Lucid Dreaming – Have You Experienced this?

Have you ever been dreaming and become aware that you are in a dream? This is called lucid dreaming, and more than half of adults have experienced this at least once before.

Lucid dreaming involves the conscious mind becoming aware it is in a dream state. When this happens, you can behave without real-life consequences and with special abilities, since the reality is temporarily constructed inside your head. This typically happens during the REM stage of sleep, when dreams occur most frequently and actively. This is a kind of metacognition – being aware of your current state of consciousness.

For most, lucid dreaming occurs spontaneously, without intention. But there are several techniques commonly used to incite lucid dreams. Some include:

Reality Testing – This involves increasing your level of consciousness while awake and asleep.  By increasing awareness while you are awake, this can carry over into your dreams and may cause you to be able to recognise when you are. This involves reality checking through your waking day and eventually when you are dreaming. Common ways of doing this include:

·         Repeatedly asking yourself whether or not you are dreaming

·         Pushing your hands together or against other solids – when dreaming, you might find your hands pass through seemingly solid surfaces

·         Time checks – you can expect time to pass differently in a dream, at significantly faster rates than when awake

·         Breathing – you can try pinching your nose to see if this stops your breathing

Keeping a Dream Journal – Try writing down descriptions of your dreams as soon as you wake and reading them regularly. This will increase your awareness of your dream state including common signs or objects that appear in your dreams.

Induction Techniques – Various strategies aim to actively initiate a lucid dream; two popular ones are:

·         Mnemonic Induction of Lucid Dreaming (MILD) – Think of a recent dream and something irregular in it that signified it was a dream. Repeat to yourself that you will remember you are dreaming the next time you dream.

·         Wake Back to Bed (WBTB) – Waking up 5 hours after bedtime can increase the likelihood of falling back to sleep to a lucid dream. After waking you can try an activity that stimulates the brain, like reading, for a half hour before going back to sleep.

There are benefits associated with lucid dreaming. It can offer people a method of dealing with nightmares or other anxieties that can manifest themselves during dreams. It’s also said that it might help increase creativity, possibly due to the relationship between dream recall, visualisation and imagination.

There are also some risks linked to lucid dreaming including:

·         Sleep disruption – Some techniques rely on intended interruption to the sleep cycle

·         Depression/Anxiety – Lucid dreaming can also exacerbate symptoms since it can decrease sleep quality

·         Derealisation – Blurring the lines between dreams and reality can make it harder to determine what is real, especially in dreamers who have mental health issues

Lucid dreaming is an interesting and appealing concept for many. It can have both positive and negative impacts though so it should be treated with caution. If experiencing any sleeping issues, consult with your pharmacist.