Lucid Dreams

Lucid Dreams

Uncover Hidden Dream Meanings

What does a lucid dream mean?

To understand what a lucid dream means we have to answer a number of questions! So hold your horses… we will need to get a lot of questions answered. I know you are thinking what is lucid dreaming and is it scientifically proven? Is it possible to learn lucid dreaming on demand or what can make it possible for you to become a lucid dreamer?

Lucid dreaming allows you to actually experience a dream. Every night we spend a whopping 5-90 minutes dreaming and we have more than one dream a night. In our lifetime we dream on average 100k times. Wow I hear you say! But what happens during this important time? We all dream, even cats and dogs! Sometimes we remember, sometimes we don’t. Lucid dreaming is focused on dream recall, on experiencing what dreams really mean and being able to not only remember but influence the dream itself. With much experience one can guide their dreams this is known as lucid dreaming. Did you want control over your dreams? Anything in life from flying in the sky to creating the perfect car or love relationship.

You are in the right place, we will define the true meaning of lucid dreaming in this article and I hope I can serve you well on your journey to a new dimension. I have experienced many lucid dreams from traveling on an ocean through to developing people that I wish to find out some important information. Now, the first thing you should be aware of that each night you can spend in total two hours dreaming. Yes, that is allot of time to find out who you really are through lucid dreams. So the first thing, which we need to define is what is lucid dreaming? To gain insightful definition of lucid dreaming is to try to think of the process as mindfulness that you are in the dream state. It will help if we focus on the actual stages of sleep, you can have a common dream such as snakes and be aware you are dreaming and actually change the dream yourself. If you are sleeping and go from this to dreaming without any awareness then this is not lucid dream. In lucid dreaming you are able to focus and “control” the actual dream itself. It can change how you view the world. It focuses on our own inner awareness and mind in the dream state.

To begin with, lucid dreaming is the ability to consciously control or observe your dreams. It is a scenario which transforms your inner dream world into an alternative living reality. It transforms everything you taste, hears, sees, feels, and smell in your dream into as authentic as in your real life. During lucidity, it occurs when the altered state of your consciousness happens, and you realize that you are dreaming and then, your brain automatically switches into the waking mode, and yet you are still dreaming.

The difference between normal dreaming and lucid dreaming, in the former, your self-awareness is shut down, and that is why you feel distant and fuzzy. But in the latter, your conscious brain wakes up while you are busy dreaming. It is very natural and safe to have a lucid dream, and you shouldn’t feel paranormal or spooked out about it. If you want, you can wake up from your dream, but the truth is, when you are lucid dreaming, you become lucid with all your senses alive and nobody wants to come out of it; you feel like you should explore the dream even further.

What are dreams?

It is hard to give a definite meaning to what dreams are, but to give lucid dreaming meaning, it is important to understand in details what dreams are. Some people take dreams to be brain resolving problems or processing emotions from waking life. Another group believes that a dream is a collection of memory data which your brain is trying to recollect. But to put it more simply, I would just want you to understand that, a dream is a brain trying to tell you that, it exists inside you. During your waking life, the brain has a lot to do due to the nonstop external stimuli for it to process, but when you are asleep, there is little or no stimuli to sift it through. When the world is closed, the brain starts creating its world to keep it sharp and functional.

When Do You Have Dreams?

Different dreams come at different stages in your sleep. There are four stages in your sleep, which are as follows:

  • N1 (NREM 1): it is what most psychologists refer to as rapid eye movement or light sleep. Your heart rate, body temperature, energy use and breathing rate go down at this particular stage. Your muscles are still active, thus, at this particular stage, you are in a position to react to your environmental stimuli.
  • Stage two N2 (NREM 2): It is at this stage that you start drifting away towards deep sleep. At this point, it is hard to be awakened, and the conscious awareness of your environment goes down. Most of your sleep time is, at this stage.
  • Stage 3, N3 (NREM3): Slow-wave or deep sleep is the third stage where you no longer are likely to react to any stimuli, and it is thought to be the most restful stage of your sleep which accounts for a quarter of your sleep time. It leads you to your fourth stage, and at times, it is thought to be partly the fourth stage.
  • Stage 4, REM: Rapid eye movement is the fourth stage of sleep, also referred to as the dream state. At this point, your muscles are paralyzed with heart rate and breathing becoming unregulated. Its function of a person is unknown, but in case you miss it, it can cause damage to your ability to learn complex tasks. It accounts for a quarter of your sleep time

During your sleep at night, you go through the four stages repeatedly until you wake up. Dreams that appear at the REM stage are the ones you will most likely remember when you wake up in the morning.

Lucid Dreaming Versus Normal Dreaming?

It is believed that it is possible for anyone to start lucid dreaming. During normal dreaming, it can be compared to an amusement park that you have no choice of. There are several things around you which you will tend to experiment whether willingly or unwillingly because you have no option and you will have to go through the dream. You might react to it, but you can’t get off the dream, whether you like it or not.

When it comes to lucid dreaming, it can compare to exploring an amusement park which you constructed on your own. Apart from going wherever you want, you will also have an option of to do with it whatever you want to. In essence, in lucid dreaming, you are in your world, and you have control of everything that happens in your dream. If you want to be a superhero and fly, you will; if you want to confront a bully at school without fear, you will; you want to have a romantic affair with a superstar, it will happen. You can have a choice of going to bed every day and live out your life as you so wish and in the morning, you will wake up feeling rested and fresh; that is lucid dreaming meaning.

Wait.. there is more

Now that you know the lucid dreaming meaning, I am sure you are excited and want to try it out. Just like any other fantasies of good things in life, it will need patience and a lot of effort to achieve it. You will need to learn and identify your dream states and make all your REM stages of your sleep a lucid dreaming state. This will in return make you be a more positive person every time you wake up because you will avoid scenarios of having nightmares and only dream things you like and fantasize about. Every night, go to bed when you are aware of your present state of conscious and think about your fantasies and wishes.

How to lucid dream tonight

This article is long because I want to ensure that you are able to correctly lucid dream. We have defined what it is now we need to take you on the journey to discover what you need to actually do! So, as we concluded the lucid dream is a way that you can be awake during the dream state. Giving you these powerful techniques will enable you to feel what lucid dreaming really means. Let’s first focus on the common mistakes of lucid dreaming. We defined above the stages of dreaming, it is important that you do not lucid dream during the NREM phase of sleep. Scientific studies have shown that the dreams which are lucid and also not lucid occur during your REM cycle, this is within the first few hours of sleeping. In the early morning such as 5am this is when your REM sleep gets more progressive (almost 45-50 minutes of REM sleep!) So what does this mean I hear you say! You should try to focus your sleep during this period. The technique below is what I use to lucid dream. This will help you focus on bringing lucid dreaming into the forefront of your mind.

Lots of people don’t understand lucid dreams.

So what does this mean? It's when we are aware of what we are dreaming and then go on to amend this dream. It is common to everyone that they accept lucid dreaming and then begin to use this state for their own advantage.

Lucid Dreaming Technique

These dreams generally happen when the body is in a state of deep dreaming. Some lucid dreaming, who try to manipulate these dreams follow a process of self-hypnosis. Here is some advice on how to ensure that you can start to begin to influence your dreams:

01.Imagine you are on a hill and below is a beautiful countryside scene.

02.Take a deep breath and blow away all your worries and troubles, completely forget about all the things in your life and focus on the countryside scene.

03.As you keep breathing you go deeper and deeper into consciousness, Think about how your dreams could help you with any problems that you may have in your daily life, for example if you have a burning question that needs answering – ask if this can be answered in your dreams.

04.Now imagine you are standing in the garden of a lovely country house with a thatched cottage and perfect gardens with an array of flowers. The sky is light blue without a cloud in the sky. At this point you may drift into sleep and if so, then go with it.

05.Now imagine that the door of the cottage has opened and you see a set of steps which leads down to a secret garden. There are ten steps in total that go downstairs and that you count down from 10 to 1 when you hit number 1 it is time to make sure that you are asleep or in deep relaxation and this point.

06.This is a walled garden, like the garden in the book of the secret garden and holds the most beautiful birds, smells and feeling of total tranquillity. The grass is pruned as you absurd the stillness of the garden.

07.As you fall off to sleep you have a dream, you tell yourself that you will have a lucid dream, a lucid dream in which you can control the events and maybe even find the answer to a question that you have wanted an answer to.

This exercise will give you the opportunity to be able to control your dreams, just as you are doing at step seven of the process. When your unconscious mind realizes that you are in this state of lucid dreaming you will become aware of the limitations and possibilities that the lucid dreaming will offer you in your life. Whether that will be helping you solve a problem or enable you to control your dreaming at all times. We will discuss actual example lucid dreaming later on but for now you now have the tool to go into yourself and actually begin to take control and use your dreams to open doors to answers and topics that may be bothering you. From now on you will find it easier to sleep because you know that you will be able to control aspects that you don’t feel comfortable with.

By Flo Saul
Jun 14, 2012