luciddreaming

Lucid dreaming is exhilarating, empowering, and can actually provide you the opportunity to improve performance in your waking life.  A lucid dream is one in which the sleeping person is aware that they are in the midst of a dream.  Additionally, lucid dreams usually refer to those where the dreamer takes control and is able to exert his or her will within the dream.

Many people, experience lucid dreams without doing so intentionally.  It usually strikes them as a bit of a surprise when they realized that everything going on around them is a dream and that they might actually be able to take control of it and change the outcome.  As you might imagine, this can be a particularly nice discovery in the midst of a nightmare!

Is Lucid Dreaming Real?

Lucid dreaming is absolutely real.  Thousands, if not millions, of people do it without any effort, and still others have developed techniques for bringing on lucid dreams at will.  Lucid dreaming has been scientifically studied and proven again and again.  One of the clearest signs is that test subjects agree to engage in a prearranged set of signals (usually through eye movements) that are performed once the lucid dream state has been reached.  Researchers are able to identify the signals, and when they compare them to printouts of brain activity, there is no question that the subject is asleep.

Uses for Lucid Dreams

Those who are especially interested in cultivating and enjoying the lucid dreaming experience will go to some effort to learn how to induce them.  Why would someone choose to guide his or her own dreams?  There are lots of reasons:

• Adventure – You can travel the globe, or even to other worlds.
• Safety – Climb Mt. Everest without even risking frost bite.
• Rehearsal – You can practice activities that you want to attempt later in your waking life.
• Entertainment – You can be the director of your own action, comedy, or drama movie.
• Confidence – Learning to take control of your dreams creates a sense of empowerment that influences other aspects of your life, as well.

As you can probably already imagine, one of the biggest reasons to hone your lucid dreaming skills is simply because it’s so much fun.  You can fly without wings, talk with historical figures who are long gone, or even attempt feats that are otherwise considered “impossible.”  It is a situation where your imagination truly is the only limiting factor.

But, entertainment and adventure are really only part of the equation when it comes to lucid dreaming.  Many, many people have used the ability in order to inform and improve other aspects of their life.  For example, when you face down what terrifies you in a nightmare, knowing that you have control over the outcome of your experience, this helps create a sense of self confidence that plays out in your waking life.

Another reason that it can offer confidence is because you can use your dream time to practice skills or rehearse activities about which you’re feeling nervous.  For example, if you are a swimmer, you can practice your strokes and examine your own form.  As you already know, those things that happen in dreams feel almost entirely real, which means that your mind is being trained for how the real event should feel.  The same is true for practicing nerve-wracking conversations, such as asking for a raise or confronting a family member.

how to lucid dream