Incoming information; BRACE!
*Morgan Freeman is now narrating this text in your head*
This is NOT religious bullshit, it has been effectively backed up by scientific evidence.
Lucid dreaming is a scientifically proven state of mind.What is lucid dreaming?Dreaming is a state of mind during sleep when the brain reaches a certain activity called the "Theta" state. During this state, the brain operates at a frequency of around 5 Hz. This is also called "REM-sleep", as you probably know since you've looked into all this. At this state, several other brain functions have been deactivated, for example the "Dorsolaterl Prefrontal Cortex" or DPC. The DPC is the part of the brain that helps us understand the difference between "You" and "Me", and without it we're unable to differentiate ourselves from the rest of the world. It controls rational and logical thinking and your self-awareness. In short, you could say it controls your "First-person logics", which is why you are able to dream in third-person when in the brain "Theta" stage.
During this low brain activity our dreams are very bland and blurry and it is often very difficult to remember anything of what you have seen during the night.
If you raise the brain activity to 10-35 Hz, your brain now enters the "Beta" state. This is when you're normally awake, 10 Hz being just woken up and 35 Hz being incredibly (and rarely) alert. During the course of the day, it is completely impossible to raise brain activity above 35 Hz because such are the limitations of the brain.
Raising the frequency additionally, which is only possible during sleep, your brain enters a "Gamma" state. The Gamma state covers the frequencies 35-60 Hz, and occurs when you are having a lucid dream. 35 Hz being a semi-lucid dream and 60 Hz being a lucid dream so vivid that you couldn't tell if apart from reality if you didn't know you were dreaming.
So what actually happens during lucid dreaming to raise the brain activity to such extremes? During daytime, your brain functions are limited to processing short-term information such operating logic, taste, smell, auditory senses and so on. When the night kicks in, your brain functions completely differently. Logic is no longer being processed in the brain, and the brain enters a state of recovery. This state of recovery is meant to process all input information that was given during that day, for example putting knowledge you learned into long-term memory. It processes people you've seen, impressions you've observed and in summary goes through your day to understand what has happened.
Turning off all logic in the brain causes the brain activity to drop dramatically, even though this recovery process is still ongoing. Disabling logic and self awareness also causes a confusion in the brain, making it believe you are going through everything you went through the day before, BUT WITHOUT LOGIC. This is why your dreams are sometimes f- up good.
But if something were to happen during nighttime that caused your DPC to re-enable itself, the DPC would in turn enable ALL your senses, causing brain activity to go crazy. The brain activity raise is because of neuron cross-fire between the different parts of the brain, which NEVER happens during the Beta state, due to the recovery functions of the brain being disabled.
When the different parts of the brain starts to cross-fire electrical impulses, you enter a state of imaginary reality. ALL your senses are enabled, including your self-awareness, causing you to experience a dream so vivid that it could very well be real. You start smelling, hearing, tasting and feeling things inside the dream. Your brain is now frenetically showing data back and forth while processing it with logic; this causes the sensation of lucid dreaming.
Questions about lucid dreaming?1) Is there any chance to get lost in the dream, and actually end up believing you're in reality?
No, this isn't inception. As stated, your DPC is enabled, processing everything with logic. You understand very quickly that what you are seeing is not real. Lucid dreaming has several times been compared to drug trips, where you experience an incredibly vivid but unrealistic experience. Even as you trip, you realize that what you're seeing is not real. This does not necessarily mean that you can't enjoy your trip or your dream.
2) Can I get injured physically or mentally by experiencing lucid dreams?
No, not if you do it with moderation. The sensation of lucid dreaming is experienced due to a re-activation of your Prefrontal Cortex during sleep. The re-activation in itself is not harmful, and neither is the electric-impulse cross-fire that is caused by the re-activation. However, the Prefrontal Cortex shuts down for a reason during nighttime; It needs to rest. Generally during one night, the Prefrontal Cortex will need 30 minutes of rest, even if it stays deactivated all night. Why doesn't it re-activate after 30 minutes? According to the brain, it doesn't need the Prefrontal Cortex to perform any of its given tasks, and it is just a waste of energy. Noteworthy though is that lucid dreaming IS NOT the same thing as staying awake, considering the brain recovery is active during lucidity.
3) How do terminate a lucid dream?
Terminating a lucid dream is simple, but consider it carefully before you do.
During sleep, the body paralyzes the major muscle groups of the body, to avoid you from getting up and running around when you're dreaming. When you are dreaming, the EXACT same impulses are sent to your muscles as when you're awake, hence the paralyzing of the muscles. The body does however NOT paralyze minor muscle groups, such as the top of your fingers and toes. If you continue to move your fingers or toes, the brain will start interpreting a strange sensation coming from outside the dream. This sensation is your toes or fingers moving while you're in your bed, and will effectively scare the brain to raise your heart-rate and consequently effectively waking you up.
4) My lucid dream is blurry, how do I make it more lucid?
Vivid lucid dreaming is a skill that takes practice, and you are not very likely to perform a successful perfectly vivid lucid dream the first time you try. What you should to to improve lucidity is to use your senses during the dream to wake your Prefrontal Cortex to a more awake state. This can be done simply by rubbing your hands together to induce feeling, or spinning around on the spot to induce the sensation of balance. There are endless of ways to improve lucidity, but most importantly you need to practice. People who only have experienced lucid dreaming once or twice will not understand how vivid a dream can truly become.
How do I become lucid?There are several methods, but here are the two most commonly used methods.
1) Dream-induced lucid dreaming (DILD)
This method utilizes normal dreaming which later during the dream turns into a lucid dream. This is not as effective as the method below, but a tenfold easier. The principle is to identify reality through regular "dream-checks". An example is to write an "A" as in awake on your palm, and check your hand with regular intervals. If you do this for long enough, you will end up doing this regularly in your dream as well, since your brain is set to check your hand every hour for example. If you end up checking your hand during your dream, and you notice that there is no longer an "A" on your palm, or you notice that you have more or less than 5 fingers, you increase your chances of waking your Prefrontal Cortex up dramatically. This would lead directly to lucid dreaming, but NOT a very vivid dream. You would have to take further steps to make the dream more lucid (check questions above).
You can experiment with ways of questioning reality in any way that suits you, for example you could say "Every time I see the color yellow, I'm going to ask myself the question if I am dreaming" and so on.
2) Wake-induced lucid dreaming (WILD)
This method utilizes a principle of moving directly from a consciousness (awake) state to a dreaming state. This is my preferred method of lucid dreaming, but it takes a lot of practice and can in the early stages of practicing be very unsettling or uncomfortable.
With this method you will retain consciousness as you fall asleep, consequently forcing your brain to rem-sleep with your Prefrontal Cortex already active. The method requires you to go through a state of "Hypnagogia", which is to some a very unpleasant experience. Hypnagogia is the transitional state between being awake and being asleep. We all go through Hypnagogia every night we go to sleep, but by the time it kicks in we have already lost our consciousness. Retaining consciousness until Hypnagogia is very difficult to beginners and you should not give up if you fail the first time.
So what exactly happens during Hypnagogia?
As your brain prepares to go to sleep, it shuts down you physical body. The first step is muscular paralysis, and during this state you may feel very uncomfortable. For example, you may have a very difficult time breathing, as several major chest-expansion muscles shut down. What is important to understand is that THESE SENSATIONS ARE NOT REAL. You are NOT suffocating, only experiencing the sensation of suffocating. The best you can do to endure it is to embrace the feeling and think of it as a special and unique experience.
After your major muscle-groups have been paralyzed, you will start experiencing sleep onset. Your brain recovery functions are activated which consequently begins the cross-fire between the different parts of the brain. Your Prefrontal Cortex will for a start experience this as very uncomfortable, and start to exaggerate your sensations to an extreme. The most common experiences are: 1) You will start to feel as if your whole body is shaking violently. 2) You will feel a falling sensation, as if you're falling through your bed and the ground. 3) You will hear extremely loud noises, such as bangs or explosions. 4) You will feel a presence, as if somebody is leaning over your bed and watching you.
REMEMBER: None of these experiences are REAL and can NOT hurt you physically. For example: You cannot go deaf from the noises since they are just a product of your brains over-activity. You are lying completely still in your bed as your brain starts the activity of lucid dreaming. (To break out of Hypnagogia purposely, due to being scared or uncomfortable, use the same steps as breaking out of a lucid dream above.)
During the time you are experiencing these sensations, you will also start hallucinating as if on a drug trip. You will see colors and strange shapes forming behind your eyelids, which is the effect of the forced rem-sleep. This is your dream forming before your conscious eyes. You may see faces, monsters and strange places you have no memory of ever seeing in real life. This is to me the most fascinating part of the Hypnagogia, as your dream is built before you.
After the Hypnagogia comes to an end, and the strange colors before your eyes have finally turned into a dream there is only a single challenge left; to enter the dream. This may sound as a confusing concept, but for most people, as your dream forms before them they're not a "part" of it, they are just observing it. This is a concept that cannot be explained properly with words, and needs to be experienced to be understood. My solution to this problem was to "step into the dream"; as the dream forms I step into a type of surreal frame and finally I am part of the lucid dream. I have also noticed that you can chose to observe the dream from the outside, without stepping into it, but this makes you lose all control of your dream as it flashes before you.
After completing the "WILD" process, you should now be dreaming an incredibly lucid and vivid dream.
There are hundred of detailed guides on google on how to perform WILD. Below are some examples:
http://www.dreamviews.com/wiki/WILD-Wake-Initiated-Lucid-Dreamhttp://www.world-of-lucid-dreaming.com/wake-induced-lucid-dreams.htmlhttp://www.wikihow.com/Have-a-Wake-Induced-Lucid-Dream-(WILD)
My own experiences with lucid dreamingI've been a lucid dreamer for roughly a year now and my dreams are becoming more and more vivid by the week. I use wake-induced lucid dreaming to experience it rather than dream-induced lucid dreaming. The reason for that is because I tried using DILD about a year and a half ago, but gave up after around 4 months. That's when I started experimenting with WILD and Hypnagogia. My first experiences with a successful WILD was incredible, but it took me several months to learn to perform it half-decently. During my first few WILD-seasons, I didn't even get to the Hypnagogia and was terribly disappointed. A few attempts later, I reached Hypnagogia and got so excited about it that I broke out of it and woke up instantly. The rest of the attempts were just practice to learn to stay calm and control my sensations to get past Hypnagogia. When I actually got past it I was in for a crazy experience, and had an incredibly lucid and vivid dream.
My recommendation is only to do this if you really are interested, and if you do, do NOT give up easily. If you manage to master the methods for dreaming lucidly, you will experience different levels of human consciousness, which is as "Brandon" posted a very interesting experience.
Good luck! <3
e; tldr: do it.
Works cited: None, bitches.
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