You
can think of lucid dreaming as being conscious while
dreaming. If, by chance, during a dream it suddenly
dawns on you that you are dreaming, then you have experienced
a lucid dream, regardless of whether you have been able
to attain control of your dream. Lucid dreaming is usually
induced by some sort of cue—something that indicates
to the person that what he or she is experiencing is
a dream, and not reality. Cues, however, are not necessary
for becoming lucid: sometimes people spontaneously become
lucid without noticing anything strange or typical of
dreams.
Lucid dreaming is a very simple concept but for most
it will take patience and determination to achieve.
Many people seem ignorant of the distinction between
having a lucid dream, and controlling a dream. Being
able to freely control one’s dream does not directly
follow becoming lucid: one can have a lucid dream without
any control whatsoever. Controlling your dream is simply
proceeding to the next level, by attempting to exert
your will upon your surroundings.
Lucid dreamers regularly describe their dreams as exciting,
colourful, and fantastic. Many compare it to a spiritual
experience and say that it changed their lives or their
perception of the world. Some have even reported lucid
dreams that take on a hyperreality, seemingly "more
real than real", where all the elements of reality are
amplified. Lucid dreams are prodigiously more memorable
than other kinds of dreaming, even nightmares, which
may be why they are often prescribed as a means of ridding
one's self of troubling dreams.
Lucid Dreaming usually takes place in REM (Rapid Eye
Movement) sleep. There are five stages of sleep. Stage
1 being the one you first enter, then followed by stage
2, 3 and 4. As you descend into deeper sleep your brain
frequency slows down. In stage 4 can it be slower than
one cycle per second (delta sleep). After some time
spent in stage 4, about 25 minutes, you return to stage
3 and 2, then straight into REM sleep. About 90 minutes
has passed now since you started sleeping. 5-10 minutes
is spent in this stage before you go all the way down
to stage 4 again (also called non-REM sleep). When approximately
90 minutes have again passed, another REM-period start.
This time the REM sleep lasts longer. And as time progresses
less time in non-REM sleep is needed and more time is
spent in REM sleep. After 4-5 hours you don't go lower
than stage 2. Vivid dreaming takes place in REM sleep,
so the more you sleep, the more time is spent in REM
and the more likely it is that you may have a Lucid
Dream.
