For this week’s blog I am going to be discussing lucid dreaming and the reasons behind it. For those that don’t know what lucid dreaming is it occurs when we are dreaming and aware that the dream is occurring as we dream. The Greek philosopher Aristotle describes it as being aware of our mental state. Insight, disassociation, and control are key factors revolving around lucid dreaming. While insight is necessary for lucid dreams to occur, sometimes control and dissociation are not present. Control allows people to alter their dreams while disassociation allows people to differentiate their dreams from their cognitive thoughts.
Most lucid dreaming occurs during REM and can occur spontaneously. At the same time people have been able to train themselves to lucid dreams; people are able to alter their dreams. The examination of lucid dreaming is often used to address nightmares, and lucid dreaming therapy can even be used to prevent nightmares. It has been applied to help people tackle their fears as you are able to expose yourself to specific ideas or things you are afraid of. Someone in the lucid dreaming state may go on to do things that they would not be able to do in real life. Lucid dreaming allows people to explore what their conscious mind wants. In a study conducted in Brazil, it has been found that about 77% of people have experienced lucid dreaming. Within schizophrenics often times people are unable to distinguish real life events and lucid dreams.
Lucid dreaming often occurs during REM sleep, and happens as the result of attenuated activation of the prefrontal cortex. As a result of this alteration, people’s ability to make sound decisions is altered. People are often able to alter these conditions and induce REM sleep. If you want to enter a lucid dream you can. You can set an alarm for five hours after falling asleep. When you wake up, think about what you hope to dream about. As a result of these instructions, people are able to be aware that they are dreaming, and have an out of body experience in which they can alter their visions.
In addition, EEG examinations have been shown to activate the frontal lobes of the brain; alterations in these areas are common during puberty and reflect why teens going through these changes can have a high number of lucid dreams. Internally generated stimuli oftentimes leads to the activation in cerebral regions which can lead to a rise in consciousness. It also has been known to take a critical role in Cognitive Remediation Therapy. People can mnemonic induce lucid dreaming; by stating that they will know that they are dreaming they are able to induce lucid dreaming. Lucid dreaming has been linked to narcolepsy and sleep paralysis. Because people with narcolepsy balance between consciousness and unconsciousness it is easy to obtain control of their dreaming. Even though it is uncertain why dreaming occurs, I believe it is a combination of both out of body thoughts and brain alterations during REM sleep.
Breus, Michael. “What Is A Lucid Dream And How They Happen.” Your Guide to Better Sleep, 12 Oct. 2019, thesleepdoctor.com/2019/10/11/what-is-a-lucid-dream-and-how-they-happen/.
Voss, et al. “Insight and Dissociation in Lucid Dreaming and Psychosis.” Frontiers, Frontiers, 22 Oct. 2018, www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2018.02164/full.
Theres nothing better than waking up from a nice solid dream that you remember in it’s entirety. I wish dreams could be longer or placed in long term memory. I also don’t know if dreams mean more than just thoughts in our head.. I wish I knew for sure if dreams held a deeper meaning then just made up thoughts while you sleep. I love the idea of Lucid dreaming and getting to know more about yourself THROUGH yourself.
I have this recurring lucid dream where my cousin and I go to a party and there is like a hostage situation and we almost die. Sometimes it’s scary but usually it is fine because I know it’s a dream.
I. Love. Lucid. Dreaming. It truly is a world divorced from reality. The dream wedding, the wealthy socialite lifestyle, or a date with Elvis Presley. Great times.
Recently, I have not experienced common themes or motifs in my dreams, which themselves are becoming increasingly rare. What I can recall from most of my dreams is that I am convinced that a dream is actually part of reality. I would be very interested in studying the electrical activity of the brain during different types of dreams to examine both their causes and their effects. Your posts continue to prove just how amazing the human body is and how much we take our quasi-supernatural abilities for granted.
I used to have really awful nightmares when I was younger, so in order to stop them I taught myself how to lucid dream or control them. Once they start(ed) I was able to take control the tone of the dream or fight the bad guys and win instead of lose. It is something I haven’t had to do as often but I definitely still can.