Extra Credit: Lucid Dreaming or…

Lucid dream (if it exists) as explained in class is the ability to control what goes in the dream because of awareness of being in a dream. I experience quite often about once a week something supposedly called sleep paralysis. That is apparently where you are wake but cannot move, make a sound or physically open the eyes. This is different from being awake and relaxed as described in class, as it is awake and panic.

The first few times, I was actually frightened and felt I would enter Limbo or something if I couldn’t break out of the sleep. This is different from being awake and relaxed as described in class, as it is awake and panic. After its steady occurrence, I learned that I was in full control of what was going on, and just try to sleep through it. I believe this would be in the deep sleep stages of REM, where it is difficult to wake up.

After sleeping through it I feel I am now in full control of my dream, and to be fair it is enjoyable,  and takes focus to remain in the dream. Many times I found myself not in full mental exertion and I would break out of the dream ever so slowly. With practice and experience during the sleep I became able to remain in control for a decently longer time.

I therefore do believe Lucid dreaming is a thing, since the control you get is phenomenal, from tasting to feeling to really vividly experiencing the dream like it is real life.

I find that the way to Lucid dream is to unfortunately sleep more than you need to. When I am dead tired, I pass out and wake up in a second it feels. When I sleep for long unnecessary and try to force myself to sleep more than needed I enter lucid dreaming. Like Freud suggested, I feel when we sleep excessively more often times it is a chance to escape from external problems, and therefore the dreams give us a chance for wish fulfillment to get past those problems.

Now for an example. My favourite and most recurring lucid dream seems to be playing in a soccer game always. it’s so real it’s amazing. It feels like a full 90 minute match, and I play with players who I either play with currently or watch professionally on the tele. I get to control my passes, shots, decision making, technique and work rate. It is literally just like a game. I believe this is lucid dreaming because I have had dreams playing in soccer games where I have had no control of how I played, and I am able to compare the two. However, what keeps me wondering if there are variations of lucid dreams is that I think it is real life, but I can control it. I am not aware that I am in a dream but I can control it still. It feels real.

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