Are you asleep? Are you awake? Are you having a lucid dream? A lucid dream is a very conscious kind of dream, in which you are aware that you are dreaming but your body is still asleep. These kinds of dreams will often feel much more vivid and realistic than an average dream, and you may even be able to control what is going on around you or wake yourself up. Generally, lucid dreams involve some kind of action, such as running or flying. Lucid dreaming is considered a cognitive skill, so a person can theoretically teach themself to lucid dream.
In the 1980s, German oneirologist (dream scientist) Paul Tholey proposed seven possible criteria that would classify a dream as lucid: awareness that one is dreaming, awareness of the ability to make decisions, awareness of functions of memory, awareness of the self, awareness of the dream environment, awareness of the dream’s meaning, and awareness of concentration and focus. Around a decade later, psychologist Deirdre Barrett studied four specific corollaries of lucid dreams: awareness that one is dreaming, awareness that dream actions will not carry over when waking, physical laws do not necessarily apply in the dream, and the dreamer has a memory of the waking world. She found that the majority of lucid dreamers do not have all four traits.
Lucid dreams mostly occur during REM (rapid eye movement) sleep, a stage where dreaming is frequent and the body is still aside from the eyes. Brain activity is particularly high during this stage. Celia Green, the parapsychologist who discovered this, also discovered the link between lucid dreaming and false awakenings (a dream where one incorrectly believes they have awakened from sleep and often perform their morning routine). It is thought that the (dorsolateral) prefrontal cortex is involved in the recognition that one is dreaming, as it is the site of short term memory involved in reasoning. Once the prefrontal cortex is activated, the dreamer experiences an in-between state, where they are unconscious enough to remain asleep but retain just enough consciousness to know that they are dreaming. The amygdala (center of emotional processing, especially with fear and anxiety) and parahippocampal gyrus (memory and memory retrieval) may become less active, while the pons (conducts signals to the brain) remains active. Neuropsychologist Stepehen Laberge noticed higher amounts of certain brain waves during lucid dreaming, which hints that the parietal lobes are very involved as well. The parietal lobes help you understand the environment around you, so their involvement makes lucid dreaming more of a conscious and integrative experience. Interestingly enough, it has been proven that certain drugs can affect lucid dreams. In another study by Stepehn Laberge, the drug galantamine allowed some to have a 42% increase in their ability to lucid dream and others experienced a lucid dream for the first time. Supposedly, galantamine allows the neurotransmitter acetylcholine to build up so there is more awareness while dreaming.
Drugs aren’t the only thing that appear to enhance awareness within lucid dreamers, a certain app appears to do the same thing. The app is currently being developed by researchers at Northwestern, and they’re utilizing Targeted Lucidity Reactivation– a method developed in a lab. In TLR, the study’s participants associate a sound (like a melody) with awareness within dreams. When this sound is played in a dream, the participant is able to reach a more conscious state while remaining in the dream. The two studies that have utilized this app so far show fair amounts of success, suggesting that lucid dreams may be more attainable for the general public sometime soon.
Although lucid dreams’ existence is scientifically proven, much about them remains unexplored despite the fact that the majority of individuals have lucid dreamed in their lifetime. Northwestern’s lucid dream app displays the potential that lucid dreaming has to improve our daily life, whether it be by reducing nightmares or aiding unconscious self exploration.
