Lucid dreams: what they are, why they are needed and how they work (11 photos)

By managing our sleep, we can overcome phobias, increase productivity, and even improve athletic performance.

1.





If you are 30 years old, you have slept for almost 10 years. This would not be so offensive if sleep simply gave you rest, and did not take away your "I" in return. Most of us have to put up with the fact that once a day we not only disconnect from the outside world for several hours, but also lose ourselves. However, there are people who claim to be able to overcome this limitation of remaining conscious while asleep. What is this - fiction? Illusion? Dangerous mental disorder? Or a real opportunity to increase your life by a few percent?

2.

What is a lucid dream?



Imagine, you woke up, got out of bed, went to the window, climbed onto the windowsill, jumped and flew. This is not a psychedelic trip or astral travel. The formula for lucid dreaming is normal sleep plus consciousness. The jump and flight occur in a dream, in fact your body is lying on the bed, your eyes are closed, your arms and legs are immobilized, your brain continues to generate dream images, but your “I” awakens and now you:

==you are aware that you are sleeping and dreaming;

==you can control the course of the dream;

==think clearly and clearly;

==remember your life before the dream as well as in reality;

==distinguish between smells, touches, sounds and tastes;

==understand what exactly happens to you in a dream;

== record the chronology of the events you dreamed about.

These are the seven signs of a lucid dream according to German psychologist Paul Toly. Stephen Laberge, the guru and founder of the scientific approach to lucid dreaming, believes that there may not be control in lucid dreams to begin with. Yes, you wake up inside a dream, but, just like in reality, not everything that happens is subject to your will. The unconscious continues to build the scenery and develop the plot, in which your “I” is only one of the characters. To gain complete control, you need to develop this ability.

3.

Is this a scientific fact?





Yes. Although science recognized the existence of this phenomenon not so long ago. Until the 1970s, lucid dreams remained, to most experts, anything but dreams. At worst - fantasies. At best - “micro-awakenings” or transitional states in the intervals between sleep phases.

4.



It was only in 1975 that the English psychologist Keith Hearn first managed to obtain an intelligent signal from the depths of sleep. We most often experience dreams during the rapid eye movement (REM) phase. The problem is that in this same phase the brain completely blocks the movement of the body and turns off the sensory system - that is, it is impossible to give a signal from the outside to start the experiment. However, if a person is conscious, he must remember what he agreed on before going to bed and give a sign with his eyes. The signal can be received by an oculograph - a device that records eye movements with sensors stuck to the eyelids.

Subject Alan Worsley, it seemed to him, was walking along the corridor, hung with wires. And suddenly he realized that he was sleeping. At the same instant, he remembered the task he had received and made the planned series of eye movements: eight times - left and right.

Hearn's experiments confirmed several assumptions at once.

Lucid dreams are a real phenomenon and real dreams.

Time flows in lucid dreams the same way as in real life.

In lucid dreams, you can conduct scientific experiments and receive signals from the dreamer.

Later, another researcher, Stephen Laberge, in a series of experiments, managed to use Morse code to send a signal from a dream with his eyes, in which his initials were encrypted. But it wasn’t them that ended up in the London Science Museum, but a strip of paper with a zigzag graph recorded by Keith Hearn’s oculograph.

5.

Is everyone capable of lucid dreaming?



Earnings never hurt. But in fact, only one clear pattern is known: most often lucid dreams occur in adolescents under 13 years of age. Alan Worsley, a legendary participant in Keith Hearn's oculographic experiments, began to become aware of himself in his dreams at the age of five. Stephen LaBerge, founder of the Lucid Dreaming Institute in California, discovered this ability at the same age. What's special about it?

When you're a teenager, you don't just eat chips, play Counter-Strike and go weeks without a shower. During this period, an important brain upgrade occurs. Especially in the prefrontal cortex, where Brodmann's 10th area is located. This area in the anterior part of the frontal lobe grew steadily during evolution until it reached 1.2% of the brain's volume. Is it a lot or a little? Almost twice as much as bonobos. And these monkeys even have a sense of humor.

6.



It's hard to say about humor, but people who often have lucid dreams have an enlarged Brodmann area 10 in the same way as those who demonstrate developed metacognitive skills, that is, the ability to monitor the progress of their thoughts and adequately evaluate them. It is formed just in adolescence as connections in the prefrontal cortex grow. Lucid dreams, the researchers suggest, may be natural “mistakes” in the development of metacognitive cognition.

In 2014, scientists in Germany were the first to artificially induce lucid dreams in people who had never experienced anything like this before. To do this, they stimulated their brains during short sleep with weak electrical impulses in the range from 2 to 100 Hz. And at a frequency of 40 Hz everything illuminated.

Now we know two facts: there are people in the world who are willing to risk their brains for the sake of science, and everyone is potentially capable of lucid dreaming.

7.

Why are lucid dreams possible?



In reality we have two types of consciousness at once. The primary covers direct perception and emotions. The secondary is responsible for their comprehension - it allows us to look at ourselves from the outside. In a dream we are not capable of this. Any emotion captures us completely. And a random thought about flying pushes you off the edge of a skyscraper. Because falling asleep means losing secondary consciousness. But only if it's an ordinary dream.

Researchers invited several volunteers who were able to become aware of their dreams to spend the night in the laboratory. In appearance, their sleep was no different from usual. They snored peacefully in the tomograph tube, moving only their eyes. But the scanner showed that real action was brewing in their brains. Especially in the prefrontal cortex (this is the front part of the frontal lobe) and in the precuneus, a quadrangular area in the parietal lobe.

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What is interesting about these zones besides the fact that they are usually inhibited during sleep? They are part of the DMN - Default Mode Network (passive mode network of the brain). In configuration, this system is similar to a downward triangle with vertices in front, behind and in the depths of the cerebral hemispheres. Each of its elements performs its own task. For example, the hippocampus - it is in the lower corner of the triangle - is responsible for remembering. But together they create something that they are not capable of separately: self-awareness.

When we fall asleep, the DMN disintegrates like a network of computers. First the connection is disconnected. Thoughts begin to get confused. Then each element goes into sleep mode. We completely lose self-awareness. Upon awakening, everything is repeated in the reverse order: first, the individual elements are turned on, then the connection between them. One click and you're awake.

In a lucid dream, almost the same thing happens. Only brain structures that block muscles and the perception of external signals do not seem to notice that consciousness has already turned on. We are waking up. But not in reality. And in a dream. Is this a bug or a feature? Depends on the user.

9.

How does a normal dream differ from a lucid dream?



First of all, by connecting consciousness. And, it would be more accurate to say that the OS is the point of intersection of the unconscious and conscious flows. From my point of view, it is the OS that makes it possible for our consciousness and unconscious to “meet” each other and interact on a new level. For example, we can work through our fears and talk to our inner self.

Brightness of sensations. This is the second distinguishing aspect. We experience gustatory, olfactory, tactile and all other sensations in the OS with extraordinary intensity. Many may even think that the dream picture is “hyper-realistic”. For some, for example, such “vividness of perception” can serve as a trigger, a trigger, to awareness of oneself in a dream.

Finally, memory. Some people remember several dreams per night and keep them in their memory for a long time, and sometimes for their whole life. And some don’t remember at all, as if they never existed at all. Lucid dreams are not only always remembered, but also leave behind an incomparable “emotional aftertaste.” Throughout the day, and even more, a person experiences an energy boost, inspiration and pleasant memories of a bygone dream picture.

10.

Is it normal for a person to become lucid in a dream?



I would like to ask a question - how is the norm determined in general? By the majority? It is no longer a discovery that you can control your dreams. Many books have been written, trainings are conducted and books continue to be written. Currently, relatively few people practice OS, but interest in this phenomenon is growing rapidly every year.

eleven.

Does this mean that lucid dreaming is becoming “normal”, or is the whole world gradually going crazy?