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Lucid Dreaming

Lucid Dreaming


Dreams are the playground of the mind. Anything can happen when one is
dreaming. The only limitation is that we only rarely realize the freedoms
granted to us in our dreams while we have them. Lucid dreaming is the ability to
know when one is dreaming, and be able to influence what will be dreamt. A
normal dream is much like passively watching a movie take place in your skull.
In a lucid dream, the dreamer is the writer, director, and star of the movie.
Lucid dreams are exceptionally interesting.
Lucid dreaming is defined as dreaming when the dreamer knows that they are
dreaming. The term was coined during the 1910Õs by Frederik van Eeden who used
the word "lucid" in the sense of mental clarity (Green, 1968). Lucidity usually
begins in the midst of a dream, when the dreamer realizes that the experience is
not occurring in physical reality, but is a dream. Often this realization is
triggered by the dreamer noticing some impossible or unlikely occurrence in the
dream, such as meeting a person who is dead, or flying with or without wings.
Sometimes people become lucid without noticing any particular clue in the dream;
they just suddenly realize that they are in a dream. A minority of lucid dreams
(about 10 percent) are the result of returning to REM sleep directly from an
awakening with unbroken reflective consciousness (LaBerge, 1985). These types of
lucid dreams occur most often during daytime napping. If the napper has been REM
deprived from a previous night of little sleep their chances of having a REM
period at sleep onset are increased. If the napper is able to continue his or
her train of thought up to the point of sleep, a lucid dream may develop due to
an immediate REM period.
The basic definition of lucid dreaming requires nothing more than the
dreamer becoming aware that they are dreaming. However, the quality of lucidity
varies greatly. When lucidity is at a high level, the dreamer is aware that
everything experienced in the...