid control.

Those who can already control their dreams with ease say lucid dreams aren’t only for entertainment but can also expand one’s conscious boundaries. Lucid dreamers have also reported frightening accounts where they have trouble distinguishing reality from the dream. Sometimes, this can be a sign of mental illness and should be taken seriously.

But why do some people can lucid dream but not others?

There’s still a lot we have to learn about the causes and effects of lucid dreaming. It seems to be only around 20% to 30% of the population are actually natural lucid dreamers. So perhaps if it was so beneficial, Mother Nature would have had all of us being capable of lucid dreaming. And that we do not perhaps mean that it’s not necessarily beneficial. But we actually don’t know maybe those twenty to thirty percent of people who do lucid dreams are at the forefront of hominid evolution and they are going to be the next species of preference. We just don’t know.