Lucid dreaming: How it works, pros & cons, and Why people do it?

A Quick Guide

Imagine yourself in a world that is of your own making. You can do whatever your heart desires without the fear of any consequences. Sounds like a dream right? Well, you would be correct to assume that. It’s actually called lucid dreaming. In this article, we will discuss what lucid dreams are, how they work, along with their pros and cons.

What is lucid dreaming?

Lucid dreaming is a state of dream in which you are aware of the fact that you are dreaming. You may even be able to control some aspects of your dream. 

The idea behind the ability to lucid dream is the presence of metacognition. 

So then you may wonder what metacognition is.

It is the ability of higher awareness and this is what allows you to experience lucid dreams. 

According to research, 55% of people have experienced at least 1 or more lucid dreams throughout their lives. Moreover, 23% of people reported having lucid dreams once a month or more. 

Why do people try lucid dreaming? 

According to research, the reasons why people try to lucid dream are as follows:

• Turning a bad dream or nightmare into a pleasant one (63.8%)
• Enhancing creativity (27.6%)
• Having fun (81.4%)
• Practicing skills (21.3%)
• Problem-solving (29.9%)

How does lucid dreaming work? 

Our sleep has 4 stages that in turn complete a sleep cycle. The first three stages are NREM (non-rapid eye movement). The last stage of sleep is REM sleep. 

REM sleep is mostly associated with creative problem solving and the neural activity during this phase is similar to when a person may be awake. 

Lucid dreams are usually experienced during REM sleep. This may be due to the cortical activation reaching its peak during this stage. 

According to recent research, people who experience a high rate of lucid dreams have increased gray matter volume in:

• Two regions of the frontal pole
• As well as the right anterior cingulate cortex
• Left supplementary motor area
• Bilateral hippocampus

All of these brain areas are associated with higher cognitive functions such as: 

• Attention 
• Memory 
• Planning
• Self-consciousness
• Self-reflection

What are the pros?

Some of the benefits of lucid dreaming are as follows:

• Reducing the frequency of nightmares; as a person would be aware that they are in a dream. 
• Creative problem solving 
• Being able to have the exposure they might not have in real life. 

What are the cons? 

Some of the potential pitfalls are the following: 

• So there is a debate that lucid dreams blur the lines between reality and fantasy. 
• Disrupting your sleep by trying lucid dream induction techniques; some of these techniques require you to wake up in the middle of the night, stay awake for up to 30 minutes and then go back to sleep. The entire process is easier said than done. It can lead to a lot of sleep disturbances which in turn can lead to sleep deprivation which leads to both mental and physical exhaustion. 

We hope you found this article helpful in learning more about lucid dreaming, how it works along with its benefits, and its potential pitfalls.