Have you ever had a dream and been conscious that you are dreaming? This is known as lucid dreaming, and most people may only experience it a couple of times in their lives.
Depending on the dreamers’ self-awareness of being asleep, the dream can be very vivid and the person will wake up remembering every detail. As the person is aware of being asleep, it is possible for them to control their dreams, for instance it enables the sleeper to dream they are flying or to walk through walls or to talk to any other person or character in their dream.
It has been said that doing so can reveal a lot about the dreamers most inner thoughts that they do not realise they have and can help them solve a difficult problem they may be having in their lives.
There are ways to induce lucid dreaming, such as gradually becoming conscious that you are dreaming, or to specifically train your mind so that when you go to sleep and dream, you will sense “triggers” in the dream such as writing on your hand, or an object or person you have been thinking about a lot.
Lucid dreaming is well recognised in the science world and is well documented. A good source of information on it is Exploring the world of lucid dreaming by Stephen LaBerge, who has also written several other books on it.
Contributed by JORDAN BINTCLIFFE
