How to Lucid Dream
Imagine you're flying, feeling the cold air on your skin, flooded by light. You look down and see a sandy beach peppered with palm trees, and you decide to go there. Suddenly, you're on the beach, drinking a piña colada, but you're alone. Wouldn't it be nice if somebody was there with you? And then, suddenly, your best friend appears. It's comforting and warm, a feeling you know you've been craving, because you've been struggling at work recently. You're grateful for their encouragement and for the piña colada; it's your favorite drink, after all. You take a deep breath and enjoy the beauty of the moment.
But it isn't a vacation; it isn't a game or a VR headset; it's a dream. A dream that you know you're in. A dream that you can control—the beach, the drink, the friend. You made it all happen because you're lucid dreaming. Lucid dreaming occurs when a sleeper is aware they're in a dream and can exercise some control over the environment of the dream. In a regular dream, we're aware of objects and events within the dream itself, but we're not aware that we're dreaming. We can't distinguish between being asleep and being awake.
Lucid dreaming isn't anything new; it's a phenomenon that's been reported throughout history but only scientifically documented since 1975. A lot is still unknown about it—why it happens, how to induce it, and what effects it might have on us individually and as a species. Some scientists believe that lucid dreaming comes from increased activity in the prefrontal cortex. Unlike non-lucid dreams, which can take place anytime while we're sleeping, lucid dreaming happens during our rapid eye movement, or REM, sleep cycle—our fourth and final deepest stage of normal sleep.
But the biggest thing that those of us who haven't had the pleasure of lucid dreaming are wondering is: what's it like? Lucid dreamers have described feeling like they're playing a virtual reality game, where they have some control over aspects of their scene and setting. These dreams can also leave lasting impressions that might be stronger than those we experience when we're awake. Most of us have had the experience of waking up from a dream, even one we can't fully remember, and feeling somehow changed from it. With lucid dreaming, that change or impact we might feel is much more visceral.
Some lucid dreamers have talked about their dreams in religious terms, like an out-of-body experience. Some even say it feels like being temporarily abducted by aliens and transported to a different planet, like you're in your own personal video game. But one of the most interesting aspects of lucid dreaming is the emotional revelations that can happen in them. In a lucid dream, you might be introduced to elements of yourself you might not see otherwise. You might see yourself more sympathetically, kinder, braver, or more sensitive than you'd like to admit or take credit for in reality.
In this sense, lucid dreams might offer some introspection that many of us hesitate to ponder in our waking lives. Something else that a lot of people ignore in their waking lives is learning. Because unfortunately, learning can be difficult and time-consuming, and more often than not, we're faced with complex subjects that we can't relate to in the real world, taught using outdated teaching methods. But that doesn't have to be the case anymore, thanks to Brilliant.org, the sponsor of today's episode.
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And we're not alone in that envy. There's a subreddit with more than 400,000 members dedicated to the subject of lucid dreaming. However, only 23% of the population experience lucid dreams on a monthly basis, and less than 1% of people are what scientists call proficient lucid dreamers—people who can easily sink into and manipulate their lucid dreams. But the good news is that a majority of adults (55%) claim to have experienced at least one lucid dream in their lifetime. So if you haven't had one yet, the odds are in your favor.
If you want to up the odds, here are some things you can do to pave the way to your lucid dream journey. First is to optimize your bedroom for sleeping. Good sleep hygiene is key to lucid dreams. 65°F (18°C) is considered the ideal sleep temperature, and it's important to keep your room relatively quiet and dark. Invest in some blackout curtains, sleep masks, or other accessories to reduce light, and consider using earplugs or a sound machine to block out disruptive noise.
Another critical element to lucid dreaming is what researchers call reality testing. This consists of checking in with your environment and confirming whether you're asleep or awake. We all know that our dream environments can look familiar to our waking reality, but there's always some minor inconsistencies compared to reality. Performing these reality checks while we're awake can give us the skills to determine when we're in a dream.
Reality testing is specifically helpful when something odd happens in your waking life. If you see a strange animal cross the street in front of your car, take a moment to think about the fact that you're awake, and that the animal is real, and that this odd moment is happening in your life. Developing that critical frame of mind when you're awake will ideally carry over into your dream state.
Reality checks can also be quite simple, like pressing your fingers against your palm and feeling the resistance of your hand. In a dream, you might notice that your fingers go through your hand, and at that point, you'll know you're not in reality where scientific laws apply. Or take note of being in your waking reality when you're reading, because in dreams, written words often appear jumbled.
It can also be helpful to wake yourself up after five hours of sleeping and simply tell yourself to remember you're dreaming when you go back to sleep. Research has found that this technique is most effective if you can stay awake for 30 to 120 minutes before sleeping again. Another tactic you may already be doing is keeping a dream journal. Recording our dreams helps us recognize dreams more easily since many of our dreams, or elements of them, repeat. You might want to write down what you remember the moment you wake up or even record a voice note on your phone to rattle off bits and pieces that come to mind.
As interest in lucid dreaming has grown and these kinds of tips have proliferated on the internet, a whole industry has grown around the goal of lucid dreaming. There are now sleep masks and headbands you can buy that produce noises, flash lights, or vibrate to inject stimulation into your dreams. These are methods used by researchers on lucid dreaming subjects. There are online tutorials, some helpful and some from people simply looking to capitalize on the craze around lucid dreaming, and there are even supplements that have been shown to induce lucid dreaming.
The drug alkaloid gamine has been used in research and home settings to encourage lucid dreams. One study showed that participants who took the drug after being woken up and practicing visualization were more likely to lucid dream than participants who received a placebo. Gamine is already available over the counter as a supplement, and many lucid dreamers say that it helps them stay in the dream longer and have more control over elements of their dreams.
Of course, some view using drugs as cheating, just as you would with any performance-enhancing substance in sports. But proficient lucid dreamers rightly stress that, whether you use a supplement or not, you need to practice lucid dreaming using other methods; simply popping pills won't get you there. But if you do manage to get there, into a lucid dream, what do you do?
Once we're lucid dreaming, we want to use that moment to control where the dream goes and try to assert influence over what happens. This works better if, instead of willing something to happen, we simply expect it to happen. Imagine you're back on the beach with your friend, and you want a beautiful sea turtle to come climbing out of the water. Instead of insisting that the turtle will show up, expect it to be there. Once you do, a sea turtle, or something close to it, will probably appear.
That expectancy effect can help things appear in our dreams. If we say, "I'll find the dog behind the couch," when we look behind the couch, the dog will be there. Experienced lucid dreamers can also open doors in their dreams and envision what they want to be on the other side of the door. Perhaps you can open a door and transport yourself from the sunny beach into the middle of outer space.
Most of what we know about lucid dreams comes from the early stages of research into the topic and from those who can have the dreams. We still don't have a great understanding of the neural underpinnings of lucid dreams or the brain processes that make them happen. At this point, we don't have a reliable way to induce them. But even with so much unknown, we do know that there are benefits to lucid dreaming.
At the very least, a lucid dream can act as a sort of wish fulfillment, taking us to places or putting us in situations we've always wished we could experience. Lucid dreaming can also help us shed the stress of daily life. It's been clinically shown to be a potential treatment for pervasive nightmares, and data shows that lucid dreaming can foster creativity. Even athletes will employ lucid dreams to work on and refine motor skills. Most of all, lucid dreams allow us to interact and explore parts of our unconscious that we can't when we're in our regular dreams or even while we're awake.
Of course, this level of awareness in our unconscious state can present its own problems. Skeptics worry that lucid dreaming can have a negative impact on mental health—not only because it can disturb sleep, but also because it can blur the lines between reality and fantasy. Remember the reality testing tactic to induce lucid dreams? While it might help some distinguish between waking and dreaming, it might also make others question whether they're awake or asleep. This would be disorienting and could lead to a feeling of dissociation, where they feel disconnected from their thoughts, feelings, and sense of identity.
Still, the curiosity around lucid dreaming is impossible to resist, and not just for you or me, but for researchers. In an effort to answer the question of what exactly is happening when we have lucid dreams and how to better understand how to trigger them, researchers have invited proficient lucid dreamers into their labs. Once the participants are asleep, researchers measure activity levels in the prefrontal cortex and other areas. The participants are told to use left and right eye movement once they're in a lucid dream and aware that they're dreaming.
This way, researchers can see what brain activity is happening in the brain at that very moment. Studies also tell us that the events we experience in our dreams produce effects on our brains that are similar to what would happen if we experienced them during our waking hours. If that's true, then it would mean that dreaming of doing something is the equivalent of actually doing it. There might be a stretch if we're talking about going to Mars or breathing underwater, but if it's a meaningful conversation with someone or tasting a new delicious food, maybe we could take the feeling and carry it with us into our reality.
Because lucid dreaming might not just be about experiencing our dreams differently; it might be the key to understanding our own consciousness. English aristocrat and writer Mary Arnold Foster wrote one of the earliest and most detailed descriptions of lucid dreaming in her book "Studies in Dreams." She described her attempts to fly, and she proposed that humans have dual consciousness—one is our primary self, which analyzes our circumstances and applies logic to our experiences.
For most of us, this consciousness is typically enacted during sleep. But according to Foster, this primary self wakes up in lucid dreams and brings memories, knowledge, and reasoning from our waking life along with the awareness that we're asleep. This idea of dual consciousness may not be scientific enough today, but researchers would agree that lucid dreams involve increased self-awareness and reflection. They give us the ability to think more deeply about our lives because we get to actively live outside of them.
When we sleep, we still are who we are; our brains are the same, but they're unconscious. So, lucid dreams can provide a point of comparison to isolate the regions of the brain that are involved in the state of heightened self-awareness and agency. As much as many of us simply want to have cool dreams, lucid dreams aren't just about experiencing the feeling of flying or traveling to mystical places; they can have real scientific implications.
If we're able to understand what's happening in the brain when it appears to be unconscious but is really aware, we can better treat brain injury patients who are unconscious. Doctors could establish these patients' levels of consciousness and treat them accordingly. If scientists can establish a neural signature of self-awareness by studying lucid dreamers, they can make more accurate diagnoses and prognosis.
What these ideas tell us is that lucid dreams are really about self-awareness. So, even if you can't manage to get yourself into a lucid dream, you can still learn from them. Try to be more connected to your unconscious self, maybe not through a lucid dream, but through something more accessible, like meditation or other therapies in your waking life.
Like all things, lucid dreaming takes practice. We have to approach the desire to lucid dream with a sense of calm. When we try to force it into existence, we lose the potential to find it altogether. So maybe we should start with a sense of curiosity—not just about what it would feel like to fly, but about what might be lurking in our own brain that we just haven't found yet.