Lucid Dreaming

Lucid dreaming is the ability to recognize that you are dreaming while you are having a dream.

During a lucid dream, the dreamer remains aware of what is happening in the waking world while experiencing a vivid dream world at the same time.  Lucid dreamers think clearly and are able to control their actions while in their dream.

Many lucid dreamers are able to control everything that happens in a lucid dream. They can give themselves special powers, direct the actions of other characters in the dream or change the dream scenery. They may even be able to plan a dream before they have it.

Some people are natural lucid dreamers.  Recently, the ability to dream lucidly has become desirable, and people who have never had lucid dreams before are attempting to learn how to have lucid dreams.

Lucid dreaming can be a way of confronting your fears.  In a lucid dream, you can force yourself to stand up to a monster or even to your archetypical shadow.

Learning how to have lucid dreams can help you to become more creative and to learn how to have more control over negative thoughts.

Some people wish to have lucid dreams just so they can enjoy the feeling of being invincible, if only for a short time.

When you have a lucid dream, your brain experiences some aspects of the waking state and some aspects of the dreaming state at the same time.

A condition in which you experience more than one brain state at one time is known as a state dissociation.

State dissociations also occur during sleep paralysis, out of body experiences (OBEs), sleepwalking and night terrors.   Narcolepsy and REM sleep behavior disorder are characterized by state dissociations.