only 100 grand

[Lucid83]

It is estimated that fewer than 100,000 people in the United States have the ability to have lucid dreams. (HowStuffWorks.com)

[Seeker]

I wonder how they arrived at that conclusion? Seems a little small to me. I wish we had a link on that page

[Lucid83]

http://science.howstuffworks.com/question742.htm

[Seeker]

No I wish DREAMVIEWS was one of the sites mentioned on that page

[docKnubis]

wow i do have special training in something There is a lot of research being done in dream control, particularly in the areas of lucid dreaming and dream incubation. Lucid dreaming is a learned skill and occurs when you are dreaming, you realize you are dreaming and you are able to then control what happens in your dream -- all while you're still asleep. Being able to control your dreams would be a very cool thing to be able to do, but it is a difficult skill that usually takes special training. It is estimated that fewer than 100,000 people in the United States have the ability to have lucid dreams. Although lucid dreaming is mentioned throughout history, it was not until 1959 at Johann Wolfgang Goethe University that an effective technique for inducing lucid dreams was developed, and true research into the phenomenon began taking place. In 1989, Paul Tholey, a German dream researcher who had been involved in the research at that university, wrote a paper about a technique he was studying to induce lucid dreams. It was called the reflection technique, and it involved asking yourself throughout the day if you were awake or dreaming. More research has indicated the need to practice recognizing odd occurrences, or dream signs, that would be a sign that \"this is a dream\" rather than reality. Stephen LaBerge of Stanford University, founder of The Lucidity Institute, Lynne Levitan and other current dream researchers have studied lucid dreaming techniques extensively. They refer to a technique similar to Tholey's reflection method that they call \"reality testing.\" This technique and one called MILD (Mnemonic Induction of Lucid Dreams) have been among the most successful techniques for lucid dreaming. The MILD technique involves similar reminders to the reality testing method but focuses those reminders at night rather than throughout the day and night. MILD begins with telling yourself when you go to bed that you'll remember your dreams. You then focus your attention on recognizing when you are dreaming and remembering that it is a dream. Then, you focus on reentering a recent dream and looking for clues that it is indeed a dream. You imagine what you would like to do within that dream. For example, you may want to fly, so you imagine yourself flying within that dream. You repeat these last two steps (recognizing when you're dreaming and reentering a dream) until you go to sleep. Using this technique, Dr. LaBerge has been able to have lucid dreams at will. Because this type of technique takes such mental training, however, LaBerge is now doing research using external stimuli to induce lucid dreams. While lucid dreaming may just seem like a cool way to enter fantasy land, it also has several applications outside of recreation. According to LaBerge, for instance, lucid dreaming can help in personal development, enhancing self-confidence, overcoming nightmares, improving mental (and perhaps physical) health and facilitating creative problem solving.[/b]

[Lucid83]

lets contact them and ask to be on their site

[Matchbook]

I am very sure that they are way off. Of course I'd like to think that the lucid dreaming ability is as exclusive as 100,000 people, but I am almost certain that it is not. I think it is somewhere between 1-3 million people. About 5 percent of the people I know LD. Even if it's not as many as 1-3 million it's definitely more than 100,000.

[Leo Volont]

I often wonder whether there really is that many. Afterall, where are they? Here is another conspiracy theory for our consumption.... there really isn't one big humongous World Wide Web, but a conglomeration of mini-webs, set up in little bite size (not pun intended) chunks. Dream Views Web Page consists in just one of these mini-chunks, and so we have only the Lucid Dreamers and Dreaming Enthusiasts reporting here that are contained in our section of the Sliced Up Web. It must be! Because, if there were really 100,000 Lucid Dreamers, and, what, in just America alone (is that what was said... which would indicate about the same for Europe, and then more in English speaking Asia as they come on line during their period of swift economic development.) then where are they all. And not just here. I've quite gone the rounds of various Message Boards that focus on their pet Enthusiasms and I am always left wondering why so few of the millions of people who ostensibly are on line ever write in. You would think these pages would be more crowded, no?

[dreamtamer007]

Originally posted by Matchbook I am very sure that they are way off. Of course I'd like to think that the lucid dreaming ability is as exclusive as 100,000 people, but I am almost certain that it is not. I think it is somewhere between 1-3 million people. About 5 percent of the people I know LD. Even if it's not as many as 1-3 million it's definitely more than 100,000. You may be closer to right percentage. When I first thought about it I thought 5 percent was high but the more I thought about it one in twenty is not that outrageous if you include people that lucid dream without even trying. I have one relative that now understands what it is and does it all the time without trying. Two other in-laws one that was married to a dreamer and the other that had a girlfriend that was into it. There are a lot of relatives and people I have not asked the question to. There is another problem in getting a fare estimate. In cases of people that do it naturally and don’t even fully understand what they are doing. Some of them might have to have it explained in detail to realize some of us have to work at it. The reason I know this is because I explained it in detail to my son-in-law and he has them all the time. He said he is aware he is dreaming and explains a lot of times he does not want to control his dreams. I had to insure him that if he was totally aware he was dreaming that it was ok to change the outcome of the dream. The reason I went to the length of explaining all this was to make a point. It would be very hard to get an accurate percentage of people that do it naturally just because they don’t know there are people like us. Yea But I think 5 percent is a fare estimate.

[SantaDreamsToo]

theres 6 billion (more than that now) people on this planet, its pretty safe to say that since i directly know at least 3 lucid dreamers in my daily life that theres a hell of alot more than 100,000 (sorry i dont know the US population but its in the billions)

[Deere]

I think I agree with Santa. But it kind of depends of what your definition of a 'lucid dreamer' is. I think the better part of the population has had a lucid dream or more. I don't have any statistics to prove it, but out of the two people I asked , after explaining what it was, they said they had experienced it. I kind of wonder how one would make a serious estimate about this, though. There are probably alot of people who use other recources than the internet(ie books), or in particular, the forum. And I think there are a lot of people that are checking forums, without signing up. And there are probably people who just do it, without really knowing what it is, or doing it without needing help. This more or less in response to Leo.

[polio vaccine]

I don't think that works at all. Just because you know lots of people who do it doesn't mean there's more than 100,000 of them overall. Unless someone here knows over 100,000 lucid dreamers, that is. For one thing, if you lucid dream, you've probably got at least one friend who does as well, simply because you've been attracted by common interest. Not to mention that as recently as 20 years ago, there were still scientists who claimed that lucid dreaming was impossible, and that was the belief of the majority until Stephen LaBerge came along with his REM research. Furthermore, consider the average lifestyles of people in the world these days. Not a lot of people put much importance on the practice of sleep or dreaming, and a lot of working people don't get a full eight hours of sleep every night, due to their schedules. In addition, since most people don't attribute much meaning to dreams (going with the old theory that dreams are just subconscious nonsense) their subconscious attention is of course less likely to present them with unique dreaming opportunities. So yeah, I can see that 100,000 is a very tiny number, but most modern lifestyles in most countries around the world just don't put a lot of emphasis on dreams, so they likely don't factor in many modern lives. Saying "That can't be, I know at least 3 lucid dreamers" is like saying you can't OD on heroin because it's never happened to you or your three skag-shootin' buddies.

[Yume]

It's really impossible to tell. We have to consider the LDers that don't remember their dreams. You can't come to a close estimate now. I would have to guess at least 250,000. There are so many people out there and it's growing. After I had joined this site I helped 17 people LD. I know that LDing is growing rapidly. In my group of friends we accept things like LDing and OBE's possible. I tried to invite some of my friends here, but they don't like online message boards.

[polio vaccine]

Yeah a few of my friends weren't open to the message board idea, and a few more didn't even think lucid dreams were possible when I told them how real they are. "How can you feel like you're walking if you're not actually walking? It doesn't even make sense, duh." Yeah, duh.

[AirRick101]

Like tapping inner genius, everybody has the ability to Lucid Dream. It's not something that you need to get materials and prerequisites to execute, it's just directing your intention to exercise that skill will manifest eventually. Our culture hardly respects dreams, it's considered random mental fodder. I wouldn't doubt in a society that reveres them, people are proficient at dreamwork.

[Matchbook]

You'd be surprised how many people I know that have absolutely no interest in dreams, but then when I bring up the topic of dreaming or lucid dreaming, they ask what it is, and when I tell them, they are like "Oh yeah, I've had those kinds of dreams every once in awhile, those are pretty cool". I have no reason to doubt them. So I don't think just because I am an avid lucid dreamer that I would attract other LDers as acquaintances more than the average person. Of course there is no way to make a proper estimate of how many people in the world have LDs, but using common sense it seems reasonable that it's somewhere over a million. Think of it this way. If there are 6 billion people in the world and only 100,000 of them LD, that is only 1 in 60,000 people. I think if you went to a large city and questioned people on the street about whether they have or have had LDs (after explaining what they are), you wouldn't have to talk to 60,000 people before you find one. I wouldn't be surprised if 1 out of every 15 or 20 people say they have LDs. More realistically, though, I'd say at least 1 out of 50 people have LDs regularly, as in more than once a month.

[polio vaccine]

There may be 6 billion people in the world, but that statistic was only for the United States.

[Deere]

300,000,000 / 100,000 = 3000 / 1 That's still alot of non-LD'ers.

[tryured]

Originally posted by SantaDreamsToo theres 6 billion (more than that now) people on this planet, its pretty safe to say that since i directly know at least 3 lucid dreamers in my daily life that theres a hell of alot more than 100,000 (sorry i dont know the US population but its in the billions) US population is about 200 million.

[Drangon]

Nope, Deere is right. It's almost 300 million. See http://www.census.gov/population/www/popclockus.html.

[jay dawg]

i thought it was 200 mill too. anyway its cool how that website links to DV: http://science.howstuffworks.com/sleep7.htm cool as in annoyingly sticking a giant yellow bar on the top of my browser!