Have you ever noticed that you are in a dream while dreaming and have you tried to control it?
The Magical World Of Lucid Dream
What is Lucid Dream? How does it happen? What are the health benefits of Lucid Dreaming?
What is Lucid Dream?
A lucid dream is a dream during which dreamers, while dreaming, are aware they are dreaming.
In history, the Ancient Greek philosopher Aristotle was the first to mention clearly in his treatise On Dreams, and he defines an instance of self-awareness during a dream state.
“A dream is a continuation of thought during sleep while the body rests. Aristotle knew that dreams give us a magnified construction of the world and that dreams do not arise from supernatural manifestations.” by Aristotle.
Although Lucid dream is very similar to our other dreams, the most crucial difference is that as soon as you realize this situation, you start controlling and manipulating what happens in your dream. So the lucid dreamer can be a director of her dream to create a pleasant experience for herself.
Scientists have not yet been able to find out what caused lucid dreaming, and the neurobiological basis of it is unknown. However, studies show that frequent lucid dreaming increases functional connectivity between the frontopolar cortex and temporoparietal association areas.
According to the surveys, 55 percent of people have experienced one or more lucid dreams in their lifetime. 23 percent of individuals have lucid dreams once a month or more.
When does Lucid Dream happen, and how to achieve it?
Lucid dreaming, like other dreams, usually happens during rapid eye movement (REM) sleep, the dream-stage of sleep.
Every person who realizes that they are in a dream may not be able to control their dreams and even wake up immediately when they reach this awareness.
Lucid dreaming usually happens spontaneously, but it’s possible to discover how to lucid dream through several methods. Here are my ways;
For instance, you can use solid objects in your dream. Push your hand towards an object such as a wall or table and see if it passes. Or when you hit somewhere, you will realize that you do not hurt. In dreams usually, objects are permeability, and in this way, you can understand that you are in a dream.
Another way is looking at the clock in dreams, and noticing the time will help you understand that you are dreaming. If you look at the clock over and over again in your dream, you will see different times.
I generally understand that I am in a dream by making logical deductions. For example, if there is someone who died in real life, I remember that she is dead and say to myself, “I am in my dream.”
Besides my experiences, if we approach from a more scientific point of view, in line with a study conducted by Dr. Denholm Aspy, at the University of Adelaide in Australia, is a researcher who specializes in lucid dreaming tested the efficacy of three techniques.
- Reality testing: It is similar to make logical deductions. This “involves examining one’s surroundings multiple times throughout the day, questioning whether one is awake or dreaming.” The technique is rereading written text as text continuously shifts in dreams (which is very similar to my clock check)
- Wake back to bed (WBTB): It engages in entering REM sleep while you’re still conscious. In this technique, you go to sleep as usual and set your alarm 5–6 hours later. When you wake up, you stay awake for a minimum of 10 minutes and a maximum of 60 minutes. It is vital to mentally active while you are awake; reading a book can be helpful. Then you continue to sleep again. When you start to sleep again, you immerse into REM sleep, and your chances of having lucid dreams increase.
- Mnemonic induction of lucid dreams (MILD): In 1980, Stephen LaBerge created the MILD. This technique was one of the first methods that used scientific research to induce lucid dreams. It is based on a behavior called prospective memory, which is like conditioning yourself, so it requires the intention to remember that you are in a dream. It needs a lot of practice. With mnemonic induction, the dreamer must repeat, just before going to bed, a phrase such as “The next time I dream, I will notice that I am dreaming.”
Dreamers can also practice MILD after waking up in the middle of a dream so you can combine the MILD technique with WBTB. Moreover, in 2017 study the journal Dreaming determined that a combination of reality testing, WBTB, and MILD works best.
Lucid dreamers are usually people who remember their other dreams well.
“When it comes to lucid dreaming, the strongest predictor of whether you have lucid dreams or not is how good you are at remembering your ordinary dreams,” Dr. Aspy explained.
Also, keeping a dream journal to record the dreams in details are helpful to increase the chance of lucid dream. Instead of waiting for the morning, it is more effective to write when we wake up from the dream at night.
Finally, Dr. Aspy mentioned, “A lot of people are interested in meditation and mindfulness as a way to have lucid dreams. The idea here is that if you’re more aware during the day, you’re more likely to notice that you’re dreaming while you’re asleep.”
How to wake up from Lucid Dream?
Sometimes you want to wake up from a lucid dream. There are different techniques to achieve it.
- Blinking is my favorite technique. In a dream, I continuously blink, which helps me to wake up.
- Reality testing is an excellent solution to wake up. You can check your reflection from a mirror. I have tried it, and I saw distortions of my face. Deformities on my image immediately convince me that I am in a dream, but it increases my self-awareness, so I wake up in a short time.
- I check the image of my hand, and it looks different. It wakes me up instantly.
- Screaming is another method that tells your brain time to wake up.
- Reading and writing actions are impossible while dreaming. If you try it, you activate parts of your brain, and you wake up.
What are the health benefits of Lucid Dreaming?
Dr. Aspy addressed “Lucid dream therapy” that reduces nightmares of dreamers and phobias since they have control over themselves. The dreamer has a realistic enough experience to confront their fears in a safe environment. So flying phobia, flight phobia, or arachnophobia symptoms can reduce with lucid dreaming since there is the convenience of knowing that they are not really in danger.
“If a person has a particular phobia, then their lucid dream environment provides an interesting opportunity to do things like exposure therapy, where you gradually expose yourself to the thing you’re afraid of, in an attempt to overcome that fear gradually,” Dr. Aspy said.
Also, there’s some evidence that lucid dreaming has therapeutic effects, which are often used in imagery rehearsal therapy (IRT). In short, IRT is a cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) to reduce nightmares that patient studies with a therapist who helps you reimagine a repeated nightmare in various ways.
There is a small study in 2017, which is mentioned in Dreaming, and thirty-three military veterans have post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Repetitive nightmares received CBT with IRT or CBT alone. The group that received CBT with IRT recorded higher dream control, that lessened nightmare-induced stress.
Things to pay attention!
While applying WBTB and MILD techniques, waking up at night can reduce your sleep quality. Besides, your sleep patterns may deteriorate, and it leads to a sleeping disorder. Sleep distraction causes depression soon after that; you may start to become more tired and distracted during the day.
In short, I would say, don’t lower your real-life quality to experience this dream style.
Final word; I tried to explain the lucid dream with my experiences as much as I could. If you have had such an experience before and it happened to you differently, I would be glad if you share it with me.
I would like to finalize my article with the following lines by Edgard Allan Poe.
“All that we see or seem
Is but a dream within a dream.”
I wish you a pleasant sleep and lucid dream.