Lucid Dreaming :: essays research papers

Lucid Dreaming Dreams are the playground of the mind. Anything can happen when one is dreaming. The only limitation is that we only rarely realize the freedoms granted to us in our dreams while we have them. Lucid dreaming is the ability to know when one is dreaming, and be able to influence what will be dreamt. A normal dream is much like passively watching a movie take place in your skull. In a lucid dream, the dreamer is the writer, director, and star of the movie. Lucid dreams are exceptionally interesting. Lucid dreaming is defined as dreaming when the dreamer knows that they are dreaming. The term was coined during the 1910Õs by Frederik van Eeden who used the word "lucid" in the sense of mental clarity (Green, 1968). Lucidity usually begins in the midst of a dream, when the dreamer realizes that the experience is not occurring in physical reality, but is a dream. Often this realization is triggered by the dreamer noticing some impossible or unlikely occurrence in the dream, such as meeting a person who is dead, or flying with or without wings. Sometimes people become lucid without noticing any particular clue in the dream; they just suddenly realize that they are in a dream. A minority of lucid dreams (about 10 percent) are the result of returning to REM sleep directly from an awakening with unbroken reflective consciousness (LaBerge, 1985). These types of lucid dreams occur most often during daytime napping. If the napper has been REM deprived from a previous night of little sleep their chances of having a REM period at sleep onset are increased. If the napper is able to continue his or her train of thought up to the point of sleep, a lucid dream may develop due to an immediate REM period. The basic definition of lucid dreaming requires nothing more than the dreamer becoming aware that they are dreaming. However, the quality of lucidity varies greatly. When lucidity is at a high level, the dreamer is aware that everything experienced in the dream is occurring in their mind, that there is no real danger, and that they are asleep in bed and will awaken eventually. With low-level lucidity they may be aware to a certain extent that they are dreaming, perhaps enough to fly, or alter what they are doing, but not enough to realize that the people in the dream are just figments of their imagination. They are also unaware that they can suffer no physical damage while in the dream or that they are actually in bed.