Lucid Dreaming :: essays research papers

Lucid DreamingDreams are the playground of the mind. Anything can happen when one is fantasying. The only limitation is that we only rarely realize the freedoms give to us in our dreams while we have them. Lucid dreaming is the ability toknow when one is dreaming, and be able to influence what will be dreamt. Anormal dream is much like passively watching a movie take place in your skull.In a lucid dream, the escapist is the writer, director, and star of the movie.Lucid dreams are exceptionally interesting.Lucid dreaming is defined as dreaming when the dreamer knows that they aredreaming. The term was coined during the 1910s by Frederik cutting edge Eeden who usedthe word "lucid" in the sense of mental clarity (Green, 1968). Lucidity usuallybegins in the midst of a dream, when the dreamer realizes that the experience isnot occurring in physical reality, but is a dream. Often this realization istriggered by the dreamer noticing some impossible or unlikely occurrence in thedre am, such as meeting a person who is dead, or flying with or without wings.Sometimes tidy sum become lucid without noticing any particular clue in the dreamthey just suddenly realize that they are in a dream. A minority of lucid dreams(about 10 percent) are the result of returning to rapid eye movement sleep directly from anawakening with unbroken reflective consciousness (LaBerge, 1985). These types oflucid dreams occur most often during daytime napping. If the napper has been REMdeprived from a antecedent night of little sleep their chances of having a REMperiod at sleep onset are increased. If the napper is able to continue his orher train of belief up to the point of sleep, a lucid dream may develop due toan immediate REM period.The basic definition of lucid dreaming requires cipher more than thedreamer becoming aware that they are dreaming. However, the quality of lucidityvaries greatly. When lucidity is at a high level, the dreamer is aware thateverything experienced in th e dream is occurring in their mind, that there is noreal danger, and that they are asleep in bed and will awaken eventually. Withlow-level lucidity they may be aware to a certain extent that they are dreaming,perhaps enough to fly, or alter what they are doing, but not enough to realizethat the people in the dream are just figments of their imagination. They arealso unaware that they can suffer no physical damage while in the dream or thatthey are actually in bed.