Consciousness in Dreams

[Woodstock]

I've noticed a lot of people say that lucid dreaming is being conscious in your dream. But aren't we always conscious when we're dreaming? In a non-lucid dream, I know what's happening, I know who I am, and know what I'm doing, I just don't know that I'm dreaming. So except when we're sleeping and not dreaming, aren't we conscious our whole lives?

[Scionox]

In non-lucid dreams one's dream self is directed by subconscious and blindly follows some kind of a story/plot, that's not really what being conscious is to think about it, and when one gets lucid, since one's consciousness takes control of dream self, one gets the ability to make conscious decisions, whether still following the story in some way or not.

[Woodstock]

In non-lucid dreams one's dream self is directed by subconscious and blindly follows some kind of a story/plot, that's not really what being conscious is to think about it, and when one gets lucid, since one's consciousness takes control of dream self, one gets the ability to make conscious decisions, whether still following the story in some way or not. In non-lucid dreams, it seems exactly like real life. I feel like I'm thinking about everything that's happening in the dream and deciding what to do.

[Zoth]

It depends on what you mean with consciousness. The definition is the problem here. The deal is when you dream, several parts of your brain are not very "activated", which can cause you to loose some sense of self (for example, most of your autobiography memory is gone). Now, some people argue that consciousness can simply be the ability to experiencing life, and in this case, you are conscious in your dreams. Others think that consciousness requires a sense of reasoning and self, which in that case you aren't really conscious in your dreams. In this particular this post, you can see the scientific community assuming consciousness as the second definition.