Lucid Dreaming Controlling Your Dreams Essay

Lucid Dreaming- Controlling Your Dreams Essay, Research Paper

Lucid Dreaming: Asleep and Aware

Lucid dreaming is an issue that has been studied as far back as 1896. A Lucid dream

is one in which the dreamer is aware that he/she is dreaming and is sometimes able to take

control. Lucid dreams are an actual phenomena that do occur in REM sleep.

Dr. van Eeden was the first recorded person to study dreams in which the dreamer is

aware they are dreaming. In 1896 he began recording his dreams. Over a period of one

year he recorded 352 dreams, but only eight were lucid (Dreams 784).

The actual definition of a lucid dream, is a dream in which the dreamer mentally

awakens in the dream and becomes aware that it is only a dream. This “awakening” is

usually triggered by the dreamer noticing something in the dream that is far too unusual to

be real (Blackmore 362). The actual term lucid dreaming was first used by the Dutch

psychiatrist Fredrick van Olen in 1913. It simply means “clear dreaming” (Blackmore

363).

Surveys and research have shown that 50 percent of all Americans have had at

least one lucid dream in their life that they could recall (Lucid Dreaming 365). When a

dreamer becomes lucid there are physical changes on the outside of the body and brain

patterns also change. There are usually pauses in breathing and changes in heart rate. The

amount of brain activity is more heightened than that of a regular dream, but less than

when waking. It has also been observed that a person having a lucid dream shows more

brain activity than a waking person under the influence of hallucinogenic drugs such as

LSD (Lucid Dreaming 364).

A lucid dream is usually provoked by an earlier day of heightened stress or anxiety

(Lucid Dreaming 364). They usually occur at the end of an eight or nine hour sleep

(Horgan 50).

Several methods have been developed for inducing lucid dreams. The simplest and

most common method is known as the MILD method, or Mnemonic Induction of Lucid

Dreaming. This method consists of waking in the early morning from a dream and

remembering what the dream was about. Then as the dreamer returns to sleep he or she

should remind themselves that the dream is not real as they return to the original dream

(Lucid Dreaming 366).

The second method involves work during the day. The person should constantly

ask them self when they are awake, “Am I dreaming?”, then look for a clue to prove they

are. Then when the person falls asleep they will be reminded to ask the same question and

in turn realize the dream is not real (Lucid Dreaming 366).

Another method involves the use some kind of an external device that will create a

signal to the dreamer that they are dreaming. Keith Hearne was the first person to

incorporate this strategy. He would watch the dreamers eyes for rapid eye movement

(REM) to show that they were dreaming. He would then spray them with water to signal

to them that they were dreaming. This method was fairly unsuccessful (Blackmore 366).

In 1989 Dr. Steven La Berge invented the “Dream Light”. This device is a mask

that the dreamer wears that contains a small LED for signalling dreams and a small

computer that detects when dreams begin. The “Dream Light” is available to the public

and over 2,000 have been sold. It retails for about $900. This is the most simple method

but few can experience it due to the cost (Blackmore 366).

Once the dreamer becomes lucid they can do many interesting things such as

communicating with the outside waking world. This can be done with the eyes or through

breathing. When a person falls asleep, all their muscles are paralyzed except for the eyes

and internal organs. By moving the eyes from left to right a predetermined number times,

a person can signal things to the outside world. Keith Hearne first discovered this in 1978

and used it to prove that lucid dreams are real and happen in REM sleep. He used a

polygraph to determine that when his subject moved his eyes left to right eight times, he

was indeed in REM sleep, and aware of the fact. A person can also signal that they are

dreaming by breathing rapidly (Blackmore 366).

With the ability to communicate while dreaming and being able to control the

dream, many questions that have remained unanswered about dreams can finally be solved.

It has been proven that in the deep state of REM sleep, all muscles except for the eyes are

paralyzed. Using lucid dreaming and eye movements, it has been shown that when actions

are performed in a dream, the brain still sends electrical impulses to the muscles to

correspond to those actions. The impulses just have no effect (Blackmore 367).

This same principle also applies to the use of different brain hemispheres. Dr.

Steven La Berge performed experiments involving the use of different sides of the brain in

dreams. It has been proven that when waking, the right side of the bra

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