Have you ever started dreaming and suddenly realized that you were in a dream? Have you ever managed to gain control over your dream narrative? If your answer to either of these is “yes,” you have experienced what is called lucid dreaming Such feats of dream manipulation may not seem possible to the same extent in our real lives, but they are not altogether absent.
In fact, a number of people are able to experience something called lucid dreaming, and some of them are even able to control certain elements of their nightly dreams, Whether or not he is right is a matter for philosophers to debate, but the boundary between dreams and reality is something that lucid dreaming appears to explore.
the sleeper perceives that he is asleep, and is conscious of the sleeping state during which the perception comes before his mind, it presents itself still, Some people may simply wake up immediately upon realizing that they had been dreaming. Other people, however, may be able to influence their own actions within the dream, or parts of the dream itself. The lucid dreamer who spoke to MNT told us that she was able to manipulate the dream narrative in order to create a pleasant experience for herself.
“Usually,” she explained, “I can control the narrative in the dream, so for example, if I’m unhappy with the way things are going in the dream, I can change it.” Lucid dreaming is certainly an attractive and fascinating prospect; being able to explore our own inner worlds with full awareness that we are in a dream is intriguing and has an almost magical flavor to it.
Lucid dreaming also has the potential to help people with phobia such as a fear of flying or a fear of spiders.
“If a person has a particular phobia, then their lucid dream environment provides an interesting opportunity to do things like exposure therapy, where you gradually expose yourself to the thing you’re afraid of, in an attempt to gradually overcome that fear,”
This is possible, he added, because dream environments can provide a realistic enough experience without it actually feeling unsafe. During lucid dreaming, an individual knows that they are not in the real world, so they may safely explore their fears without actually feeling threatenedAt the same time, lucid dreaming is also attractive as an unusual means of entertainment much like the immersive experience of virtual reality.
An experienced lucid dreamer might be able to “go on an adventure” and interact with people and things in ways they may not be able to in real life.Once awake, the person should aim to remain awake for a while before going back to sleep. This technique is supposed to immerse the sleeper immediately into REM, which is the phase of sleep during which they are most likely to experience a lucid dream.
Therefore, some people who are interested in exploring their dreams with full awareness may find it useful to keep a dream journal in which they record the dreams they have each night in as much detail as possible.