Paradox - Jan 2012

All of you must have the experience of dreaming. It is easy for people to dream while sleeping. When people are dreaming, everything becomes possible: elephants can fly, vehicles can be eaten and human can walk through walls. But you realize that was a dream after you wake up. However, have you ever think of controlling your own dream? That is, lucid dream.

Everything is real while dreaming

Frederik van Eeden created the term ‘lucid dream’, which the dreamer is aware that one is dreaming. In a lucid dream, the dreamer is possible to have little manipulation over his or her imaginary experiences in the dream environment.

There are two kinds of lucid dream, dream-initiated lucid dream (DILD) and wake-initiated lucid dream (WILD). DILD means the dreamer eventually realize that he or she is in a dream environment while dreaming. WILD means in a normal waking state, the dreamer directly goes into a dream state with no apparent lapse in consciousness. In this case, most of the lucid dreams are DILD.

Researches have proved the existence of lucid dream. For example in 1980s, a study found that lucid dreamers were able to demonstrate to researchers that they were consciously aware of being in a dream state by using eye movement signals primarily. Moreover, lucid dream is said to be beneficial to the sufferers of nightmares. In 2006, a study confirmed the effectiveness of lucid dreaming therapy treatment in reducing nightmare frequency. The treatment included the exposure to the idea, mastery of the technique, and lucidity exercises.

I had the experience of controlling my own dream too, which was quite interesting. But my opinion towards lucid dreaming is negative. If dreamers control all of their dreams, there will be nothing to be surprised of.

Anthony Chan

References:

Frederik van Eeden. (1913). A study of Dreams. Proceedings of the Society for Psychical Research, 26.

Kahan, T., & LaBerge, S. (1994). Lucid dreaming as metacognition: Implications for cognitive science. Consciousness and Cognition, 3, 246-264

LaBerge, Stephen (1990). in Bootzen, R.R., Kihlstrom, J.F. & Schacter, D.L., (Eds.): Lucid Dreaming: Psychophysiological Studies of Consciousness during REM Sleep Sleep and Cognition. Washington, D.C.: American Psychological Association, pp. 109–126.

Spoormaker,-Victor-I; van-den-Bout,-Jan (2006). Lucid Dreaming Treatment for Nightmares: A Pilot Study. Psychotherapy-and-Psychosomatics, 75 (6): 389–394.