The idea of controlling your dreams might sound like the plot of the latest science fiction blockbuster.
But this mysterious gift is a reality for around 20 per cent of people, who are able to go on exciting trips in impossible worlds.
Depicted in films such as ‘Inception’, lucid dreaming could provide a useful link between the real world and the dream world.
Scientists are trying to tap into the potential of lucid dreaming, helping people complete tasks like turning on lights or even driving virtual cars while asleep.
Sound appealing? Here are three tricks that could allow you to try it for yourself.
The idea of controlling your dreams might sound like the plot of the latest science fiction blockbuster. But this mysterious gift is a reality for around 20 per cent of people, who are able to go on exciting trips in impossible worlds (file photo)
In Christopher Nolan’s classic action film Inception, characters consciously navigate through impossible dream worlds (pictured)
What is lucid dreaming?
Simply put, a lucid dream is a type of dream where the person is aware that they are dreaming.
It lets people experience a state of ‘heightened awareness’ during sleep that allows them to control what happens within the dream.
It helps people banish nightmares, eliminate post-traumatic stress, or generally have more enjoyable ‘trips’ or psychedelic adventures when they go to sleep.
Research has also shown that lucid dreamers can communicate in real-time with the waking world while they’re asleep.
Lucid dreaming contrasts with a normal dream, where the dreamer is an observer with no control and has no idea that they are dreaming.
Lucid dreaming contrasts with a normal dream, where the dreamer is an observer with no control and has no idea that they are dreaming (artist’s depiction)
When do lucid dreams happen?
Most lucid dreaming takes place during ‘rapid eye movement’ (REM) sleep – the deepest stage of sleep where the body shuts down muscle control.
Occurring about 90 minutes after falling asleep, REM is so-named because our eyes move rapidly from side to side behind closed eyelids.
Most vivid dreams happen during REM because the brain is more active, exhibiting activity similar to when we are awake.
Who has lucid dreams?
Notable lucid dreamers include musician Billie Eilish, film director Christopher Nolan, physicist Richard Feynman and DJ Richard D James (Aphex Twin).
Lucid dreaming is rare, as most people experience a normal dream where they’re asleep.
Studies have shown that 50 per cent of people have experienced a lucid dream in their lives, while only 20 per cent have one at least once a month and fewer still (around one per cent) enjoy them more than once a week.
Research also suggests lucid dreamers have a bigger prefrontal cortex – a part of the brain linked to logic and reasoning – suggesting they’re better at determining a scenario is false when they’re asleep.
In humans, sleep is generally separated into ‘non rapid eye movement’ or NREM sleep and rapid eye movement or REM sleep. A typical night’s sleep goes back and forth between the stages
Lucid dreaming helps people banish nightmares or generally have more enjoyable ‘trips’ when they go to sleep (file photo)
However, research also suggests that people who have never had a lucid dream before can learn to do so using various tricks.
How can you try lucid dreaming?
An Australian study in 2017 identified three tricks that can increase your chances of having lucid dreams – ‘reality testing’, ‘wake back to bed’ and ‘mnemonic induction’.
‘Reality testing’ involves checking your environment several times a day while awake to see whether or not you’re dreaming.
Although it may seem silly, doing so can prime your brain to ask the very same question during dreaming.
This is similar to the spinning top in Christopher Nolan’s 2010 film ‘Inception’ – in which Leonardo DiCaprio’s character spins to discover if he’s dreaming.
Secondly, ‘wake back to bed’ consists of waking up after just five hours of sleep, which will probably involve setting yourself an alarm.
In ‘Inception’ (2010), Leonardo DiCaprio’s character spins his totem (pictured) to see whether he’s awake or dreaming. If he’s dreaming, the device spins indefinitely
After waking up, stay awake for a short period – somewhere between 10 minutes and an hour – to ‘become fully conscious’ before going back to sleep.
Essentially, the brief period of wakefulness increases your mental alertness and boosts the brain’s ability to have control during dreams.
Lastly, ‘mnemonic induction of lucid dreams’ (MILD) similarly involves waking up after five hours of sleep and repeating the phrase: ‘The next time I’m dreaming, I will remember that I’m dreaming.’
As you say these words to yourself you also have to also imagine yourself in a lucid dream – helping blur the distinction between dreaming and wakefulness.
What’s the wider potential of lucid dreams?
Scientists hope that by teaching us to have lucid dreams, people can perform useful tasks during sleep.
In recent years, experiments with lucid dreamers have demonstrated a remarkable level of interaction with the real world.
Last year, researchers showed they could train people to respond to music by moving their muscles while in a lucid dream.
Another study managed to convert electrical signals from the sleeping brain into real-life commands, such as turning on light switches and kettles.
This has potential implications for switching on our smart home devices before we wake up – ultimately saving time during a busy morning schedule, for example.
Meanwhile, a 2021 study found some ‘lucid dreamers’ can answer questions and even do maths while they’re snoozing.
Researchers in the US asked lucid dreamers maths problems, such as ‘what’s eight minus six’, and yes-no questions, like ‘do you speak Spanish?’ In the experiments, dreamers answered correctly in real time with eye movements or facial muscle signals
Researchers asked lucid dreamers maths problems, such as ‘what’s eight minus six’, and yes-no questions, like ‘do you speak Spanish?’
In the experiments, dreamers answered correctly in real time with eye movements or facial muscle signals.
Even more amazingly, a 2024 study involved lucid dreamers controlling a virtual car, via electrical sensors used to detect leg and arm muscle movements.
Achilleas Pavlou, a psychologist at the University of Nicosia in Cyprus, said the understanding of lucid dreams has ‘advanced significantly in the last decade’.
‘There is still much work to be done, but it hopefully won’t be too long before we figure out how to reliably and consistently induce them,’ he wrote for The Conversation.