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 brain is used for
artistic things
such as singing, while the left side is used more for technical actions like
math. La Berge had dreamers sing and count in their
dreams and a polygraph showed that
the same side of
the brain shows more activity than the other, just like when
waking.(Blackmore
367).
Another similarity between lucid dreams and a
waking state is the ability of the
eyes to track
smoothly from left to right. When a
person closes their eyes and tries to
move them
smoothly from left to right, the motion is naturally jerky. The eyes need
something to
physically follow for them to move smoothly.
Another of La Berge's
experiments
showed that when the eyes follow something moving in a dream they are just
as smooth as if
they were following something in reality (Horgan 51).
One myth that has been disproved by La Berge's
research is that dreams occur in
an instant. This is not true. The time that elapses in a dream is the same
length as the time
that elapses in
the physical world. La Berge showed this
by having his subject signal with
their eyes, count
to ten, then signal again. La Berge
observed that the time between the
two signals was
eight seconds, the same time it took the person count to ten when they
were awake
(Blackmore 366).
In addition to learning more about how actual
dreams work, there many more
advantages to
lucid dreaming. Dreamers can perform
tasks in their dreams before they
must actually be
done. Take for example an athlete. A runner can run his race in his
dream over and
over and win. A business man who has to
give a speech the next morning
can practice his
speech in his dreams in front of a dream audience. The possibilities are
endless (Colt
49).
Many great leaders have been influenced by
their dreams. Samuel Coleridge
claims that he
wrote the great poem "Kubla Kahn" in a dream. Friedrich Kekule, the
discoverer of the
molecular structure of benzene, said it came to him in a dream (Horgan
50).
Study of lucid dreams continues today mostly at
the Lucidity Association, founded
by Dr. Steven La
Berge. La Berge is the leading authority
on lucid dreams today
(Blackmore 368).
Lucid dreams have been studied for over 100
years and still not everything is
known about
them. Thanks to the work of people like
La Berge and Hearne, more is
becoming known
each day. Also technological advances
such as the polygraph have
helped to prove
that lucid dreams are real. All may never
be known but at this rate,
everyone could be
a lucid dreamer by the millennium.
No comments:
Post a Comment