Can we control our dreams during sleep?

Friday 
Date 1 July 2022

Have you ever dreamed that you could control it? Or have you ever had a dream and realized that you were in a dream? Maybe some people feel scared because they can do this. Some of them may also want to be able to do that.

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Understanding Lucid Dreams

Lucid dreaming is a phenomenon where we are able to control dreams or a phenomenon where we are aware that we are in a dream. Usually people with these abilities can decide to continue their dreams or not. Or also they can act as they wish in their dreams. The person realized that what he was experiencing was a dream.

Facts About Lucid Dreams

Not everyone has the ability to experience lucid dreams. Through the journals of Raphael Vallat and Perrine Marie Ruby, it is known that about 50% of individuals have experienced lucid dreams at least once in their lifetime, and only 11% of individuals have experienced lucid dreams twice or more in a month.

How Do Lucid Dreams Work?

Adapting from the Sleep Foundation, researchers reveal that lucid dreaming is associated with high performance of the brain's prefrontal cortex. Known from Alodokter, the prefrontal cortex is one part of the brain that is able to plan, create, solve, control, remember, and weigh an event. Therefore, those who experience lucid dreams can distinguish between dreams and real life.

Is It Dangerous If We Have Lucid Dreams?

Through the Healthline page, it is known that lucid dreams are generally considered safe. A 2009 study revealed that lucid dreams are part of the sleep cycle, also known as a hybrid sleep-wake. Lucid dreams occur in the later stages of the sleep cycle during Rapid Eye Movement (REM) or 90 minutes after you fall asleep.

Still from the same source, healthline, it is known that the negative effects of having a lucid dream are:

• Having poor sleep quality,resulting in fatigue, and irritability

• Having confusion

• Dissociation

• Subclinical psychosis

• Difficulty distinguishing between dreams and reality

Benefits of Experiencing Lucid Dreams

Although there are disadvantages when a person experiences lucid dreams, however, there are also some benefits to be gained when experiencing lucid dreams. Through a survey conducted by International Dream Research (Healthline, 2021), lucid dreaming has the following benefits:

• Problem solving

• Controlling nightmares

• Spiritual growth and inner work

• Cosmic adventuring

• Emotional, mental and physical healing

When we experience lucid dreams, we can usually control our dreams, so this can help us control bad dreams. We can decide how our dreams will go, whether we want to see ugliness or beauty in our dreams.

How Can We Have Lucid Dreams?

Some people may not need these techniques because they can spontaneously have lucid dreams. However, for those who cannot experience lucid dreams and want to experience them, you can use some of these techniques.

The first is reality testing

Reality testing aims to increase self-awareness. This technique requires you to always make sure what you are doing is real or just a dream. When you often do it in the real world, it will carry over into your dreams.

The second is a reality check

If in real life, if we read a text repeatedly, the text will remain the same content. However, in a dream, the text will change. For the reality check technique, it is done by reading a line of text repeatedly, which is done throughout the day. This allows you to be able to experience lucid dreams.

The last one is waking back to bed

You need to wake up after sleeping for 5-6 hours. You can use an alarm to set it. After waking up, you need to stay awake for a while then you can go back to sleep. In addition to the three techniques above, there is also a mnemonic induction technique. Using the mnemonic induction technique you have to say repeatedly that you will realize that you are dreaming, 'Tonight, I will realize that I am dreaming', every time before going to sleep. It aims to organize or program yourself in order to experience lucid dreams.

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