Have you ever thought about how would it be to sit on the top of the tallest mountain? Or to have the ability to fly? Or to be sidekick of your favorite superhero? Writing the world's best novel?
Is it possible to do everything we imagine from our comfy bed?
Well, maybe all of this can be done inside a lucid dream. It's the kind of dream where you are aware you're dreaming, and you can even control it.
Lucidness appears when a dreamer realizes while still in his sleep that a certain experience didn't really happen in reality. That it's just a dream. Once you realize you are still dreaming, you get full control over your dream, and that's when the magic happens.
If you haven't practiced this, you might have already experienced a glimpse of how it feels: You dream something amazing, maybe you're swimming through air or scoring the winning points in the NBA finals, and suddenly you realize you are dreaming. But you don't want this moment to end so you desperately try to hold on to it, to prolong this blissful state.
Lucid dreaming was first described by Aristotle way back in 350BC where he wrote: "when one is asleep, there is something in consciousness which tells us that what presents itself is but a dream.". Many amazing scientists, artists and other historical figures used lucid dreaming to come up with groundbreaking inventions or create breathtaking masterpieces. Chris Nolan used his own lucid dreaming experience to create movies like Inception and Memento. Nikola Tesla had realistic dream experiments which allowed him to develop revolutionary systems that are basis for modern-day electricity. Salvador Dali was aware of lucid dream existence so a lot of his work was dream inspired. Paul McCartney composed entire "Yesterday" melody in a lucid dream. After he woke up, he quickly replicated what he remembered from the dream, and ran to his friends to ask them if they already heard it somewhere.
How it works
Dreams appear in a sleep cycle phase called "Rapid eye movement" or REM. This phase of sleep occurs couple of times per night, usually about 90 minutes after the previous. It is more vivid and has physiological similarities to a wakeful state during which our eyes randomly move, brain waves are rapid and desynchronized, and the body is "paralyzed" to avoid acting out our dreams which could obviously be very dangerous. As the night progresses, so our REM cycles become longer and longer, making our dreams most vivid in the morning.
Here are some activities that can help us in experiencing lucid dreams.
Have a healthy sleeping habits - Having a good sleeping patterns can vastly increase our chances to experience dream awareness and it will improve the dream quality itself. If you can, establish a regular sleeping rhythm where you'll go to sleep few hours after the night falls down and wake up when the sun rises.
Remember your dream - This phase can be frustrating to beginners because we often find that dreams slip away pretty quickly after waking up and we usually forget most of them. But this phase is very important because we can't expect to be able to control what's happening if we can't even remember them. Simply as soon as you wake up, flex your brain muscles and try to recall what had happened in a dream.
Start a dream journal - Have a journal near your bed and write down everything you remember from a dream. Every single detail, events that happened, emotions you've felt, sounds you've heard, colors you saw. If you don't remember anything, write down something like "I don't remember my dream". You can then look for themes and situations that occur often or regularly and could be used as signs that you are dreaming.
You should also use reality checks (both in sleep and in a wakeful state) to test whether you are dreaming or not. For example, look at a clock to see the time, turn away and then look back. If you are in a dream, clock will usually act unnaturally and display completely different time. This is a sign that you are having a lucid dream. Look at your hands and feet. If they look funny, you are currently dreaming. Another way to do reality check is to backtrack the situation and how you found yourself there, because in a dream, we can find ourselves driving a Harley through a desert in one moment and planning a prison break in the next.
Mild (Mnemonic Induced Lucid Dream) technique - This is were you start to experiment. Grab an alarm clock and set it to 6 hours from the moment you fall asleep (this can be tricky for the ones who can't fall asleep that easily). As we saw, our sleep goes through phases of light and deep sleep. That's why one of our last REM phases will end after approximately 6 hours of sleep. After the alarm wakes you, try to remember everything you can or even better write it down in your journal. Then, try to imagine how would it be to enter a lucid dream. Maybe you would like to fly or meet a famous person or create an amazing guitar solo. Repeat a simple mantra "I will have a lucid dream tonight" or something similar for couple of minutes and go back to sleep.
This simple technique can lead to a lucid dream after few days of practice.
Once you are in one of your first lucid dreams, too much excitement can wake you up quickly and prevent you from exploring your dream environment. So don't rush, try to remain calm, observe the situation, sit around, listen to the sounds and engage all senses.
Things to be aware of
There might be some downsides and reasons not to learn this. Having a lucid dream can cause some psychological discomfort. It may face you with your inner world and conflicts you're avoiding. Or lead to some situations that can upset you. Benefits, on the other hand, are more numerous. You can learn to face your fears in a safe environment. Train and practice skills much longer since the time is going slower in a dream. A study performed in 2006 showed that people who had severe nightmares benefit from lucid dreaming treatment and it lead to reduced nightmare frequency.
Lucid dreaming can throw us off to an adventure we're seeking or reveal solution to a problem that's bothering us. It's both exciting and scary. Should we try it?
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