Thread: Popular Science lucid dreaming mention

My October 2008 issue of Popular Science just came and on the cover it promises answers to all the questions you never thought to ask. Of course I was intrigued so I open it up and one section is labeled "Everything you need to know about Bizarre Sleep Disorders." Apparently lucid dreaming is a very bizarre sleep disorder (who knew) because it is the first one mentioned.

On page 55 it states :

"lucid dreamers' brains stay conscious during REM sleep, allowing them to control their dreams' content. Recent electroencephalogram evidence points to heightened activity in the region of the brain that processes self-awareness."

The description seems good enough but I just don't understand how lucid dreaming can be considered a "bizarre sleep disorder". Others mentioned are night terrors, sleep eating, sleep paralysis, and REM sleep behavior disorder.

I find the article very misleading because it states that scientists are hoping to better understand the physiological underpinnings in hope of developing better drug therapies. Maybe that would help for something like sleep eating but it doesn't really apply for lucid dreaming and sleep paralysis like the article seems to suggest. If you are a sufferer of this "bizarre sleep disorder" known as lucid dreaming please leave your comments.

I think they may be referring to natural lucid dreamers. As far as I'm aware, anybody is capable of normal lucid dreaming, and anyone I've ever tried to talk to about lucid dreaming has had one before, so being able to lucid dream definitely isn't a sleep disorder...but people who naturally lucid dream, without any non-lucid dreams, may fall under that classification.

I didn't think about it that way and the article didn't differentiate between those who do it as a hobby and those who may do it all the time. Same with the sleep paralysis where it may only be a serious problem if it happens all the time. It just seemed like they were labeling anyone that lucid dreams as having something wrong lol.

Oh look, scientists are trying to develop another drug to "cure" an "ailment" of the mind. This is just ADD or Social Anxiety Disorder all over again.