10 Lucid Dreaming Facts (and 5 Myths Debunked)
Lucid dreaming may sound unreal but it is a scientifically proven phenomenon. It can help you boost creativity and even improve some aspects of your waking life.
Did you know that famous people like Nikola Tesla and Salvador Dalí used lucid dreams for inspiration? Or that you can achieve lucidity by learning a few simple techniques? We'll explore these and many other interesting lucid dreaming facts that you may not know about.
We'll also debunk common myths and misconceptions surrounding lucid dreaming. Is it dangerous? Does it require special talents? Can you enter another person’s lucid dream? By the end of this article, you’ll be able to separate lucid dreaming facts from the myths.
10 Interesting Facts About Lucid Dreaming
Fact 1: Anyone Can Learn Lucid Dreaming
While not everyone gets spontaneous lucid dreams, anyone can learn how to lucid dream. Many people have tried and succeeded in training themselves to achieve lucidity while dreaming. You can do this by using a lucid dream-inducing technique like MILD or Wake-Back-to-Bed, or with the help of drugs like galantamine.
Fact 2: Lucid Dreaming Can Enhance Real-Life Skills
Practicing a skill or activity while lucid dreaming can make you get better at it in your waking life. There’s enough research to prove that mental practice can help athletes perform better. Lucid dreams are highly immersive and realistic. Motor practice while lucid dreaming can improve motor skills in waking life.
Fact 3: Famous People Have Practiced Lucid Dreaming for Inspiration
Salvador Dalí, a renowned artist, is known for drawing inspiration from his subconscious. He would toe the line between wakefulness and sleep by using his famous ‘slumber with a key’ method to get to the hypnagogic state. Nikola Tesla would carry out experiments in his dreams. He also talked about visiting places and meeting people in his dreams, experiences he said were as dear to him as those in real life.
Fact 4: Lucid Dreaming Has Therapeutic Uses
Lucid dreaming therapy can be effective in treating nightmares. In a lucid dream, the dreamer is aware that they are dreaming and can even control the dream. Knowing that you are in a dream while having a nightmare can put you at ease and help you overcome fear and stress. There’s also evidence to suggest that lucid dreaming therapy can help with mental health issues such as clinical depression.
Fact 5: You Can Achieve Lucid Dreaming With Herbs and Substances
Some people have an easier time getting lucid dreams than others. Those having trouble achieving lucidity can try herbs and substances that induce lucidity. This could be modern medication like galantamine and huperzine A or traditional herbs such as the African dream herb. (Consult a Doctor before going this route, and exercise caution.)
Fact 6: Lucid Dreaming Has Ancient Roots
Lucid dreaming is not a phenomenon that started recently. Ancient Indian and Tibetan religions (including Buddhism) had lucid dreaming practices such as dream yoga. Even in the West, you can find references to lucid dreaming in ancient writings going back thousands of years.
Fact 7: Lucid Dreaming Can Influence Creativity
Lucid dreaming can help you access knowledge from your unconscious mind–ideas you may already have but don’t know. Deirdre Barrett, an American psychologist, believes that lucid and meaningful dreaming can encourage creativity.
Craig Sim Webb, a singer-songwriter and dream expert, talks about how his music dreams usually contain new and original music.
Fact 8: Lucid Dreaming Is Mainly Associated With the REM Sleep Stage
Although you can dream during any sleep stage, lucid dreaming is more likely to occur in the REM stage. Lucid dreams typically develop from non-lucid dreams after you have been asleep for several hours and in the later stages of REM sleep.
Fact 9: Spontaneous Lucid Dreams Are Rare
Only 50% of the population have had a lucid dream at least once in their life, about 20% lucid dream every month, and 1% report having lucid dreams a few times a week. Children are more likely to have unintentional lucid dreams compared to adults.
Fact 10: There Are Different Levels of Lucid Dreaming
When learning how to lucid dream, you may not be able to fly or teleport yourself to a desired location in your first lucid dream. Lucid dreaming has different levels. The first and basic one is gaining awareness while sleeping. Then you can move on to controlling your actions. As an advanced lucid dreamer, you can change the surroundings and control the actions of other characters in the dream.
Myths and Misconceptions About Lucid Dreaming
Here are some myths you may have heard about lucid dreaming.
Myth 1: Lucid Dreaming Is Dangerous
Lucid dreaming is a safe activity and it can even help people with certain issues like nightmare disorders. It can, however, make problems like psychosis worse by blurring the lines between reality and dreams or imagination.
Myth 2: Lucid Dreaming Causes Sleep Paralysis
Sleep paralysis occurs when your brain temporarily paralyzes your limbs to prevent you from acting out dreams. It’s a harmless natural process that happens when you’re falling asleep or waking up, whether you lucid dream or not. Lucid dreaming doesn’t cause sleep paralysis and you can lucid dream without it. However, with some lucid dreaming techniques like WILD, sleep paralysis is more common.
Myth 3: Lucid Dreaming Means Complete Control Over Dreams
This is not true. Lucid dreaming means that you have awareness while dreaming and it is not synonymous with dream control. Learning to control your lucid dreams is a different skill that you have to practice and it can take some time.
Myth 4: Lucid Dreaming Requires Special Talents or Abilities
Lucid dreams can be harder to achieve for some people but that doesn’t mean you need special talents and abilities. Anyone can learn how to lucid dream using the different techniques available.
Myth 5: You Can Enter Another Person’s Lucid Dream
As intriguing as this sounds, it is not true. It might be possible in movies but there is no way to enter someone else’s lucid dream in real life.
Wrapping Up
The whole idea of lucid dreaming is fascinating. So it’s no surprise that you can find all kinds of information about it online–some factual, some made up.
The above 10 facts are meant to offer clarity and help you understand lucid dreaming more. In addition to the interesting facts, you’ve also seen that some of the common lucid dreaming myths are not backed by truth. You don’t need special abilities to lucid dream and lucid dreaming is not dangerous.
With this knowledge, you are now better equipped to explore lucid dreaming and enjoy its potential benefits with confidence.
