Aspy also argues that lucid dreaming can have some helpful applications for well-being, which make it an interesting phenomenon to study and a potentially helpful experience to have. This could be due to debilitating medical conditions, but also due to circumstances like self-isolation or quarantine when daily habits are disrupted, and emotional stressors are high. The researcher also observes that some people may find it easier than others to experience lucid dreams.
Often, he explained to us, these are the individuals who have less trouble remembering what they have dreamed about during the night. Some factors that influence dream recall include the amount of time you spend sleeping, the amount of time and energy you spend trying to recall your dreams this can be improved with practice , and your diet. In this Spotlight, we explore the phenomenon that is lucid dreaming. We explain what it is, what to do to achieve it, and whether or not it has any….
This special feature explores the science behind lucid dreaming, an experience in which a person realizes they are dreaming as they continue to dream. In this Special Feature, we speak with two dream experts about the ways in which people's dreams have changed during the pandemic — and why.
How do we dream and what exactly are nightmares? A lucid dream is a conscious dream. You are no longer bound by nonsensical dreams about seemingly random occurrences throughout your day. Instead, you choose what visions you want to see when you go to sleep. The only limit with lucid dreaming is your imagination. Many of us have had fleeting dreams of people we love before. This is an ideal time to confront your fears because there are no consequences. Nothing can hurt you during a dream. If public speaking makes you break out in sweats, create a reality where you give a speech that receives a standing ovation.
Our subconscious mind is more powerful than our conscious one, and its programs are always running in the background. During a lucid dream, you can communicate with your subconscious and possibly reprogram it! Fewer interruptions translate to a better night of sleep. Instead, conjure up your sword, turn around bravely, and slay that dragon. The first step is to learn everything you can about how to lucid dream.
By repeating this action multiple times each day, it becomes a habit that your dreaming mind will pick up. At least one hour before bed, turn off all electronic devices with lit screens. Your bedroom must be as dark as possible to encourage sleep by encouraging melatonin production, the hormone that helps you sleep.
Set an alarm for five hours after you go to sleep. Ideally, the alarm should go off between 4 AM and 6 AM. Another really common application has been influencing nightmares, especially recurring post-traumatic nightmares—either to stop them or turn them into some sort of mastery dream. So how can you problem-solve in a dream? Although any kind of problem can make a breakthrough in a dream, the two categories that really crop up a lot are things where the solution benefits from being represented visually, because the dreams are so vivid in their visual-spatial imagery, and when you're stuck because the conventional wisdom is just plain wrong.
He was thinking that in all nonchemical molecules, the atoms were lined up in some kind of straight line with degree side chains coming off it. Once he knew the atoms in benzene, he was trying to come up with arrangements of them that were straight lines with side chains and it just wasn't working.
Then he dreamt of the atoms forming as a snake, eventually reaching around with the snake's tail in its mouth. It seems exactly related to the fact that the prefrontal lobes that control censorship are, on average, much less active during dreams. If you want to problem-solve in a dream, you should first of all think of the problem before bed , and if it lends itself to an image, hold it in your mind and let it be the last thing in your mind before falling asleep. For extra credit assemble something on your bedside table that makes an image of the problem.
If it's a personal problem, it might be the person you have the conflict with. If you're an artist, it might be a blank canvas. If you're a scientist, the device you're working on that's half assembled or a mathematical proof you've been writing through versions of. Equally important, don't jump out of bed when you wake up—almost half of dream content is lost if you get distracted.
Lie there, don't do anything else. If you don't recall a dream immediately, see if you feel a particular emotion—the whole dream would come flooding back. What about if you want to, say, dream of a certain person or about a particular experience—how can you do that? If you're just trying to dream about an issue or you want to dream of a person who's deceased or you haven't seen in a long time, you'd use very similar bedtime incubation suggestions as you would for problem solving: a concise verbal statement of what you want to dream about or a visual image of it to look at.
Very often it's a person someone wants to dream of, and just a simple photo is an ideal trigger. If you used to have flying dreams and you haven't had one in a long time and you miss them, find a photo of a human flying. Image-rehearsal therapy has gotten attention as a strategy to overcome nightmares. How does this technique work, and is it effective? Different people mean different things by that.
The details are different but the techniques are very similar—they all grow out of the observation that when people are having bad, repetitive post-traumatic nightmares, a certain proportion seem to move on to having some kind of mastery dream spontaneously. The same way the nightmares had been re-traumatizing them, the mastery dream seemed to carry over into helping them feel much safer and more healed in their daytime state.
Usually the person incorporates some degree of the rehearsed scenario at bedtime or listens to a tape where the therapist or researcher is recounting the alternate scenario. Barry Krakow does this in a group format and gets statistically significant, positive outcomes.
We can't know whether they had a mastery dream and don't recall it or if something else about that positive, soothing imagery as you're falling asleep—even if it does not carry over into the dream—carries over into decreasing the number of the nightmares or the daytime anxiety, heightened startle response and flashbacks.
In the one-on-one clinical studies there seems to be a much higher rate of actually having the rather dramatic mastery dream. In the case of the successful techniques, what may be happening in the brain that allows these dream-control strategies to work?
Only if you're buying this idea that dreams should all be random or are being generated in the lower brain stem is there anything we need to explain about why you'd remember a suggestion you'd made to yourself for dream content or that intensely studying a problem before you fell asleep wouldn't be likely to turn up in your dream. During REM , most of our muscles become paralyzed, in order to prevent us from injuring ourselves while acting out our dreams, However, our eye muscles are still able to move.
Since the movement matched their real eyes, researchers were able to study the impact to brain waves and other biological functions while they slept. Lucid dreaming takes time and practice to learn. By regularly practicing the following techniques, you can train your brain to lucid dream.
Dreams occur during REM, the last stage of your sleep cycle which occurs in increasing amounts during the second half of the night. To enjoy more dreams, you need to enjoy more restful sleep to ensure you get as much REM as possible.
Good news: REM is also associated with better memory, improved focus, and greater emotional regulation! To get better sleep, follow good sleep hygiene. Keep your bedroom as dark, cool, and quiet as possible. Use blackout curtains or an eye mask to block out any ambient light. Use ear plugs or a white noise machine to do the same with noise.
Set the thermostat to a cool mid degrees Fahrenheit. Finally, before you go to bed, follow a calming bedtime routine. Engage in restful activities like unplugging from your electronics , taking a warm bath, or practicing aromatherapy or meditation. The first step to successful lucid dreaming is tuning in to your dreams. Keep a dream journal by your bed, and the moment you wake up, write down everything you remember from your dream.
If you think faster than you write, try recording your memories as a voice memo on your phone. In addition to letting you record your dreams, the value of these apps over traditional pen and paper is that they allow you to search your dream notes for recurring themes, symbols, and characters—which brings us to our next step.
Review your dream journal regularly and look for any patterns. Do certain themes or people show up again and again?
These may provide insights into the types of issues your inner psyche is focused on.
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