Lucid dreaming may appear to be a fairly new topic of discussion, but in actuality, there’s evidence of lucid dreaming pre-dating 150 CE. It was practiced by Tibetan Buddhists and they referred to it as “Dream Yoga”. It was used to reach a higher state of consciousness and for meta-cognitive self-reflection. It wasn’t until 1950 that lucid dreaming started popping up in research. Lucid dreaming wasn’t recognized as a “real” phenomenon until then because we weren’t able to even study sleep. For quite some time it was believed that the sleeping state was closer to death than to wakefulness and that the brain sort of “shuts off”. Then came the electroencephalogram, or EEG for short. This was revolutionary in the research of sleep and allowed us to monitor cortical activity while a participant is at rest. This lead to the discovery of sleep stages and what brain waves are emitted from each stage of sleep.
Lucid dreaming is gaining awareness while you are currently asleep and dreaming. You become aware that your body is asleep but your mind is awake in the dream realm. Through practice, one can develop the ability to control or manipulate their dreams. A huge challenge to researching lucidity is having the participant achieve a state of lucidity, and maintain this state. Konkoly et al., 2021, were able to have her participants not only achieve this state but also signal through pre-determined eye signals or facial muscle contractions when they are lucid. This is a major breakthrough to the neuroscience community proving that communication can occur during this state. This truly opens doors to discovering the other wondrous mysteries of lucid dreaming.
Beginners of conscious dreaming often struggle to stabilize and maintain a longer lucid dream. Strong emotions of excitement or focusing too much on a single detail have been found to destabilize and collapse dreams. Of course, we can’t stop ourselves from the excitement when we feel like we’re flying in a dream, but there are different methods to help stabilize that state of mind. A plausible way to help lucid dreamers maintain their dream is by developing one’s cognitive control. The most popular and inexpensive way to do so is through meditation (Stumbrys et al., 2018). All you need is yourself and your mind. There are many variations as to how to meditate, but for the sake of this discussion, we will be looking at forms practiced by “professional” lucid dreamers, or Tibetan Buddhists. It has been mentioned that these Buddhists actively take part in mindfulness and transcendental meditation practices. A correlational can be drawn from mindfulness and lucid dreaming. The goal of mindfulness is to bring your awareness to the present moment in time. You recognize the current moment but you do not judge or evaluate it, you simply notice it for how it is. As for lucid dreaming, the main objective is to gain awareness of your resting body. In a review by Tadas Stumbrys, Ph.D., evidence is provided that routine meditators achieve a state of lucidity easier, and are able to maintain longer dreams. Also, that a meditation pre-sleep can increase the chance of achieving lucidity. Finding a quick and effective induction method may be found through meditation.
The majority of studies, including Konkoly et al., 2021, provide participants with lucid dreaming techniques and training before any measures are taken in the lab. It might prove to be useful to include forms of meditation into lucid induction techniques. Tibetan Buddhists are the perfect example that everyone can lucid dream with practice and a set intention. Once we can successfully induce lucid dreaming, we can dive into the vast pool of opportunities it offers. Lucid dreaming can be utilized in ways to increase creativity, problem-solving, interpersonal conflict resolution, relief from nightmares, healing from trauma both physically and mentally, and can be used to access the deep inner psyche.
References:
Konkoly, K. R., Appel, K., Chabani, E., Mangiaruga, A., Gott, J., Mallett, R., Caughran, B., Witkowski, S., Whitmore, N. W., Mazurek, C. Y., Berent, J. B., Weber, F. D., Türker, B., Leu-Semenescu, S., Maranci, J.-B., Pipa, G., Arnulf, I., Oudiette, D., Dresler, M., & Paller, K. A. (2021). Real-time dialogue between experimenters and dreamers during REM sleep. Current Biology, 0(0). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cub.2021.01.026
Stumbrys, Ph.D., T. (2018). Toward Transpersonal Studies of Lucid Dreams (V. Lithuania, Ed.) [Review of Toward Transpersonal Studies of Lucid Dreams]. ProQuest; The Journal of Transpersonal Psychology. https://www.proquest.com/docview/2234966136?pq-origsite=gscholar&fromopenview=true
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