The content of dreams is usually random and made up of disorganized sequences. Discontinuous, intermittent, interrupted and confusing scenes usually appear in dreams. In addition to these main characteristics, dreams usually manifest themselves without any relationship to previous or known experiences: scenes that have no relationship at all with each other, or with incompatible dream material.
Dreams are often confusing and seem superfluous. Therefore, we often consider ignoring them and forgetting them, especially if they have caused some type of disturbance or discomfort. Paradoxically, in dreams it appears content related to the unconscious of the dreamer and both unpleasant and gratifying content can manifest, originated by the deepest desires and longings, sometimes socially or morally shameful.
Likewise, many people have found great pleasure in the dream world and have expressed a great desire to stay longer in a dream. For this reason, some of them have learned to control that dream world through a type of dreams known as lucid dreams.
A lucid dream is a dream in which the person is aware of what you are dreaming about. These types of dreams are frequently experienced in childhood and after experiencing sleep paralysis.
In lucid dreams, people can become aware that what they are experiencing is dream manifestation and, by being aware of this, they can also achieve manipulation of these dreams, that is, the person is capable of creating all the material (scenes and people) voluntarily. For example, a person experiencing a lucid dream may put someone on stage with whom it is difficult to relate (some famous person, ex-partners, deceased relatives…) and carry out common actions in the waking state (conversations, sharing a coffee, walking, even having sexual relations with them).
However, some people do not use these dreams only to experience pleasure, but also to stage content such as a traumatic scene (accidents, rapes, abandonments…) with the purpose of healing or restructuring all this unconscious material.
Dreams and creativity
Some people use lucid dreaming as source of creativityFor example, the famous painter Salvador Dalí used the “spoon nap” technique, which consists of holding a spoon in his hand and a plate just below it. When he fell asleep, the spoon would fall and hit the plate, waking up the painter. In this way, the artist painted the images he saw before waking up.
Likewise, other people have been induced to lucid dream by simple experience, such as flying, jumping great distances, diving or skydiving, among many other experiences.
Lucid dreams are events that many people want to experience or have experienced at some time and would like to do it again, so below we share some tips to learn to control dreams:
1. MILD Technique (Mnemonic Induced Lucid Dream)
The MILD technique is one of the most used and effective techniques for induce lucid dreams. It is effective for beginners and expert oneironauts. This technique was developed by Stephen LaBerge and described in his book Exploring Lucid Dreams.
In the text, Laberge explains the steps to perform this technique, establishing three processes important psychological factors as a basis:
- In the motivation It is important that you ask yourself why you want to achieve lucidity in your dreams. It is a question that must be asked continually, since it is what generates the topic of interest in the dream, and thus the intention to delve into a certain topic is produced.
- A sustained intention It promotes willpower and, therefore, this activity usually becomes a habit.
- The association It is progressively trained as we are able to ask ourselves if we are really in a dream, associating or integrating all the previous elements (critical reflection, reality tests and personal dream signals).
2. Brief awakening
The MILD technique should be put into practice after a period of sleep in which the body has had sufficient rest. There are people who first sleep 6 hours before practicing, and for others 4 and a half hours is enough. Miguel Gasca (2017) reminds us that periods of sleep are used to measure sleep. 1 hour and a half approximately. This happens because, regularly, a complete sleep cycle, with all its phases, lasts approximately that long. Afterwards there is a brief awakening, of which the person is usually not aware, and then another sleep cycle begins.
If you manage to achieve lucidity during the first sleep cycles, you may feel tired when you wake up. When you sleep, the first cycles are more oriented towards resting the physical body, and that is why the slow wave phase is longer. On the other hand, in the last sleep cycles the REM phase, which is where most dreams occur, are longer and, therefore, there is a greater chance of achieving lucidity.
For this reason, most people have achieved this awareness about dreams after a brief awakening to go to the bathroom and return to bed or to turn off the alarm clock. They even say that they are what open the doors to lucidity. . Therefore, setting an alarm to wake up briefly and continue sleeping is one of the tricks to dream whatever you want.
3. Write down your dreams
Having a clear intention of lucidity contributes to the success of the technique. Many people use dream diarieswhere they write down each one of them in the first moment after waking up, in this way they practice their intention.
4. Practice yoga
This is another of the alternative techniques to achieve lucidity in dreams. It consists of a state of intermediate consciousness, a physical and mental relaxation. The steps to perform this technique are very simple, but they require practice to achieve the best result.
Once you have achieved this awareness of the body and the cancellation of tension, you will be able to enter a dreamlike state of serenity. In this state you begin to concentrate again on breathing and on each of the dream elements that appear.
5. Identify personal dream signals
It is important that people who wish to initiate the experience of lucid dreams, that is, controlling dreams, form signals during their waking state that function as triggers during dreams. Personal dream signs are themes that generally carry with them throughout life, such as fears, desires or desires. For example, some people have printed vehicles, animals, embarrassing events… as dream signals.
These signs are frequently material that occurs in most dreams, which is why it is recommended that when waking up from any type of dream (even if it is not lucid) write down the objects, places, people and themes that appear more than once. Identifying these dream signals will train the subconscious to distinguish them the next time they appear.
6. Perform a reality check
Reality tests are actions that are carried out in a waking state as well as in sleep. to know if we are awake or asleep. These reality tests are carried out as a verification method when recognizing one of the triggers, such as, for example, an ex-partner or a room. An example of a reality check would be trying to put a finger through your palm, looking at your hand, and looking at signs.
In the waking state it is very obvious what is being seen, but not in dreams. For example, detecting anomalies when looking at the hands (instead of five fingers there are six), looking at the sky (many times there is more than one moon), seeing signs or clocks with hands (seeing it and looking away for a few seconds to see it again). , in the second observation of the object the letters have changed).
It is advisable to have two or three tests of reality because dreams often deceive us. For example, many times the finger does not go through and thus we can verify with a second test how to jump from the road to the top floor of a fifty-story building. Some people use extreme reality tests because it works for them or because they are what they learned to check with. For example, hurting your skin.
7. Reflect and ask
We all have that feeling of knowing that we are awake but that can be transferred to the dream, that is, we feel that we are awake in the dream and what causes are false awakenings. The antidote to this deception is to ask ourselves throughout the day: “Am I awake or asleep now?“. Next, you will have to perform a reality test such as observing my surroundings to see if everything is stable, since in the dream most things are unstable.
A well-known reference in reality tests is the one used in the film Inception, directed by Christopher Nolan, in which they have objects that serve as reality tests, such as a coin that has words written on it.
8. View an image
Making a wish or visualizing an image out loud is another technique to decide what you want to happen in your dreams once your mind is completely prepared to control the dream world. To do this, you just have to remember that in dreams anything is possible.
9. Prepare your dreams in advance
Lastly, you can try to take advantage of a lucid dream you have had to create a new one. This technique, also known as “lucid dream induction” may not be effective on the first try and will require a lot of patience and imagination.
For example, you can try to imagine a kind of reception to go to when you are dreaming or ask someone in a dream for help to warn you when you are in a dream.
Lucid dreaming is a hybrid state between sleep and wakefulness. In ordinary sleep the prefrontal cortex of the brain is inactive, in lucid dream this more active and it is for this reason that we are able to control or be aware of dreams.
The study of human sleep is carried out in a sleep laboratory. These are usually located in medical facilities and consist of one or several bedrooms adjacent to an observation room, which is where the experimenter spends the night. The experimenter prepares the subject to be observed by placing electrodes on the scalp, chin, and outer edges of the eyes.
- Electrodes placed on the scalp allow recording the electrical activity of the brain through an electroencephalogram.
- On the other hand, the electrodes placed on the chin allow detecting the muscle activity through an electromyogram.
- While the electrodes located at the extreme edge of the eyes record the eye movements through an electrooculogram.
- In addition to these, other electrodes and devices can be used…