Falling asleep in a lucid dream is a necessary condition for continuing your lucid dream. If someone wakes up in the middle of an LD, he may not enjoy the maximum perks of LD. Special training and practice can train the mind to lucid dream while falling asleep. However, it is also necessary for a lucid dreamer to develop consciousness of what he is Dreaming. It means that lucid dreaming is a state of sleeping along with awareness, and it would be difficult for an amateur lucid dreamer to enjoy it. One may have noticed that all Lucid dreaming techniques including, MILD and WILD, demand the sleeper to fall asleep first.

Several researchers mention that inducing lucid dreaming hampers sleep quality, and it is due to awareness of the events happening in a dream. So, if you are enjoying the perks of lucid dreaming, you may not be able to enjoy the benefits of sleeping and resting.

Do You Get to Sleep During Lucid Dreaming?

Many sleep researchers mention that lucid dreaming may affect sleep quality because it provides the ability to control your dreams. The vividness and responsiveness in lucid dreams may nay allow a person to sleep completely.

So, if you make up any plan to induce lucid dreams at night, you will not manage superior quality sleep, and it will harm your sleep quality. Dr Dan Jensen says that a lucid dreamer cannot hold a restful and peaceful sleep without inducing lucid dreaming. The reason is that the portion of the brain responsible for sleeping is also conscious during lucid dreaming, and it hinders proper sleep. That's why people having frequent lucid dreaming may fall prey to insomnia and other sleeping disorders.

What is the Correlation Between Lucid Dreaming and Sleep Fragmentation?

Sleep fragmentation consists of alternating wake-up and sleep cycles. Several researchers mention that sleep fragmentation directly affects the likelihood of lucid dreaming. Falling asleep and then waking up helps a person induce lucid dreaming at a greater rate. Voss et al. 2009, said that changing the patterns or sequence of sleep and awake states increases the metacognitive activity of the brain. Periods of fragmented sleep are better than having a continuous sleep. That's why maximum lucid dreaming induction techniques ask the Lucid dreamer to divide their asleep into small chunks.

How do You Lucid Dream without Disrupting Your Sleep Quality?

Lucid dreaming potentially affects sleep quality, and however, it is possible to minimize sleep losses during lucid dreaming. A lucid dreamer can take small power naps in the day to fulfil his sleep needs. Similarly, he can use the MILD method for inducing LD because it also enables a person to enjoy 5 hours of sleep.

Conclusion

Falling asleep in a lucid dream is mandatory to complete your dream state. Although lucid dreaming affects sleep cycles and disrupts the internal sleeping clock, one can fulfil his sleep requirements in other parts of a day. Moreover, it is better to induce lucid dreams once a week to remain active.

Lucid dreaming senses manoeuvring reality within the construct of your brainpower. In addition to all the charm, risks and concerns about dreaming with an alert mind are nonnegotiable. Intricacy in awakening from lucid dreaming can be an issue, but physicians estimate this risk at a low percentage. In addition, lucid dreaming necessitates focus and endeavour that depicts interrupted sleep. However, lucid dreamers do not account for drowsiness, exhaustion, or inferior sleep quality. Another LD risk got reported by researchers if lucid dreaming leads you to a coma, and this concern is a misconception.

Dr Michael Summers, a sleep researcher having more than 23 years of experience, says that lucid dreaming does not lead to a coma, which means there is no correlation between LD and coma. Dr Beverly Dexter, another LD expert, will likely move to a coma from LD is nearly zero. Several persons experience LD every day, and they come back to Waking life without any mishap.

Can lucid dreaming lead to a comma?

People are frightened of practising lucid dreaming due to mistaken beliefs about its hazard. The body state experienced in learning a lucid dream varies from that practised by somebody in a coma state. The Physical impairments that lead to coma are head injury or any serious ailment, and the patient has no power to wake up. Another point to consider is that no physical injuries causes induce lucid dreaming. In lucid dreaming, dreamers get aroused like experienced dreamers. The dreamer in lucid dreaming can manage all phases of their dream environs. It facilitates him to have power over the outlook, his dreamscape, and the characters of his dreams. He can truly see the universe from another standpoint, and it is not a condition of coma.

Difference between a coma state and a lucid dreaming state

Flamboyant life-like dreams in a state of coma are coma dreams that differ much from lucid dreams. In a coma, a person is unconscious with no idea what is going on. In lucid dreaming, a person visits another level of imagination with full awareness and remains alert to his surroundings. The lucid dreamer attempts to have power over the dream content, but patients in a coma get deprived of such attempts. The rapid eye movement (REM) stage gives a picture of sleep where the dreamer is fully alert. However, his mind helps him experience lucid dreaming because muscles calm down and even refrain from working. The dreams in a comma are not vivid. Moreover, the person in a coma cannot recall them. However, lucid dreamers can remember everything.

Is brain power comparable in both states?

Brain functionality alternates from top to bottom in a coma, as well as in lucid dreaming. The areas of the Brain that exhibit responsiveness are in sleep in a coma situation. Contrary to this, responsiveness or awareness is the main factor in lucid dreaming. So, lucid dreaming cannot put you in a coma.

Thus even if lucid dreaming can influence realism, it has no off-putting and pessimistic concern for your physical body anyway. So, one can experience lucid dreaming without fear of moving to a coma.

Judaism and Christianity uniquely treat dreams from the approaches used by other religions. According to Jewish and Christian traditions, lucid dreaming gets primarily used to communicate between people and the almighty. However, lucid Dreams can take on various forms, including visual pictures, aural directives, and terrifying nightmares. However, the unifying thread is that they contain a revelatory message from the divine to the dreaming individual. Numerous renowned lucid dream researchers have examined this phenomenon through the lens of the Christian faith. According to their study, mysteries of nature got naturally explored within the safe sanctuary of a lucid dream. Psychologist Edgar Cayce, a self-described mystic and clairvoyant, said that the highest state of the human soul is to know that you are one with God. Edgar Cayce says that we, as souls, come into being to know ourselves as individuals while still being one with God, and lucid dreaming is an effective way to do this.

How do different religions think of lucid dreaming?

Lucid dreaming (LD) has been researched scientifically for just a century. Different religions have different opinions regarding lucid dreaming:

• In the Buddhist tradition, Tibetan monks teach dreamers to overcome their phobias using lucid dreaming and manage oneiric content.
• In the Islamic opinion, a dream enriched with positivity is from the creators of heaven. On the other hand, horrible nightmares or dreams are due to evil forces existing in the universe.
• According to Christian philosopher Augustine of Hippo, Lucid Dreaming is a glimpse of the hereafter when the spirit splits from the body. Some Spiritism sects think that LD precedes out-of-body experiences during sleep.
• The old Indian faiths (Buddhism and Hinduism) are more engaged in increasing self-awareness, hence creating strategies to induce LD and observing sleep.

What is the opinion of Christian authors about lucid dreaming?

Patricia Garfield, the author of the book Pathway to Ecstasy, thinks lucid dreaming lets you get into a mystical state of mind. The 4th phase of American psychology, also called transpersonal psychology, helped make this idea more popular. If you do spiritual things like pray or meditate, you can connect with God in the afterlife. So, it is the perception that lucid dreaming can help in this regard. Scott Sparrow's 1977 book, Dawning of the Clear Light, which talks about lucid dreaming, considers it a source of spiritual awakening.

How does Christianity links LD to spirituality?

One of the most common spiritual experiences in lucid Christian dreams is the feeling of being illuminated by the light of heaven. One of the world's best-known "lucid dreamers," Rev. George Gillespie, has said that the "fullness of light" is a feeling of oneness and amazement when you're in a state of illumination. Many lucid dreaming mystics say that Divine light is a typical spiritual experience enjoyable only through lucid dreams. Christian monks have a perception that we are here to become enlightened, fill ourselves with light, and finally, become one using lucid dreaming.

So, Christianity takes lucid dreaming as a source to harmonize with the spiritual energy and connect with the spiritual realms. It got proved by science sense that LD brings peace of mind. So, it may pave the way for gaining spiritual awakening.

The concept of shared lucid dreaming or mutual dreaming is common among people. The movie inception portrays this concept in which the two dreamers have a mutual dream and visit the dreamscape of one person. Freudian dream analysis conducted by Sigmund Freud mentions that sharing a common objective or dream telepathy is possible. Mutual dreaming, dream mesh, and dream meeting are other terms used for this concept. There are different paranormal descriptions for this concept. Some people comment that through telepathy, one can project into the dreamscape of other people.

On the other hand, some would say that dreams are a separate reality and artificial intelligence or artificial stimulation can help people. Scientists are hoping to use this concept for checking the authenticity of dreams, and they believe that a dream meeting can help investigate the existence of dream realms.

Is There Any Evidence that Shared Lucid Dreaming is Possible?

A very experienced practitioner of lucid dreaming, Stephen Laberge, had been working on the phenomenon of shared dreams. He had conducted several case studies since 2019, but he had not succeeded in drawing any logical inference. The only paranormal evidence is that some dreamers claimed that they experienced the same dream. However, there is no statistical evidence for this concept. A perception is that the two people encountered the same situation in the day, which led them to a shared dream at night. It means that similar circumstances can cause the same imagination and subconscious thinking at night. Another hurdle in instigating shared dreaming is that LD can only occur in the rapid eye movement sleep cycle. So for two people to have a dream meeting, both must experience the REM cycle simultaneously. This phenomenon appears a little bit absurd in actuality, and no scientific findings have proved this fact.

Why Do People Want to Have Shared Lucid Dreams?

Scientists like Dr. Stephen Laberge mention that group dreaming can help understand the genuine reality of dream worlds. Another study made in 2017 says that people want to have shared dreams to develop their emotional connection with their loved ones. Separation of lack of intimacy among two partners can also become a solid reason for the shared ideals. 96 % of the dreamers having a group dream were friends, spouses, or relatives.

What Are the Ways to Have A Shared Lucid Dream?

A shared lucid dream is possible in two ways:

• Meshing dreams
• Meeting dreams

Both of these cases can be preplanned or unplanned. Both of the participants can talk about a shared event before sleeping. Discussing such an event can become a source of having a shared dream. Meshing dreams depend on coincidences, but dream meetings are more upgraded. In this two, people can preplan a dreamscape and make a conscious effort to visualize their dreams. Upon waking, they will have enough standard information to share.

So, the final thoughts are that people believe in having a shared dream and want to use it positively. However, the lack of scientific study makes this effect a paranormal activity.

Lucid dreaming was a phenomenon known since the time of Aristotle; however, it was successfully verified by the researcher thirty years ago clinically and in a sleep laboratory by measuring eye movement and studying the REM state of sleep.

So, as a result, it is considered that lucid dreaming is primarily a REM sleep phenomenon. As we already know, LD is a learnable skill, and various techniques are recommended for lucid dreaming induction.

In this article, we study different lucid dreaming techniques and their classification. So the systematic study of lucid dreaming examined the effectiveness of induction techniques.

Induction Techniques During Day Time

Some tips are very useful for inducing lucid dreaming and getting into the mindset of experiencing lucid dreaming in the night.

Reality Testing

You can do different reality tests throughout the day to train your mind. It is very helpful to increase metacognition by training the mind and noticing the awareness of dreamers. The brain's prefrontal cortex plays a major role in reality testing and lucid dreaming.

Mindful During the Day

Dreams are a continuation of our waking life., whenever we start noticing the surroundings and being mindful throughout the day, it helps to lucid dream during the night.

Induction Techniques Before Sleeping

There are some techniques used before sleeping that are useful for lucid dreaming.

Set bedtime routine

Bedtime routine plays an important role in inducing lucid dreams. Set the bedroom environment, light, temperature, and noise. Take a warm bath and perform some meditation to achieve focus.

Mnemonic induction of lucid dreams (MILD)

MILD is based on a behaviour known as prospective memory. It involves setting an intention to do something (like LD) later. MILD can also be practised after waking up during a dream. Firstly, set an intention to achieve LD and keep thinking about having a dream when I fall asleep. After setting reminders, your brain is working on what you want.

Induction Techniques During Sleeping

There are many techniques used during sleeping to achieve lucid dreams.

Keep a dream journal.

It is necessary to have a dream journal to record dreams when you are trying to attain lucid dreams; it will help you understand the patterns of dreams. Whenever you awake, recall all bits and pieces of your dream and write them down in detail.

Reality Testing

Reality testing is a great way to train your mind to differentiate between awakened life and a state of lucid dream. The dreamer keeps performing the reality tests unconsciously and assesses the state according to the test result.

Wake Back To Bed (WBTB)

A technique of WBTB is to set the alarm for four to six hours after bedtime, go to sleep as usual when the alarm rings, stay up for 30 minutes, then fall back asleep. It involves entering REM sleep when dreamers are still conscious. When the dreamer goes back to sleep, there will be more chances for him to get lucid.

To achieve lucid dreams successfully, you can try several techniques from different categories; however, a combination of reality testing, WBTB, and MILD can work effectively.

Lucid dreaming can act as a healthy practice to sort out your problems. You can implement your new plans in a dream and interpret the results. Lucid dreams are a great way to check the efficiency of a solution because you don't have any concern about the end. Patrick Bourke, a Senior Lecturer at the Lincoln School of Psychology, researched to find a link between Lucid dreaming and problem-solving. He found that lucid dreamers can solve their problems 25 times better than non-lucid dreamers.

However, the actual correlation between the two aspects is further investigable. Experts say that the rapid eye movement sleep cycle fosters integration and creative skills while dreaming. This integrity and concentration help a person to solve the problem during dreams.

How Do Lucid Dreaming and Problem Solving Relate to Each Other?

As we know if a person takes healthier and sound sleep, he enjoys good mental health. Moreover, consistent lucid dreams are a great way to get rid of your psychological issues and nightmares. All this positively impacts the dreamer's personality and enables him to be wiser while solving problems.

Another link between solving problems and LD is that lucid dreaming can identify hidden mysteries. So, it can provide you with an insight into your issues better than the waking world. So, a dreamer can translate the veiled spots of his waking life into a dream world and find a solution.

How Does the Brain Solve Emotional Problems Using Lucid Dreaming?

Working as the president of the international association for the study of dreams, Robert Hoss said that the human brain uses dreams to solve a person's emotional issues. Keep in mind that The problem-solving regions of the brain work during dreams. So, if a person is giving up in an intense situation, his brain recalls his past incidents to give him a pushing force. Your brain presents a vivid video of your desperate past events having the same issues. In this way, a person gains power and determination to solve his recent problems. You may experience that the dreamscape presents the same emotional scenes you are going through. It is a subconscious effort of the human brain to solve problems.

How Can You Use Lucid Dreaming to Solve a Problem?

Here are the three steps to figure out your problems in a dream:

Visualize your problem. If you have any emotional concern with a person, place his photo on the side table. Worried about your half-completed Science project, visualize it before sleeping.

Try to think of your problem as a video in your dreams. Avoid any distractions or astray thoughts and stay concerned about your issue.

Don't wake up immediately in the morning. Lay on your bed and think for a while about your dream. It will help you revive your whole dream and get rid of your stress.

The endnote is that solving problems in dreams is not a myth now. Several artists, dramatists, and painters use dreams to discover their creativity blockage.

The clash between the dream and the waking world enables the lucid dreamers to judge whether they are dreaming or waking. Somethings being ubiquitous in lucid dreams help you to investigate your consciousness. For example, take a hand and see if you can poke a finger through it. If you can pass a finger through your hand, you are dreaming. But you can’t do that in real life. Similarly, flying in the air is possible in LD but not in reality.

However, some reality checks may fail due to a lack of control over the LD. So, lucid dreamers must line up different reality checks for apprehension. Researchers also investigated the correlation between LD and reality checks and found that observing strange objects makes a person lucid instantly. It means that figuring out reality and lucidity often enables a person to do these checks in the dreams. So, this way, a dreamer can trigger a lucid dream more easily.

What are some reality checks to do?

Counting your fingers

Looking at your hands is a great way to test whether or not you are dreaming. When you are in a dream, and you figure out your fingers, you will usually have six or four fingers, and your hands in the dream world often look different than in real life. So during the night, you will notice that your hands do not look perfect, which means you are lucid.

Plug your nose and try to breathe

Take your fingers and put them over your nose, and when your fingers are holding your nose shut, try and breathe through the nose. You’ll feel that your nose is blocked, and you can’t breathe through it. But if you are actually in a lucid dream, you’ll feel like breathing through open nostrils; it will help you realize lucid dreaming.

Reading text

While dreaming, if you read something like a clock or a poster, and then you look away, and you look back at it, it will change every single time. So when you are in waking life, and you want to do a reality check, just read a sign or something, or look somewhere else, and shiny analyze the board. If it changes, it means you are lucid dreaming.

What makes a good reality check?

If you think, where are you? Can you see? How did you get there? What is your plan?; To apprehend a lucid dream, it will not work. These things are very fuzzy and challenging to understand in the dream world. So, trying to do something omnipresent in the LD means that the reality check must be defensive because the human brain cannot draw logical conclusions. Moreover, if a lucid dreamer practice reality checks in waking life, he will succeed in judging his lucid dream.

What is the perfect time to do a reality check?

The best time to do a reality check is the onset of the rapid eye movement sleep cycle. A REM cycle starts after 90 minutes of sleep. So, you can do your first reality check after 1-2 hours.

The endnote is that don’t practice a reality check more then 15-20 times a day. Moreover, frequent checking eliminates the ubiquity of a process, and you fail to analyze the reality.

People who wish to remember their dreams using lucid dreaming are well aware of Oneriogens. Oneriogens plants or herbs used for LD are available all over the world. However, in some places, these are banned too.

Ban on oneriogens is due to some of the lethal side effects of these herbs. These side effects include jerks, nausea, vomiting, etc. However, these slight effects are negotiable for some time. But the main point to consider is that mishandling or misuse of some herbs can lead to death.

The problem that arose by taking herbs for lucid dreaming is sometimes due to the chemical reactions of herbs and food. If you are using these herbs and any problem occurs, then you should stop their use immediately. There are several herbs in this list. Here I will show you the side effects and precautions of some most familiar herbs.

Herbs and precautions

Calea Zacatechichi

Typically Calea Zacatechichi is safe, but it can be unsafe. It is seemed to be lethal when you take it by mouth or by breathing. Some adverse effects of Calea Zacatechichi include nausea, hallucination, salivation, deficient involuntary coordination of muscle movement, and vomiting.

• You will remain alright if you use its recommended dosage. So avoid overdosage for Calea Z.
• Don’t consume it by mouth.
• Don’t inhale it.
• In clinical trials, no trials are available on pregnant women. So you should direct to your physician or avoid its use and stay on the safe side.
• Calea Z will cause you allergic problems if you are sensitive to the Compositae plant family.

African dream root

A study on the African dream root plant used for LD has saponins in its composition. Saponins on coming in contact with water give rise to foam-like substances. It can infuriate the digestive tract lining and cause vomiting. So to avoid this, don’t use African dream roots in larger quantities. Moreover, try to operate by sniffing rather than taking it with water.

Tabernanthe iboga

Tabernanthe iboga, a native shrub of central Africa, can also induce lucid dreaming. An adverse effect varies from intense hallucination to even death. For this reason, it is also on the ban in some places. So, try to use it in minute quantity.

Salvia divinorum

Salvia divinorum is generally protective, but it can cause hazardous side effects such as dizziness, confusion, delusion, paranoia, etc. These effects appear when you use salvia Divinorum by breath. So, avoid inhaling it.

The risk of hallucination and delusion is very high in people whose family history is related to schizophrenia. Thus such people should not use Salvia divinorum.

Amphetamine

Amphetamine is a CNS stimulant used in LD and various disease treatments. Try to use this medicine on the advice of your physician because it may cause a false sense of well-being. After some time, chronic impacts burst out. Moreover, do not consume alcohol with this medication.

Conclusion

Overall I suggest that not using herbs for lucid dreaming without the recommendation of the doctor. Women that are expecting or feeding should stay on the safe side and avoid its use. Overdosage may lead to disaster. Furthermore, no one should be advised to use the herbs without considering their family history.

The common perception about lucid dreaming is that LD brings psychological resilience to people. They assist a person get rid of his PSTSs or horrible nightmares. Moreover, lucid dreams are usable as psychological therapy to improve mental health. That’s why peoples induce LD voluntarily to overcome their fears and anxiety disorders.

According to Dresler et al. (2015), lucid dreams can help patients with schizophrenia to understand their impairments. Lucid dreamers have a powerful insight into their Dreams. And this ability improves their psychological perception of different events.

Despite all these positive impacts, some researchers mention that frequent induction of lucid dreams may cause damage to the mental health of people. People experiencing intense lucid dreams are unable to monitor reality. The blurring of the borderline between the waking world and dreams pushes such peoples towards psychosis-proneness. Recent research published in 2018 describes the harmful psychological effects of Lucid Dreams on the health of lucid dreamers.

How do Lucid Dreams Relate to Psychology?

Lucid dreams have positive effects on the mental and psychological health of people. However, different case studies mention that evidence of psychopathology appears in people’s experiencing fierce lucid dreams. Research conducted by Allan in 2019 showed that lucid dreamers face dream-reality confusion. Such people may fall prey to different personality disorders. Similarly, another study organized by Aviram & Soffer-Dudek in 2018 mentions that using inductive techniques like Mnemonic induction of lucid dreams and the Wake back to bed for LD can increase depression and anxiety.

What Makes Lucid Dreams Important in Psychology?

Clinical applications of lucid dreams increased their importance in psychology. They are a part of different therapies in which depressed peoples induce LD voluntarily to get rid of their nightmares or sleep paralysis.

The European Science Foundation workshop also formulated a relationship between Lucid dreams and psychosis. The conductors of the workshop highlighted that a person has a similar mental interpretation in both LD and psychosis. Both lucid dreamers and psychopathic patients perceive themselves as a part of some virtual reality and try to enjoy their fantasies through these hallucinations.

The similarity between the two conditions brought the lucid dreamers into the spotlight. However, scientists are still figuring out whether the induction of lucid dreams is beneficial or not.

Is Lucid Dreaming a Psychological Disorder?

A lucid dream is a peculiar nature of the human brain in which a sleeping person knows that he is dreaming. Although, the neurobiological reasons for the LD are still controversial. But lucid dreams are not a psychological disorder. Scientifically, it is the mental consciousness of a person while sleeping and appears during rapid eye movement.

According to research, LD and psychotic disorders are also contradictory phenomena. Psychosis is the invasion of dream-like or hallucinatory conditions while sleeping. Contrary to it, lucid dreams rely on mental consciousness during sleep.

Due to some harmful impacts of lucid dreaming, scientists discredited using Lucid dreams as a clinical therapy. But the apprehension of the similarities between LD and psychotic disorders signals that lucid dreaming is useable as a novel therapeutic process for mental impairments.

In the past, when somebody reads or listens about something new and strange, they may get curious and make an effort to research things for gathering more information. In the late 1900s, people didn't know more about lucid dreaming, which was their new concept. People had many questions about it, and they had to get a reference from books to learn about LD. Their queries were about lucid dreaming techniques and other relevant information.

Things have changed now, and you can access information within seconds. Before moving further, it is necessary to tell you that this article contains many frequently asked questions about lucid dreaming. So just going through this article is very helpful for anyone who is a beginner or curious about the topic.

1. What is lucid dreaming?

The word "lucid" means "expressed clearly", so LD means dreaming clearly. It results from consciousness in the dream state, realization and self-awareness that the dreamer is dreaming.

2. What is the average time it takes to have your first lucid dream?

According to a study, people or practitioners will get their first lucid dreaming within 3 to 21 days on average. This can only be done when people keep practising mindfully every day to achieve.

3. How can I maintain my lucidity for a more extended period?

Most beginners discover that their lucid dreams end early. When they start lucid dreams, they are very excited, and shouting causes them to awake. They often forget they are dreaming, and their conscious mind retrieves complete control over the unconscious mind. So the dream misses its intensity and comes to be a recurring dream.

4. Are lucid dreams exhausting?

No, not at all; lucid dreams are not exhausting. A skilled lucid dreamer expects lucid dreams 2-4 times a week with an average of 10 to 40 minutes.

5. If a person dies in a dream, will he die in reality?

No, a big no! This is a myth; lucid dreams don't have a negative physical impact on the body. No one will die after seeing his death in dreams, so don't worry if you want to experiment with it.

6. Will lucid dream machines be helpful?

Lucid dreaming machines like REM Dreamer, Dream Band or Dream Mask etc., provide external motivations. The use of these machines doesn't guarantee effortless dreams.

7. Do lucid dreams have any effect on creativity and problem-solving?

Yes, the brain is highly effective during REM sleep, and lucid dreams also occur in the REM state. So LD contributes a lot to solving the problem and enhancing creativity.

8. Which technique is better: MILD or WILD?

MILD is a memory technique that means putting an idea in the unconscious mind. While WILD is a meditative technique means to learn meditation and consciousness. So it is better to start with MILD.

9. What books are recommended to achieve lucid dreaming?

• An excellent book on lucid dreaming is "Exploring The World of Lucid Dreams" by Howard Rheingold & Stephen LaBerge
• Another book having a scientific study on lucid dreaming is "The Conscious Universe: The Scientific Truth of Psychic Phenomena" by Dean I. Radin.

Parapsychologists, psychologists, and psychiatrists have been working for years to check the possibility of astral projection. According to researchers, astral projection or astral travel is an out-of-body experience that enables a person to visit different realms. The concept relies on the thoughts the soul or consciousness can escape out of the boundaries of a physical body. A plethora of researches explains the two phenomena in detail. However, lucid dreaming is an experience in which the dreamer can view and direct the thoughts in his dreams. In addition to the physical universe, people also desire to explore the universe of their minds. This desire got displayed in different series like Behind her eyes. In this Netflix series, Emma Watson gets training to experience the world of astral projection. So, the desire to enjoy this out-of-body experience is not new. However, research is ongoing to understand the proneness to both phenomena.

The basic meaning of astral projection and lucid dreaming

To explore the mind’s universe, people generally followed two techniques that are astral projection and lucid dreaming. Don’t mix both terms because they are different. Astral projection is a guide on how to travel out of the body. You can say that it is the capacity to separate one material body from a spiritual one. While in lucid dreaming, the dreamer becomes conscious about what he sees in the dream. Throughout a lucid dream, the idealist may get a grip over characters, the sequence of events, and the situation in the lucid dream.

How do motives and situations of astral projection & lucid dreaming differentiate?

Motives, causes, and the environment in both states are poles apart. The most widespread rationale behind inducing a lucid dream comprises wish accomplishment, prevailing over fears, and healing. But the actual reason behind astral projection is unknown, and an out-of-body experience is a medical mystery.

What goes on during astral projection and lucid dreaming?

You can prepare your mind to dream whatever you want during a lucid dream. The thing that affects is that dreamers remember all the experiences. In astral projection, people generally encounter their sense of self within their physical bodies. Comparable to this in astral projection, you may think you are out of yourself, and you look at your physical body from another point of view.

Another question that matters is what you feel during both conditions. In lucid dreams, you do not experience any alteration in your physique; but, it resembles actual dreaming. Comparatively, you may feel floating outside your body, and you look down at your body from a height at a distorted perception.

Is there any training to induce both states?

Of course, some techniques induce astral projection as well as lucid dreaming. For lucid dreaming, techniques like reality testing, dream journals, MILD, WILD practices help for experiencing it. Moreover, people interested in experiencing near-death stages also try astral projection. There are no scientifically applied methods for astral projection. However, psychological techniques are used to induce lucid dreaming.

Lucid dreaming happens in reality, while the experience of astral projection is something hypothetical.

Lucid dreaming is good and bad at the same time. For example, some people began to experience dream claustrophobia or sleep paralysis after experiencing the LD. Similarly, lucid dreaming may worsen the mental condition of people already having mental or psychological problems like psychopathy. Different researches quote that some people lost the distinction between reality and lucid dreams. So, all such cases account that experiencing lucid dreams is harmful to health.

Several case studies mention that lucid dreaming is a source of inspiration for creative people like gamers or artists. Similarly, Laberge’s findings of lucid dreams justify how lucid dreaming is a source of physical rehabilitation of paralyzed people. An article published in the medical papers mentioned that physiotherapists are using lucid dreaming to spark the motor skills of mentally upset people. It means we cannot label lucid dreaming as a harmful activity.

Is lucid dreaming unhealthy?

Although the LD experts mention that lucid dreams can hamper the normal sleep cycle or deteriorate the quality of the sleep cycle and the exponential brain functioning during a lucid dream is not good. Moreover, case studies proved inducing lucid dreams causes problems like schizotypy, headache, depression, anxiety, stress, etc.

But, it is true lucid dreams techniques cure various disorders and nightmares. LD is an ability to take possession of our dreams, that utopian knows that it is a dream. Presently doctors are using lucid dreaming for treating nightmare disorders. Moreover, it helps to understand our desires and to face our fears. So, you can not ignore it.

Should people do not experience lucid dreams?

Michael Bassey Johnson said that dreams taught me never to doubt myself as they let me do the impossible. Contrary to that, Brian said When you go to sleep, where do you go? It is like two sides of a picture. It means one side is ever dark. One side is fun, motivation, and adventure, while the other is horror or ambiguous. It means that the only thing that matters is how we perceive it and use it. However, people experiencing disorders like schizophrenia induce lucid dreams because it may intensify brain activity and affects psychopathic patients. Similarly, if used for the treatment of ailments and to overcome their fear, then it is adaptable.

What is good about experiencing lucid dreaming?

People love to dominate over things they have no control over, but not anymore. Sometimes, they want to get rid of their fears or complexes. It is interesting to live a moment of your choice, to feel free in this suffocating world. These are the reasons which provoke people to practice lucid dreams.

Moreover, the magical phenomenon of lucid dreaming enables paralyzed people to enjoy their physical fitness. Similarly, enjoying your fantasies like jumping from 15000ft of the cliff without any support and ending up flying or assuming your teacher, writing your exam for you because you are not well prepared, or perhaps taking revenge from someone is enjoyable through LD.

The endnote is that lucid dreaming is not good or bad by itself. You can use this process for productive benefits, and it all depends on how the experimenter perceives the process.

The intentional effort of recalling something about to happen in the future helps people achieve tasks without external help. For example, some peoples have the God gifted ability to wake up before the ringing of the alarm. It is because their prospective memory keeps them aware while sleeping. So, induction of lucid dreaming is successfully achievable by improving your memory.

So, the ability to remember upcoming events helps one to realize that he is dreaming. But you need to rehearsal for improving this memory. For example, you must try to be aware of your dreams while sleeping. Practice for a couple of weeks, and ultimately your prospective memory will get improved. Once it gets developed, it will be easy for you to induce LD.

You can go through the Role of memory in lucid dreaming to understand the correlation between LD and prospective memory.

Importance of prospective memory for MILD technique

Prospective memory is more helpful for people who can keep themselves conscientious. People who strictly follow their routine develop an internal biological clock that reminds them of their tasks during sleeping. For example, some patients automatically remember to take their medicine without any external reminder. It is due to his prospective memory.

That's why LD practitioners recommend using your subconscious memory for experiencing lucid dreaming. Mnemonic induction of lucid dreaming (MILD) relies on the development of prospective memory. In this technique, dreamers use different exercises to improve presumptive memory. Once they boost their memory, they automatically experience lucid dreams.

How significant is prospective memory for lucid dreaming?

Experts recommend imminent memory as the most successful skill for inducing lucid dreaming. As mentioned above, the core of the MILD technique is prospective memory. It is a self-explained concept that lucid dreaming is useless if you cannot recall it. So, it is the prospective memory that remains turned on while sleeping. So, it helps you to remember the dream events with ultimate clarity.

You can estimate the importance of prospective memory for lucid dreaming from the fact the techniques helpful for LD mostly use presumptive memory. The reason is that there are two types of memories working in the human mind, Retrospective and prospective. Retrospective memory helps to call the past events. So, it turns off automatically while sleeping because we don't dream of our past. So, it's the prospective memory that remains active and helps induce lucid dreams.

How to improve your prospective memory?

Some experts suggest doing reality checks for improving the imminent memory. The stronger a person's memory, the better he can experience lucid dreams. To analyze your memory health, you can bother yourself by seeing a particular object in your dreams. For example, if you encounter a cat ten times in your walking life, do a reality check in your sleep on seeing a cat. Think, whether you are sleeping or not. It will polish your memory.

Verdict

The final verdict is that prospective memory plays a significant role in lucid dreaming. However, the person who is more aware of himself in waking life is more conscious in their dreams. It means they are more suitable for developing prospective memory in Lucid dreaming.

Science is an acquisition of reliable knowledge. In contrast, the scientific method has proven to be the most reliable and successful method of thinking in human history. It consists of empiricism, rationalism and scepticism.

When anyone asks about some precise process, techniques, research, etc., the only reply is scientific research. Scientists work day and night to complete research on a topic and then provide authentic results beneficial for laymen.

Now, to this extent, you know much about lucid dreaming and its techniques. But here, we discuss three science proven techniques that are more advantageous for beginner lucid dreamers. Without using all the strategies of lucid dreaming, beginners go through this article and practice these techniques to get lucid dreams.

Scientific Research About Three Proven Techniques

Dr Denholm Aspy tested three popular lucid dreaming techniques at the University of Adelaide and found all of them are helpful to improve the chance of successful lucid dreaming. According to the study, reality testing (RT), wake back to bed (WBTB), and the mnemonic induction of lucid dreams technique (MILD) are the three most favourable lucid dreaming induction techniques.

In this study, 169 participants completed a pretest questionnaire and baseline sleep and dream recall logbook for week 1 and practised lucid dreaming techniques for week 2. After the experiment and study on lucid dreaming for 2 weeks, the researchers declared that for inducing lucid dreams, results showed that the combination of reality testing, WBTB and the MILD technique was significant.

Brief Introduction of Three Techniques

Reality testing, Wake back to bed, and mnemonic induction of lucid dream is the best techniques and scientifically proven for those who want to experience it. So there is a brief introduction of these techniques given below:

1. Reality Testing

Reality testing is the most common and anecdotal method. It includes actively testing the environment around us to stop inconsistencies, whether in a dream or reality. Keep practising sufficiently every day, so this technique makes us aware that we are dreaming.

2. Wake Back to Bed (WBTB)

Waking back to bed (WBTB) needs more dedication and control to achieve lucid dreams.

It starts with setting the alarm for five hours after sleep. When the alarm rings, the participants stay awake for a while before going back to sleep. At this stage, most of the time, people enter REM sleep where dreaming happens. It is the conscious activity of waking up to go through awareness of the dream state.

3. Mnemonic induction of lucid dreams (MILD)

Mnemonic induction of lucid dream is to read a verse before sleeping. In this technique, the participant also has to expect to remember that he is dreaming intentionally. The MILD approach also works as "prospective memory", which means remembering things in the future.

Conclusion

Research is the life of science. When scientists research lucid dreams, the results take them closer to evolving highly effective lucid dream induction techniques. These studies are also helpful for treating nightmares and improving physical skills and abilities through effective lucid dreaming techniques.

Sleep is a vital part of a person's routine for a healthier life. Sleep grants time to our brain to detox, our bodies to take rest and our minds to explore the boundless world through dreams. A remarkable fact is that we dream approximately 2,190 days or 52,650 hours, almost six years of our lives.

Lucid dreaming plays an important role in concentration, self-development, mental and emotional healing. It has countless benefits in our life. If you think about mastering the skill of lucid dreaming, it is itself just like mastering any sport. Both of them are required to drive, focus, discipline and mainly practice. So, daily dedication is needed to become a good lucid dreamer and sportsman as well.

Lucid dreams give power and control to dreams. So, it is necessary to achieve lucid dreams with a positive attitude. One of the craziest things is to hit lucid dreaming with music, and it can be used to accelerate lucid dreams.

Sleeping with a conscious mind appears pretty to experience. Several methods are imposed for lucid dreaming, but the Sleeping position counts in every technique.

Snorers explore the dream world via lucid dreaming free from the constraints of space, time and energy. Many of them go through lucid dreaming that leads to discoveries in the field of science and research. That's why lucid dreaming also assists researchers and scientists to scrutinize dreams in other ways to discover the world's hidden realities.

Deepened visual perception is the main factor during lucid dreaming. The artists use their inner eye with the help of lucid dreams to paint the images on the empty canvas, the lump of clay, or woodblock to transform them into a piece of art. During LD, ambitious artists can find a "treasure box" of their ideas, images, storyline, and carved work of art and use them when awake.

Lucid Dreaming occurs when you recognize that you are dreaming. You can realize your thoughts and feelings while you dream. You may also be able to control Lucid Dreaming. You may be able to change people, environments, and stories.

Lucid dreams happen when you are asleep, but they can influence your life with more strength than other regular dream types; they have a significant impact on our mental, emotional, and physical health.

A journal, Dreaming, published research on the correlation between LD and certain games. The statistics showed that immersive gaming has a link to lucid dreams. Also, the researchers specified that playing physically active games increases the frequency of lucid dreams, and getting indulged in games like Nintendo’s Wii system is more helpful for the induction of LD.

A recent statistic showed that 50 percent of the global population experience lucid dreaming. But people are trying to learn the art of lucid dreaming nowadays, especially during the covid-19 pandemic. Such people attend special workshops and pieces of training to induce LD. However, learning these skills is not so easy as it appears.

The intriguing phenomenon of lucid dreaming made it a spotlight of different researches. It seems to be a prodigy for today’s world because it contradicts the radical definition of sleeping. So, a great deal of scientific study is essential to know the science behind LD.

In everyone's life, there are some situations when they have to decide and choose a path that may impact their future. For example, someone might think about becoming a director of a film and performing as an actor of the same? It may involve thinking about the plot, the whole scenario, scenes, and the story's end. After knowing all aspects related to that, they can decide to be an actor or only director. Actually, at that time, their brain is working and making decisions by consciousness.

WBTB, WILD, MILD, FILD, RC, and many others are the ways to get into the world of fantastic lucid dreaming experiences (LD). If you are an enthusiast who has already established an interest in LD, these abbreviations are not new for you. However, for newbies, these terms are different techniques to induce LD.

Celebrities inspire people and fans, whether their favourite stars adopt a cosmetic product, food, or lucid dreaming. Many celebrities are also lucid dreamer experts, and many of their master creations result from lucid dreaming.

When you go to your bed and lay down at night, your brain is not empty, and you are still thinking of so many things, a typical routine for mango people. Your brain is working all day long and tired, so calmness and peacefulness is a gift to it, and it helps your brain build a reality different from the outside world. The experience of the dreams feels so natural that you don't realize the dream until you wake up.

Have you ever interpreted some feeling?

During a sleep state, for all other people looking at you, you might be sleeping. But if you are in the REM (Rapid Eye Movement) stage of sleep, there can be many things happening in your mind. You might be in a situation where everything is under your control, but suddenly something appears out of nowhere, and you find yourself dead. The question here is that if you die in your lucid dream, can you also die in real life?

Decades ago, children played indoor, outdoor, and physical games with their fellows, siblings, and family members, contributing to their health, e.g. mental and physical health. Over time, things are modernized and changed rigorously; in a digital world, mobile phones and other gadgets are more common and accessible. Children and adults feel more attracted to playing virtual games.

Life is too fast, and people want to be more productive in less time; they don't want to waste their time, even when sleeping. There is nothing impossible in today's world; let's discuss whether you can be productive and sleeping at the same time?

Let‘s be frank there are not as many TV series or movies created about the topic of lucid dreaming as we would like there to be. When something new is released, passionate lucid dreamers are bound to get deep into the weeds with the analysis. Yet books and movies are one of the all-embracing sources enabling the enlargement of the conscious dreamer community.

Looking at your physical body from outside, going through a quick flashback of your life events, and feeling like part of the light is more common than first thought. Around 10% of the population claims to pass through near-death experiences (NDEs); this often occurs during states of anesthesia-induced sleep or some accidental situations. These near-death experiences are famous worldwide, exist in all cultural backgrounds, and all age groups face them.

Although the term "lucid dreaming" (LD) was coined by Van Eeden in 1913, the concept of LD had been there many centuries before scientific studies, maybe as old as human beings are. In many religions, cultures, and traditions, Lucid dreaming was in principle and highlighted with importance; for example, people seek health and guidance from their Gods through lucid dreaming.

There is nothing better than escaping to the other world with endless possibilities. Anything is possible if you are a skilled lucid dreamer. You can be a skilled lucid dreamer, but it will take time and regular practice.

You might have learnt about lucid dreaming through a song or a Hollywood hit movie. Of course, it looks like something impossible to have in real life because all this is part of an alternate reality, i.e., a dream world. Dreams often seem like fascinating stories or fiction that kids sometimes make up to impress their friends; the same is true if we talk about lucid dreaming.

Everyone has different experiences, either good or bad, throughout their life. It’s human nature that they want to experience everything that fantasies them, regardless of the risks or dangers involved in it. Usually, you get addicted to those activities that fulfil your wishes and give you satisfaction.

When most of us dream, our thoughts and actions are involuntary. They play out as if we are watching a movie, but not all dreams are the same. Another kind of them is lucid dreaming (LD), which is more like a video game than watching a movie.

Some people dream about unique events that leave a significant impact on morning mode when they wake up. There are so many things like having a date with a celebrity or going on a world tour that you want to experience in your life, but you can't do that due to limitations. Lucid dreaming can help you to do everything that you can only think about in your real life.

Dream? There are many scenarios that our brain has not encountered in real life, but we experience in our dream, such as eating food that we have not tasted before. Death is one of those experiences that the human brain is not used to and doesn’t understand what happens when we die.

The process of transforming your unconscious visions to conscious and controlled ones is lucid dreaming, and it is widely discussed because of its historical importance and scientific results. The vast majority can learn to lucid dream and use this skill either for fun experiences, use therapeutically or be more productive and creative.

In a lucid dream, the dreamer can choose their adventure and enjoy it every night – a world with no limits, and you can control everything. The fantastic experiences may have a significant impact on your real life when you wake up.

As a novice lucid dreamer, you might be aware of the fact that more than 50% of people experience lucid dreams at least once in a lifespan, and 25% are those who experience subsequent every month. However, when it comes to frequent lucid dreaming, only 1% of lucid dreamers experience it weekly or daily. The exceptionality of frequent lucid dreamers is a big hurdle in conducting focused scientific experiments and studies.

Lucid dreams (LD) are a great way to interact with your subconscious mind; you can enjoy fantastic events and get solutions to your problems. Exploring yourself with awareness in a dream can support you to observe the latent and opportunities of lucid dreaming.

Everyone is inspired and mesmerized by the dream world; even some outrageous events of our lives occur during dreams. Dreams occur when you close your eyes and slip through your awaken state to another realm state. Based on brain activity during sleep state, scientific research shows that your brain is active like awaken state, where dreams occur.

Even if we don't pay much attention to them, dreams are a huge part of our lives, and when it comes to conscious dreaming, there are numerous benefits. Lucid dreaming existed in ancient cultures but with different names and descriptions.

Human history is packed with wonders, miracles, and revelations; current diverse modernization proves it. Scientists, inventors, musicians, and artists incorporated their most extraordinary ideas that made remarkable progression towards improved life prospects. Some of these incredible discoveries are the consequence of a dream. How can that be, you ask? Let's explore.

In the previous "Ways to lucid" articles, we presented the most popular methods and their tutorials of lucid dreaming. You can already read about WBTB (Wake Back To Bed), MILD (Mnemonic Induction of Lucid Dreaming), or SSILD (Senses Initiated Lucid Dreaming) techniques.

One of the Lucid dreaming techniques is to avoid eating or drinking at least 3 to 4 hrs before bedtime. Because some foods reduce sleep quality and dreamers experience less REM (Rapid Eye Movement) phases, that means no or less dreaming. However, some foods can help to improve sleep quality and ultimately result in more vivid dreams.

Your dreaming mysteries in your head can have multitudes of living beings, and you can control them just like a movie director. Do you know that many artists hone their skills; they accomplish it through practicing dream recall. Dream recall is not a first-hand imprint for lucid dreamers, but yes, it’s an innovative theory if you are a novice to this amazing dream world full of fantastic experiments.

We all have dreams. Some of us remember them occasionally, some of us often, and others barely ever. At the same time, we also watch movies, listen to music, podcasts, news, read books, and use social media. This way, sooner or later, we are being introduced to physical intimacy, lovemaking, THE act, rumpy-pumpy, intercourse, sex, you name it.

When you are a beginner and passionate about learning to lucid dream, you will always search for good lucid dreaming techniques.

In one way or another, you are familiar with lucid dreaming. You might be searching for techniques to perform it or might have had some conscious dreams already. 'Ways to lucid' is a series of articles simply explaining the most notable and frequent methods to use for the best lucid dreaming experience.

After reading the title, you might be confused or have found the exact topic you have been researching. Either way, we have to start from the basics. Lucid dreaming and its techniques can sound complicated and scientific for some of us. 'Ways to lucid' is a series of articles simply explaining the most notable and frequent methods to use for the best lucid dreaming experience.

You are awake and conscious about your physical presence, but you are completely frozen and unable to do any physical movement. You want to come out of this state and try to move your body but cannot do so. A sense of horror overwhelms you.

Lucid dreaming is awareness of the dream and controlling it to some extent. More than half of us experience it once in a lifetime, and a quarter of us experience it monthly. For the last two decades, lucid dreaming has been in focus, and there's no reason to believe that it may be impossible for any of us.

Evidence about this phenomenon is not first-hand. Just like many other ancient cultures and civilizations, the concept of lucid dreaming was an integral part of ancient Greece philosophies. Greeks incorporated this phenomenon into the Greece culture by getting inspiration from Egyptian culture.

Although lucid dreaming is a topic of discussion nowadays, the term “Lucid Dreaming” was only introduced in the last century. But do you also think that lucid dreaming was discovered in the current or last century?