By Natalie Hewat
Lucid dreaming is, typically, seen as something remarkable and strange. In actuality, just over 50% of people experience it in their lifetime, and around 23% experience it more than once a month. Aside from the believed science behind lucid dreams, they boil down to just that: dreams where you are lucid, to some degree, aware that some things–or your dream entirely–are not reality, or a “hybrid sleep-awake.” Lucid dreaming typically occurs during the REM (rapid eye movement) cycle of sleep, the fourth and final stage of sleep, and most researchers agree that it triggers or builds off of a dream occurring in the first three stages.
The study of lucid dreaming is new and relatively unexplored, still a large if in science and its counterparts. Many experts and researchers disagree on the components of it, especially whether or not it’s harmful. Some believe that it’s harmful because it blurs the lines of reality and can lead to derealization, or that due to the higher brain activity levels it leads to less restful sleep. However, the studies into this have not proven this as of yet.
Lucid dreaming, in my personal experience, isn’t as exciting as people believe it is. It’s another type of dreaming, almost more restful than that of regular dreaming. I lucid dream at least once or twice a month on a smaller scale, sometimes larger, and never quite knew that it wasn’t what most people experienced. I found myself dreaming and realizing things were too strange to be real, or I would know from the start that it was too cloudy to be reality. I often think, especially in nightmares, when is the last time I went to sleep? If there is no answer, then it’s a dream, and I can experience the rest of the dream knowing that while it feels somewhat real, it isn’t.
Some tips advised for lucid dreaming, ones I utilize myself if I want to have one more often, are very simple. The MILD (Mnemonic Induction of Lucid Dreams) technique involves waking up five hours after initially going to sleep, using an alarm if needed, and to tell yourself you’re dreaming once you’ve fallen asleep again. The WBTB (wake back to bed) method also deals with waking up five hours after you’ve fallen asleep, but instead you stay awake for 30 to 120 minutes to ground yourself before sleeping again. A worthwhile habit to develop to induce a lucid dream is to take note of your dreams as soon as you wake up in the morning, writing down whatever you can remember, regardless of how small, and you’ll find yourself remembering more and more as time continues. Another that works well for me is simply suggesting to myself I’ll have a lucid dream before I sleep, enacting the idea in my head and influencing my dreams as a result.
Lucid dreaming is relatively unknown as of now, but it’s a thrillingly interesting topic. It can lead to recovery of certain topics, acting out the actions in your dreams, or facing lifelong fears. As illusive as it can be, they’re as simple as the average dream–a creation of our own mind.
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