What About Lucid Dreaming?
Chances are you’ve heard some pretty marvelous things about lucid dreams. A quick online search turns up any number of fantastic claims. Some say they’ve built a long-term “mind palace” they’re able to visit and revisit every night, while sleeping, in their dreams. Some say lucid dreaming has changed their lives.
Is it a real phenomenon?
At a basic level, it doesn't take much for a dream to be lucid. If at any moment the dreamer is aware they are asleep and dreaming, the dream itself is lucid. Any moment of self-awareness is enough. As the Greek philosopher Aristotle once said, “often when one is asleep, there is something in consciousness which declares that what presents itself is but a dream.”
Often, though, when a person discusses lucid dreaming, what they’re referring to is the ability to influence the environment and outcome of the dream itself.
I dreamed I was a butterfly, flitting around in the sky; then I awoke. Now I wonder: Am I a man who dreamt of being a butterfly, or am I a butterfly dreaming that I am a man?—Zhuangzi
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The Mysteries Of Our Brain
Our knowledge of the human brain is still very much a work in progress. Scientific understandings of consciousness, psychology, and neuroscience are in flux, as new discoveries and theories are released almost every day.
What this means for the study of dreaming is as of yet unclear.
Why do people dream? The question will undoubtedly continue to fascinate some of humanity's greatest minds. Billions will wonder. Scientists will study. Researchers will collaborate. Doctors and psychologists and thousands of others will wait with bated breath.
For now, it would seem current research suggests that our dreams play a role in memory, in self-identity, and in the processing of our daily experiences. It's a critical aspect of our sleep. Why exactly that is, and how exactly it occurs, will continue to be one of the most interesting questions in modern medicine. And then, of course, there's lucid dreaming.
