Adonis Diaries

Lucid Dreaming: Can it be Controlled? A science to back it up?

A week ago, I watched a documentary on Lucid Dreaming. It means this ability to be aware that you are dreaming and decide to alter the course of events in the dream to satisfy your desires…

One handicap in the research is the rarity to finding Lucid Dreamers who can submit to the experiments.

Occasionally, I am aware that I am dreaming and I do my best to alter this state of wakefulness, particularly, when the dream is a horror movie or a re-run that I try to cut it short. Generally, this attempt to control my dream is terminated by waking up and I continue to edit the dream lying in bed, eyes closed.

The Science of Lucid Dreaming and How to Learn to Control Your Dreams, Animated

Maria Popova posted in Brain Pickings

Trekking the continuum of sleep and wakefulness in a journey into meta-consciousness.

As if the science of sleep and the emotional function of dreaming weren’t fascinating enough in and of themselves, things get even more bewildering when it comes to lucid dreaming — a dream state in which you’re able to manipulate the plot of the dream and your experience in it.

But how, exactly, does that work and can you train yourself to do it? Count on AsapSCIENCE — who have previously explored such mysteries as how music enchants the brain, the neurobiology of orgasms, and the science of procrastination — to shed some light:

Everybody has 3-7 dreams a night — the problem is, we quickly forget them.

(Then again, the probability that you are dreaming this very minute might be one in ten, so it might all be moot.)

For a deeper dive into the scientific nitty-gritty of lucid dreaming, see Stephen LaBerge and Howard Rheingold’s 1991 bible Exploring the World of Lucid Dreaming and LaBerge’s follow-up, Lucid Dreaming: A Concise Guide to Awakening in Your Dreams and in Your Life.

Treat yourself to this fantastic and mind-bending Radiolab episode about how one man cured himself of a recurring nightmare by learning lucid dreaming: