A lucid dream takes place if a person is asleep but aware that they are dreaming.
Metacognition involves the awareness and understanding of your own thought processes.
Research suggests that lucid dreaming and metacognitive functions share similar neural systems.
Verywell / Nez Riaz
How can you do this?
The act of focusing more on dreams may help you become more aware of the experience when it happens.
For example, you might try pressing your finger against a wall to see if you are dreaming.
If you are not, the solid wall would stop your finger.
In a dream, however, your finger might simply pass through the wall.
The first written record of a lucid dream was described by the Greek philosopher Aristotle.
In his workOn Dreams, he described reaching a state of awareness of his dreaming state.
A commoncharacteristic of these dreamsis that even when truly strange things happen within the dream, it seems real.
It is only after people wake that they realize that it was only a dream.
This often allows the dreamer to exert some degree of control over what is happening.
How do you know if you have had a lucid dream?
How frequently do they experience them?
Experiencing lucid dreams frequently, however, comes off as pretty uncommon.
Lucid dreaming tends to be rare.
Think of it as unlocking God-mode on your own mind.
Aside from the novelty of the experience, could lucid dreaming have any practical applications?
While this is an area where further research is needed, it may have some possible uses.
Some potential benefits are listed below.
Fewer Nightmares
Some researchers believe that lucid dreaming might have some therapeutic effects, particularly for addressingnightmares.
Bad dreams can interrupt sleep and can play a role in reducing the quantity and quality of sleep.
How exactly do researchers study lucid dreaming?
Research has shown, however, some ways that lucid dreaming may be unique from normal dreaming.
One study found that people who have more intense lucid dreams also tend to experience increased symptoms of psychopathology.
Also, some of the methods used to help induce lucid dreams are centered on deliberately interrupting sleep.
Poor sleep can then have anegative impact on your mental healthand well-being.
You May Have More Nightmares
You might be more likely to have bad dreams.
Invoking dreams that are both vivid and emotional could potentially make it more likely that nightmares will occur.
Research has suggested that lucid dreamers tend to have a greater internallocus of control.
They also score higher on measures of a need for cognition and creativity.
Research has also shown connections between lucid dreaming and aspects of theBig 5 personalitytrait known asopenness to experience.
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