“You want to be talking to someone who does lucid dreaming therapy, or doing enough of that prep on your own if you don't have someone … to figure out how you're going to deal with when they come up, both in the dream and waking state,” she said. Santos suggests working with a professional to confront traumatic events in lucid dreams. Mnemonic induction of lucid dreams, which requires setting an intention that you will lucid dream when you go to bed. The wake back to bed (WBTB) technique, which involves setting an alarm five hours into your sleep, waking up for 30 minutes and doing an activity like reading, and then going back to sleep, when you will be more likely to lucid dream. Other techniques that increase your chances of having lucid dreams include: In a dream, the top never stops spinning. In Inception, Leonardo DiCaprio’s character uses a spinning top as a “totem” to test whether he’s awake. He also suggests practicing reality testing, a type of “mental training” that can increase "metacognition by training your mind to notice your own awareness,” according to Healthline. “Usually the conversation is telepathic … and it will touch upon negative topics, but ultimately when I wake up and reflect upon it, I’d deem it a positive experience.”Ĭhiang-Ziezel suggests that people who want to practice lucid dreaming start by keeping a daily dream journal. “I'll know instinctively that it's me, and we'll have a conversation,” he said. If he’s having a nightmare or negative dream, he’ll ask for “Dark Jared” - a “ghastly version” of himself who stands off in the shadows. But he’s also addressed frustrations from the real world and confronted things that have chased him in nightmares. He has done the fun stuff that many people might do if they realize they’re in a dream and can do whatever they want. Jared Chiang-Zeizel, a co-author of A Field Guide to Lucid Dreaming, has been lucid dreaming since he was about 16. You don't have to worry about that.” Then she can change the dream into something nice, like being on the beach with a friend.Įxperienced lucid dreamers say that most people can practice lucid dreaming with a few tricks. She can tell herself “Your teeth aren't really falling out, you're in the dream. “Usually if I can tell that I'm in a nightmare, I can usually pull myself out of it and change ,” she said. Lavoie has had nightmares about her loved ones dying and her experience as a sexual assault survivor. People who practice lucid dreaming enough, like Alaina Lavoie, say they can sometimes even redirect a nightmare to something more pleasant. “And she started to understand why this kept recurring and what part of her life she needed to resolve so that this dream can be less distressing.” “We explored some questions that she might want to ask in the dream,” Santos said. One client, for example, was having a recurring nightmare about a sexual assault. Santos will sometimes use lucid dream work with clients who want to address a recurring dream or nightmare. “In a lucid dream … those things that you haven't processed going to come forward.” The ego, or the part of the mind that helps us deal with reality, protects us from traumatic experiences by avoiding thinking about them. “We're not trying to deal with any of that stuff in a waking state,” she said. Psychotherapist Vanessa Santos tells Teen Vogue that unprocessed trauma might come to the forefront during sleep. Because you can't rationalize not being able to move or wake up when you are still able to think mostly like normal.”įor people who often have nightmares, or for those with conditions like post-traumatic stress disorder, becoming lucid can be stressful and terrifying. “I had a period where I was sleep deprived for several months in college due to a night job and experienced lucid dreaming and sleep paralysis,” she said. For Allison Amick, lucid dreaming has often been accompanied by sleep paralysis, or the feeling of the mind being awake and conscious while the body is still asleep and unable to move. For example, they found that “openness to experiences correlated positively with lucid dreaming frequency,” but agreeableness correlated negatively.īut not everyone has positive experiences with lucid dreaming. Researchers from the Universities of Mannheim and Heidelberg found in a 2017 study that certain personality traits are correlated with how often a person lucid dreams. Though scientists know roughly when in the sleep cycle lucid dreams happen, they don’t quite know what causes them.
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