Lucid Dreaming

When the movie Inception came out, it sparked a lot of interest behind the idea of what it means to dream. Lucid dreaming is a dream in which the dreamer is aware they are dreaming. But is lucid dreaming a concept only fit for the movies or is it something the average person could achieve? It turns out that lucid dreaming is possible with effort and practice. On average, everyone has roughly 3-7 dreams each night. The problem is that we tend to forget them. One way you can work toward lucid dreaming is to keep a dream journal beside your bed. Every time you wake up, record what you can remember. In doing this, you are tracking your dreams and improving your ability to recall them, thus improving lucidity.

The next step is to perform reality checks. In a dream, a simple action such as counting one’s fingers often becomes distorted. If you form a habit of doing reality checks, such as counting your fingers when you’re awake, you’ll be able to tell when you are dreaming and when you aren’t.

Next comes MILD (Mnemonically Induced Lucid Dreams). As you begin to fall asleep, think of a recent dream and imagine yourself becoming lucid. The idea is to help you realize you’re dreaming in your dream. When you’ve succeeded with MILD, you can try a technique called WILD (Wake Induced Lucid Dreams). The idea behind this concept is to keep your mind aware while your body falls asleep. Be careful though: you may experience a phenomenon that prevents your body from moving called sleep paralysis. Research done on lucid dreaming has provided us insight into the location of the meta consciousness in the brain, and has also provided opportunities for dream therapy and nightmare recession. Who knows: perhaps with more time, research, and practice, we could actually shape and manipulate our dreams in any way we’d like.