Essay On Lucid Dreaming

While we sleep, our brains are able to play out scenes in our mind through our dreams. However, dreaming does not fully expose our cognitive potential. We are only able to watch those scenes while dreaming rather than fully participate. Lucid dreaming gives us not only the ability to participate in our dreams, but allows us to determine what will happen in them and manipulate the entire plot. Lucid dreaming is defined as “the experience of dreaming with consciousness and awareness that one is dreaming (Melton 940).” For a dream to be lucid, the dreamer must realize that they are not in reality or the physical world, but that they are in a dream. Once this realization occurs, the dreamer is able to do whatever they want and manipulate the plot of the dream. The idea of lucid dreaming has existed since the eighth century when Tibetan Buddhists practiced forms of yoga designed to remain fully conscious during a dreaming state (LaBerge, 21). It wasn’t until the 1900’s that scientists began to study sleep cycles and to determine how they affected dreaming and lucidity. These studies led to the development of techniques that would allow people to lucid dream on demand in order for scientists to further study lucidity. Researchers were able to use these techniques and apply them to therapies and treatments for patients with sleeping disorders in an attempt to use lucid dreaming to improve their sleep quality. While further benefits of lucid dreaming are still being studied, current research shows that it can be a useful skill to develop and can be a therapeutic tool for people suffering from sleep disorders.

Frederick Willems van Eeden was the first to use the term “lucid dreams” in a report he wrote in 1913 for the Society for Physical ...

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...le lucid dreaming, your brain sends the same signals to your body and is performing the same motor activity as when it is awake. This means that practicing something while lucid dreaming has the same effect as when you are awake. Your brain sends the same signals to the rest of your body, but because of sleep paralysis, you only act it out in your dreams. Aside from performance improvement and therapeutic uses, people use lucid dreaming for recreational purposes as well. In lucid dreaming you literally are able to do whatever you want. People use it for the thrill and “legal euphoria” of being able to adventure each night when they are asleep (Alexander Street Press).While further benefits of lucid dreaming are still being studied, current research shows that it can be a useful skill to develop and can be a therapeutic tool for people suffering from sleep disorders.