Lucid dreaming is a type of dream where the sleeping individual is aware they are dreaming while still in the dream.
During a lucid dream, the dreamer can gain volitional control over the dream direction, characters, narrative, or environment.
Lucid dreaming is central to the ancient Indian Hindu practice of ‘Yoga nidra’ and also the Tibetan Buddhist practice of dream Yoga. Awareness of Lucid Dreams was common among early Buddhists.
Ancient Greek philosopher Aristotle wrote: “often when one is asleep, there is something in consciousness which declares that what then presents itself is but a dream.”
Prelucid dreams, wherein the dreamer is in the beginning stages of cultivating lucid dreaming. At this early stage, the dreamer questions themselves: “Am I asleep and dreaming?” Such thoughts are liable to occur when people are deliberately inducing lucid dreams but may also occur spontaneously to those with no intention to achieve lucidity in dreams, according to Pre-lucid dreams.
The capacity to have lucid dreams is intentional, trainable cognitive skill. Anyone can do it when they know how to do it and practice the skill.
In 1867, the French sinologist Marie-Jean-Léon, Marquis d’Hervey de Saint Denys anonymously published ‘Les Rêves et Les Moyens de Les Diriger; Observations Pratiques’ (“Dreams and the ways to direct them; practical observations”), in which he describes his own experiences of lucid dreaming and proposes that it is possible for anyone to consciously learn to lucid dream.
Developments in psychological research have pointed to this form of dreaming being utilised as a therapeutic technique.
Peter Zapfella began reading the fascinating research done by Psychologist Stephen LaBerge back in 1997. His research led to a Ph.D. He is the founder of the Lucidity Institute at Stanford University.
Paul Tholey laid the epistemological basis for the research of lucid dreams. He was a German Gestalt psychologist, and a professor of psychology and sports science at the University of Frankfurt and the Technical University of Braunschweig.
Tholey started the study of oneirology in an attempt to prove that dreams occur in colour. Given the unreliability of dream memories and following the critical realism approach, he used lucid dreaming as an epistemological tool for investigating dreams, in a similar fashion to Stephen LaBerge.
Tholey proposed seven different conditions of clarity that a dream must fulfill in order to be defined as a lucid dream:
- Awareness of the dream state (orientation).
2. Awareness of the capacity to make decisions.
3. Awareness of memory functions.
4. Awareness of self.
5. Awareness of the dream environment.
6. Awareness of the meaning of the dream.
7. Awareness of concentration and focus.
Deirdre Barrett is an American author and psychologist known for her research on dreams, hypnosis and imagery, and has written on evolutionary psychology. Barrett is a teacher at Harvard Medical School, and a past president of the International Association for the Study of Dreams (IASD).
In 1992, a study by Deirdre Barrett examined whether lucid dreams contained four “corollaries” of lucidity:
- The dreamer is aware that they are dreaming.
2. They are aware actions will not carry over after waking.
3. Physical laws need not apply in the dream.
4. The dreamer has a clear memory of the waking world.
Barrett found less than a quarter of lucidity accounts exhibited all four.
Subsequently, Stephen LaBerge studied the prevalence among lucid dreams of their ability to control the dream scenario, and found that while dream control and dream awareness are correlated, neither requires the other. LaBerge found dreams that exhibit one clearly without the capacity for the other. He also found dreams where, although the dreamer is lucid and aware they could exercise control, they choose only to observe.
Lucid dreaming lets people banish nightmares, experience less anxiety because the dreamer feels ‘more in control’, eliminate post-traumatic stress, improved ‘problem solving’, practicing mental and physical skills in the dream state, before trying them out in the real world. I know an inventor who develops his best ideas while lucid dreaming. Or generally having more enjoyable ‘trips’ when asleep.
Rachel Alexander, CEO and founder of AI firm Omina Technologies in Antwerp, Belgium, said she taught herself to start having lucid dreams as a teenager with help from a psychologist.
“When I was about 16 I started having nightmares that someone would chase me and try to kill me and I would wake up in a cold sweat,” she told MailOnline.
“The psychologist explained to me how I could become lucid in my dreams and so I started doing it and it really worked.
“When someone was chasing me and trying to kill me in my dreams I would become lucid and turn the bullets into flowers, or turn on my assailant and give him or her a hug.
“I was able to turn nightmares into happy dreams and I slept better, and eventually after a few years I stopped needing this trick anymore.”
Peter Zapfella relates how as a child he was able to stop running from monsters in his dreams, turn and make them ‘disappear’. His childhood nightmares disappeared forever. The monsters had disappeared.
According to Tore Nielsen, a professor of psychiatry at the University of Montreal, being chased is a common dream scenario, but it may prime us for certain situations happening real life.
Other sources suggest being chased in a dream is related to anxiety acknowledging the cause of the anxiety.
But instead of fleeing, legendary Swiss psychiatrist Carl Jung suggested we ‘should by no means resist when this element faces them’.
Mrs Alexander said that her school psychologist had been unable to identify the source of her troubling chase nightmares – although she forgot to tell her about one traumatic incident in particular.
“When I was 13, I got lost in Puerta Vallarta [Mexico] and a guy pulled a gun on me,’ she told MailOnline.
“I am GenX, born in 1972 – it didn’t even occur to me that this might be considered a traumatic experience!’ she explained.
“By simulating a threatening situation, the dream of being chased provides a space for a person to practice perceiving and escaping predators in their sleep,” Professor Nielsen said.
The idea of controlling your dreams might sound like the plot of a science fiction blockbuster. But this mysterious gift is a reality for around 20 per cent of people, who are able to go on exciting trips in impossible worlds.
Depicted in the film ‘Inception’ starring Leonardo DiCaprio, lucid dreaming could provide a useful link between the real world and the dream world.
Lucid dreaming helps people banish nightmares or generally have more enjoyable ‘trips’ when they go to sleep.
According to classic dream analysis, flying suggests the sleeper has a desire for more freedom in their waking life, or new opportunities.
It’s estimated that 50 per cent of people have experienced a lucid dream in their lives, while 20 per cent experience one at least once a month and 1 per cent enjoy them more than once a week.
Lucid dreaming contrasts with a normal dream, where the dreamer is only the observer, with no control over events and has no idea that they are actually dreaming.
Research also suggests lucid dreamers have a larger prefrontal cortex – the part of the brain linked to logic and reasoning – suggesting they are better at determining a scenario is false when they’re asleep.
Scientists have discovered a way to communicate with people while they’re sleeping: Lucid dreamers can answer questions and even do math’s while they’re snoozing
Researchers in the US asked lucid dreamers math’s problems, such as ‘what is eight minus six’, and yes-no questions, such as ‘do you speak Spanish?’
In the experiments, dreamers answered correctly in real time with eye movements or facial muscle signals, demonstrating what is called ‘interactive dreaming’.
Researchers tested the participants during rapid eye movement (REM) sleep, when lucid dreams occur.
The experiments are promising for real-time communications when we’re asleep, which could help scientists finally fully explain the mysterious phenomenon that is dreaming.
Peter Zapfella says he went to boarding school for 7 years, in that time he heard two other boys who were asleep and having a conversation. “I had heard both of them sleep talking on other occasions and said nothing to either of them. Then one night one of them started up as usual and the other answered him and so it went on. I found it really interesting. Not the content of the conversation, which was unimportant, but the fact they heard each other in their dreams and responded. I wonder if they were lucid dreaming?’
He went on to say that he often dreams of typing on a computer keyboard. He can choose to test his typing skill by choosing to type particular words. Then check if he had pressed the correct keys, as they appear on a Qwerty keyboard. He can check his dream typing for typos at will. He knows he is in a dream as he makes these decisions and go about doing the process in his dream. Is this Lucid Dreaming?
Do you want to learn how you can Lucid Dream?
‘Click’ on the image below and go to Welcome Lucid Dreaming.
