The Science of Lucid Dreams

The Amazing Science of Lucid Dreaming-

If you are as curious as I am about your sleep cycle and dreams, read on!

A lucid dream is a dream during which the dreamer is aware that they are dreaming. During a lucid dream, the dreamer may gain some amount of control over the dream and its characters.

Lucidity usually begins in the middle of a dream when the dreamer realises that the experience is not occurring in physical reality, but is a dream. Lucid dreaming turns your dream world into an alternate reality where all of your senses come to life and are authentic. It is a safe and natural state when the conscious brain wakes up during sleep.

What is Lucid dreaming like?

Imagine dreaming about a humongous ship with dinosaurs on it and dragonflies flying around everywhere. These are the kind of bizarre dreams we all have which leave us scrambling for words the next day to try to explain it to a friend. Now put yourself back in the dream but use imagery fot the details. Imagine that you are flying but you can look at the clouds and the ground, feel the cool wind gushing through the locks of your hair and smell the clean air. This is the kind of scenario in which you will suddenly realise that you are dreaming of flying.

­Lucid dreaming occurs during rapid eye movement (REM) sleep, the fifth sleep stage. The body is basically paralyzed, with the exception of the eye. A British parapsychologist Keith Hearne while researching, found out that lucid dreams are real dreams occurring in rapid eye movement (REM) of sleep because he noticed that the conscious eye movements of a lucid dreaming volunteer showed REM.

Effects-

· Lucid dreaming can disrupt your sleep cycle if you make it a habit and take proper control of it. As it is a stage between sleeping and being awake, waking up after a lucid dream can make it very difficult for you to go back to sleep and may leave you up wondering about your dream. This can lead to various health problems and have adverse effects on your body. However, these experiences differ from person to person and I am just mentioning the worst case scenarios. Lucid dreaming is generally not considered dangerous because it even happens to toddlers. So please do not get worried.

· As you are the one who takes control of your dream, the other effect that it can have on you is make you sad or happy, depending on what you saw, bring about real feelings and emotions.

· It can make it difficult to differentiate between the dream and reality. If you want to improve this, maintain a dream journal where you note down exactly whatever fragment of your dream you remember with as many details as you can recall. This will really help.

· Some people may use lucid dreaming to escape reality instead of going to counsellors or therapists. Now this is not necessarily bad. If you use lucid dreaming to escape from the real world, it cannot harm you. However, if you are doing it too much, it can be harmful to your productivity and personal growth. Escapism is healthy if it is used in the norms. Without it, the stress of the everyday life could drain you out. The only thing you should be careful if you use lucid dreaming to escape the reality and enjoy yourself is simply not letting it go too far.

· It can cause sleep paralysis but Sleep paralysis is actually a normal and natural process. It happens every night to keep us from acting out our dreams.

Are lucid dreams tiring?

Usually, feeling tired after you wake up is due to the fact that you didn’t have enough sleep. As a matter of fact, some people report that when they lucid dream, they feel tired in the morning. However, they can be mentally exhausting if you have lucid nightmares.

Final thoughts –

All of these lucid dreaming dangers are still very unlikely to occur, however, they are possible.

But, especially if you are in a good health mental state, being aware of all of the ”risks”, you should be fine. The fact that you are HERE right now, reading these dangers, means that you will be completely prepared.

Lucid dreaming is not dangerous at all. The risks that are mentioned are nothing to get hyped up about.

Though, if you experience some of them, multiple times, perhaps you should try to find out what is the reason behind and to stop for a while.

Now, you should be calm and relaxed, knowing that all the ‘bad stuff” that can happen due to lucid dreams is not that scary. So take a deep breath and have a good night sleep!

Hey guys!

I'm back after a long period of about 12 days with some new refreshing content. I know it's research based but I find these topics really interesting and maybe you will too!

Lucid dreaming is a very interesting concept and I have explained the basics of it. I hope you enjoy going through this content and give me feedback.

Till my new post comes up,

Stay safe, drink water (because I can tell you from personal experience- it is extremely important)

Be cosy while sleeping

xoxo

-creator

bibliography- sites.psu.edu

science.howstuffworks.com