Controversies around lucid dreams#

Lucid dreams are a fascinating topic. It has been vastly popularized by the 2010 Inception movie by Christopher Nolan and is a very real phenomena. Lucid dreams can be very vivid and realistic, to the extent that some lucid dreamers describe those experiences as being more real than waking life.There are some controversies around lucid dreaming. Some people claim that lucid dreaming is not real, and that it is just a form of dreaming. However, there is scientific evidence that lucid dreaming is a real phenomenon. Other people claim that lucid dreaming is dangerous, and that it can lead to sleep paralysis. However, there is no evidence to support this claim. Lucid dreaming is generally considered to be safe.

The evidence, briefly#

"There is scientific evidence" is easy to say. Here is what it consists of.

They're common. A meta-analysis pooled 50 years of prevalence studies, weighting them by methodological quality. Across 34 studies, 55% of people report having had at least one lucid dream. Across 25 studies, 23% have one or more per month.^[1] Whatever lucid dreaming is, it is not rare and it is not confined to enthusiasts.

They can be verified from outside the dreamer. This is the part that settles the argument. Your body is paralysed during REM sleep, with two exceptions: the eyes and breathing. Both have been used as a channel out.

Researchers worked with people who could lucid dream reliably and asked them to alter the dream so it involved singing or holding their breath. Most managed to signal from inside the dream that they had become lucid, and in half of those naps the breathing recorded on the monitor matched what they later described dreaming, down to a preparatory breath before a dreamed dive underwater.^[2] A separate team went further and held real-time two-way conversations with sleeping dreamers, posing simple arithmetic problems and receiving correct answers through prearranged eye movements. Some dreamers reported the questions arriving inside the dream as a car radio, or a narrator.^[3]

You cannot fake that while awake, because the sleep recording shows the person is asleep. A dream report is one person's word. A dream report that matches a physiological trace recorded at the same moment is data.

The brain looks different. Reviews of the neuroscience find that lucid REM sleep involves reactivation of frontal regions associated with self-awareness, on top of otherwise normal REM.^[4] It is not a light doze and not a hybrid waking state. It's REM sleep with some of the self-aware machinery switched back on.

How to have a lucid dream?#

There are a few things that you can do to increase your chances of having a lucid dream. First, you need to keep a dream journal. This will help you to become familiar with your dreams and will also help you to notice patterns in your dreaming. Second, you need to practise reality testing. This means that you need to question your reality often, to see if you are actually dreaming. For example, you can look at your hands and count your fingers. In a dream, your fingers might change number or shape. Oniri's lucid dreaming app can guide you through building these dream-journaling and reality-check habits. Third, you need to get into the habit of doing reality checks often. This means that you need to question your reality often, to see if you are actually dreaming. For example, you can look at your hands and count your fingers. You can read more on all those different lucid dreaming techniques in our dedicated blog post.

Conclusion#

So, to summarize:

1. Lucid dreams are real and many people have experienced them. You can read stories from experienced lucid dreamers here and here.
2. Having lucid dreams does not require superpowers but dedication and practice (like everything). If you'd like some guidance, the Oniri Academy is a great place to start