I wrote an essay about lucid dreaming
I wrote an essay about lucid dreaming for a class I have. I feel people might find it interesting, so I am posting it here.
Lucid Dreaming
What It Is and Why You Should Learn It
Ever had a flying dream? I have. It's a very unique, particular experience. You soar through the air, seeing a vast world from high up above; the freedom to travel anywhere. It is very liberating. It doesn't have to be though. A unique experience I mean. It could be a commonplace with the aid of lucid dreaming. However, not many people would want to do this. In my experience, most people do not see any reason to have lucid dreams. They state they don't recall any of their dreams, even though we have, whether we remember them or not, 4 to 6 dreams per night. They don’t consider that we spend on average 8 hours asleep each night of our lives. A third of our lives spent doing nothing; wherein the possibility for anything lays, in sleep. Despite my fervor for the topic, interest in lucid dreams, remains un-kindled in most my relations. They require something more to motivate them. My goal with this paper is to provide that. Research has grown in the past two decades showing that lucid dreaming has positive benefits in our everyday lives. It is something anyone can learn.
What is lucid dreaming? The Lucidity Institute, founded by researcher Stephen LaBerge, a significant figure in dream research, defines lucid dreaming as, “Lucid dreaming means dreaming while knowing that you are dreaming.” A lucid dream is not a typical dream. In a lucid dream, there is clear conscious knowledge that the dreamer, is in a dream. In lucid dreams, we can remember waking life, acknowledge we are in a dream, and in some cases, control the dream to varying degrees. Lucid dreaming may sound unreal to some. Some have argued that lucid dreams are merely dreams where we dream we are in control. However, research has proven its existence.
It was Stephen LaBerge in his research published in 1990 where his findings were scientifically accepted. While asleep, most of the body is disconnected from the mind such in a way that we do not act out our dreams. The eyes are an exception however, and they continue to move. Rapid eye movements are a prime example. LaBerge used this to come up with patterns of eye movement for his subjects to perform, to signal to the researchers when they became aware during the dream. Using his techniques of signaling back to the researchers, dream research has become more a more mainstream topic of research and moved away from the fringe it once rested in. Lucid dreams have become an accepted fact to science, proven to occur. Still, people have asked me when I told them of lucid dreaming, why they should learn it.
Modern research, as with many other topics, has answers. To begin, lucid dreaming, as suggested by the Lucidity Institute, can be an effective method of treatment for nightmares. Allowing the patient to confront the fear, and acknowledge in the nightmare, that it is “just a dream.” Lucid dreams being, inherently, dreams as well, also allow the possibility of anything though. If you can imagine it, you can do it in a dream. Whether it be flying, exploring the stars, meeting historical figures, or just being the star of your own action movie, you can do it in a lucid dream.There are, for those not interested already, more practical benefits to lucid dreaming.
Daniel Erlacher, and Michael Schredl concluded in their paper published in the International Journal of Dream Research, “Practice in lucid dreams is comparable to mental practice which is well known in sport theory and sport practice.” Imagine that. Really, that's the idea. Their research suggests that practice doesn't need to occur solely during the day. You could practice your karate skills, your dance moves, or even your basketball toss in your dreams. If you have ever stopped doing something you enjoyed because you knew you had to sleep. With lucid dreaming, you can continue from where you left off. There are more intangible benefits beyond sharpening your skills too.
In an article titled, “Your Brain on Innovation”, Thea Singer talks about using how innovator Ray Kurzweil uses lucid dreams to come up with creative solutions to his problems.
“All night, snippets of the solution filter in and out of his dreams. At the first glimmer of consciousness, Kurzweil returns to the problem. It is then, during the brief quasi- conscious state known as "lucid dreaming,'' that he merges the logic of his conscious thought with the relaxation of inhibition engendered by his dreams to arrive at many of his most startling insights. "The most interesting thing about dreams is that you don't consider it unusual when unusual things happen, like a room floating away," says Kurzweil. "You accept this lack of logic. And that [irrational] faculty is needed for creative thinking. But you also need to be able to apply a critical faculty, because not every idea that's different and out of the box will work."
This critical faculty that Kurzweil mentions is that aspect unique to lucid dreams where we retain our critical thinking. He mentions, as we all know, that in a normal dream, we do not question strange things. Lucid dreaming is questioning though as we will see later.
Learning to have a lucid dream, starts with remembering your dreams. Such is the importance of dream recall for lucid dreaming, that researcher Timo Paulsson, and Adrian Parker, investigated ways to improve lucid dream recall quickly. Over the course of two weeks, they had the participants in their study do a few thing designed to increase dream recall, and the likely hood of having a lucid dream. The participants did state testing, also called reality checks, where they asked themselves critically, “Am I dreaming or am I awake?” The idea behind reality checks is to make them into a habit. If you have ever dreamed that you were checking your watch, or dreamed you were driving down the road to work, then you can see the benefit of reality checks. Eventually, once they become a habit, you will perform them in the dream and, hopefully, become lucid. The participants in Paulsson and Parker's study did more as well. After state testing, they visualized what they should do if they found themselves in the dream. This was to reinforce the understanding that they were in the dream and be ready to take advantage of that fact. The final thing they were required to do, was before going to sleep, they were instructed to express their intent to have a lucid dream aloud. The idea is similar to how when we think about a subject a lot before falling asleep, dreams that night tend to focus on that subject. An example of this, being stated earlier, is Ray Kurzweil and his creative solutions he comes up with when he thought of his problems before going to sleep. The conclusion of Paulsson and Parker's study found that dream recall, had increased from 2.53 dreams recalled per night on average, to 5.20 dreams recalled per night after the two week period. The Lucidity Institute recommends the same techniques for improving dream recall with additional emphasis on recognizing dream signs, or common elements seen in dreams, and doing reality checks when they are noticed. Improving your dream recall will help you remember any dreams you have, and possibly even spontaneous lucid dreams. There are though, techniques to take the spontaneity out of the equation.
Published in the journal “Consciousness and Cognition”, a team of researchers, Tadas Stumbrys, Daniel Erlacher, Melanie Schadlich, and Michael Schredl analyzed 35 studies and their techniques used for the induction of lucid dreams. The researchers found Tholey's combined technique, a combination very similar to the techniques used to increase dream recall in Paulsson and Parker's study, to be the most effective means of inducing lucid dreams, but not the only.
Other effective techniques included dream re-entry, where the dreamer keeps still and mentally focused by counting during a short awakening after a dream, and MILD, a technique pioneered by Stephen LaBerge in his research. MILD stands for Mnemonic Induction of Lucid Dreams. MILD involves imagining a dream before falling asleep, while visualizing becoming lucid, and focusing on the intention to remember that one is dreaming.
The researchers also reviewed external stimulation methods for lucid dream induction. Light stimuli devices, such as the Lucidity Institutes Nova-Dreamer, were found to have an effect on increased lucid dreams, but to be less effective than MILD. However, the combination of MILD with light stimulation was concluded to be even more promising together than either alone.
Of drugs that increased dream recall, the researchers noted a study done by LaBerge in 2004 with Donepezil to enhance lucid dreaming. They concluded that,” Donepezil seemed to significantly enhance lucidity rate, frequency of sleep paralysis and increased estimated time awake during the night. The higher dose was associated with stronger effects, but seemed to provide some adverse effects (i.e. mild insomnia and gastrointestinal symptoms such as nausea and vomiting).” The Lucidity Institute, on the topic of drugs for lucid dreaming, says the following,
“A number of substances have been suggested to enhance the likelihood of lucid dreaming, from vitamins to prescription drugs. There are few good scientific studies to test such claims. Lucid dreaming is highly subject to the placebo effect; the belief that something will stimulate a lucid dream is very effective! This is not to say that there are not substances that do, in fact, promote lucid dreaming. We are interested in discovering such and welcome observations from fellow dreamers. At this time, however, we do not endorse any substances for inducing lucid dreams. Many prescription drugs as well as marijuana and alcohol alter the sleep cycle, usually by suppressing REM sleep. This leads to a phenomenon called "REM rebound," in which a person experiences intense, long REM periods after the drug has worn off. This can manifest as nightmares or, possibly, as lucid dreaming, since the brain is highly active.”
Stumbrys, Erlacher, Schadlich, and Schredl concluded their paper with a table ranking the effectiveness of the various induction techniques with the following 3 colors, “Green- method demonstrated to be successful in several empirical studies; Yellow – method showed some success but findings were not replicated or are ambiguous; Red – method was not successful.” Of techniques that were ranked “Green”, there were 6. MILD, reflection/reality testing, intention (just intending to have a lucid dream), Tholey's combined technique, Light stimulus, and WBTB (“wake, back to bed”, aka dream re-entry). Of those that were rated “Yellow”, of note, was a common technique for lucid dream induction, called WILD (wake induced lucid dream) which is an advanced form of dream reentry that I favor as my method of choice. It may seem off putting; the thought of so much effort to achieve a lucid dream and being unable to share it, or seek help from others, but it isn't solely a solo experience.
There are growing communities to support lucid dreaming. While most are online, there are real world groups aimed at increasing dream recall, sharing dreams, and inducing lucid dreams. An example of this being the retreats the Lucidity Institute hosts. Some online communities for the discussion and progression of lucid dreaming include LD4All.com and DreamViews.com. Both offer instruction of various forms on lucid dream induction and methods of increasing dream recall. These are but a few of the available resources easily found for those that look. A quick search online returns a great many more.
Over the course of this essay, with the help of the hard work of many researchers, I defined lucid dreaming, showed why lucid dreaming is a worthwhile investment in one's time, and showed the best techniques for increasing dream recall and inducing lucid dreams. I can remember my first time inducing a lucid dream using the WILD method. It was a very surreal experience. As I lay there focusing on my body, imagining it fading away, I felt my entire body go numb with an electric like sensation that I later learned to be the onset of sleep paralysis (the state the body goes in to keep the body from acting out the dream). I watched as the dream world started to take shape around me. The next thing I knew, I was in the world of a dream, inside my mind, walking around. I awoke moments after entering the dream, too excited to stay asleep, but I was hooked. There was no way, after experiencing something as amazing as a wake induced lucid dream, that I could go back to remembering nothing every night the rest of my life. You only live once, why waste a third of it. Why do nothing, when you can do anything. It was then I realized that anything I wanted, I could have. Perhaps you have heard this before, but now try to think of it in a new light. You can have anything “in your dreams.”
Works Cited
DreamResearch.net. The Quantitative Study of Dreams, 2012. Web. 1 Oct. 2012.
Erlacher, Daniel, and Schredl, Michael. “Do REM (lucid) dreamed and executed actions share the same neural substrate?” Internation Journal of Dream Research Vol1, No 1 (April 2008). Web. 1 Oct. 2012.
Paulsson, Timo, and Adrian Parker. "The Effects Of A Two-Week Reflection-Intention Training Program On Lucid Dream Recall." Dreaming 16.1 (2006): 22-35. Academic Search Complete. Web. 1 Oct. 2012.
Singer, Thea. "Your Brain On Innovation." Inc 24.9 (2002): 86. Academic Search Complete. Web. 1 Oct. 2012.
Stumbrys, Tadas, et al. “Induction of lucid dreams: A systematic review of evidence.” Consciousness and Cognition 21 (2012):1456-1475. Research Gate. Web. 1 Oct. 2012.
The Lucidity Institute. Lucid Dreaming FAQ, 2012. Web. 1 Oct. 2012.
