What is lucid dreaming and how to prevent it?
Lucid dreaming: the internet is filled with articles on how to induce lucid dreaming, or learn how to remember your dreams. Lucid dreaming is often researched, but not much is known about it. In this article, I will explain what lucid dreaming is and what you can do about it, based on my own experiences. I will answer questions such as:
- What are lucid dreams according to research?
- What are lucid dreams associated with according to research?
- Why should you want to get rid of lucid dreams?
- What you can do to prevent lucid dreams?
- What to do while you’re in a lucid dream?
- What to do when you wake up after a lucid dream?
Please note: the contents of this article are based on my own research and personal experiences with lucid dreaming. If you experience mental health issues because of lucid dreaming, please consult a licensed psychologist or doctor.
What are lucid dreams?
In research, many definitions of lucid dreaming are used. For example:
Lucid dreaming is a dream involving awareness of dreaming (Schredl and Erlacher, 2004) and is characterized by increased insight, control, access to waking memories, dissociation from one’s own body, logical thought, and more positive emotion (compared to non-lucid dreaming) (Voss et al., 2013)
(source)
[…] a dreamer is aware that he is dreaming while dreaming
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What is exactly the difference between lucid dreams and non-lucid dreams? In an attempt to pinpoint what characteristics lucid dreams have, researchers have listed the following categories of dream consciousness (source):
- Insight: the realization that you know it’s a dream
- Realism: pertaining to the similarity between emotions, thoughts and events with wakefulness as judged after awakening from the dream;
- Control: the amount of control you have over the dream plot;
- Memory: access to waking memory;
- Thought: about other dream characters;
- Positive and negative emotion
- Disassociation: akin to taking on a third-person perspective.
They found that non-lucid dreams scored low values in all factors except for realism. One defining factor in lucid dreams is insight. Other leading factors are control and dissociation. Lucid dreamers knew they were currently dreaming while their dreams progressed. Only a few participants in this research were able to control the dream plot.
A different scientific article on lucid dreaming concludes almost the opposite. In their research, their findings say that “… lucid dreamers more often take the active role in the development of the dream plot…” and that dreamers are only in half of the cases able to recall their intentions in their lucid dreams (source).
This difference only proves that there is still much unknown about the origin, meaning and physical and mental components of lucid dreaming.
What are lucid dreams associated with?
As mentioned above, many research articles have focussed on lucid dreaming. In the list below (not exhaustive) are some of these topics with which researchers have associated with lucid dreaming:
- Lucid dreaming as a treatment for nightmares (a possible symptom of Posttraumatic Stress Disorder) (source)
- The connection and co-occurrence between lucid dreams and sleep paralysis (source)
- Lucid nightmares, with features such as lack of dream control, intense fear, violent autonomous dream characters and the inability to wake up (source)
- Lucid dreaming and the frequency of regular nightmares (source)
- Sleep disruption risk, or the relationship between lucid dreaming and sleep problems, poor sleep quality, and nightmares (source)
- Personality traits (source), (source), (source)
- The link between lucid dreaming and depression (source)
In summary, lucid dreaming has both been encouraged and discouraged for various reasons. Articles frequently mention training methods for inducing lucid dreams. Lucid dreaming is said to be beneficial for well-being and psychological growth (source).
Why should you want to get rid of lucid dreaming?
Please note: the following sections are based on my own experiences and are not necessarily supported by scientific research.
If the above is the case, why should you want to eliminate lucid dreaming? For me, lucid dreaming is something I’ve done my entire life. When I experience much stress, lucid dreams seem to occur more frequently. These lucid dreams can also be in the form of nightmares. This disrupts my sleep pattern (waking up early) and quality of sleep (waking up distressed). I’ve talked to many people about this, but not many people in my close circle experience lucid dreaming or know any practical methods to change their lucid dreams or even prevent them. In the section below I will share some tips that helped me prevent lucid dreams (although not completely).
What you can do to prevent lucid dreams?
Unfortunately, there are no surefire ways to prevent lucid dreaming. In general, the advice on how to fall asleep sooner or improve your sleep quality applies, such as:
- Avoid digital screen time a few hours before going to bed, such as watching TV, using your smartphone, etcetera.
- Try to avoid stress before going to bed as much as possible, for example by not reading books on intense or emotional subjects or talking about those subjects with someone else.
- Try to clear your mind from worries and to-do lists. Write things down that you need to remember. You can also try to clear your mind to make enough time during the day for your hobbies.
- If you do experience worry or stress when you’re awake, try to resolve it as much as possible during the same day. I have found that if I try to avoid my problems, they will come back to haunt me when I’m asleep in the form of lucid dreams.
What to do while you’re in a lucid dream?
If you do happen to have a lucid dream, it can be difficult to deal with it. Lucid dreams can be scary and very unsettling, especially when you feel like you have no control over what happens or can’t wake yourself up. Below, I list some tips based on my own experiences with lucid dreaming:
- When you’re lucid dreaming, it can be difficult to realize that you’re dreaming. For me, it does help to make the dream less intense to realize that it’s not real. When you’re in your dream, try to look for clues or signs that you’re dreaming. Pinching my finger doesn’t work for me, but you can also try to think logically: for example, you’re at work and you see someone from your old high school. They don’t belong there, so you must be dreaming. Or: you dream of being shot in the leg, but you feel a tickling sensation.
- When dreaming, scientists believe that you only “see” people that you’ve seen before in your life (source). Your dream is incapable of making up new faces on its own. You can use this to your advantage. When you see people in your dream, try to focus on their faces and remember where you’ve seen them before. This can also help with the realization that you’re lucid dreaming.
- Try to narrate what is happening to you while you’re dreaming. Sometimes, when I experience a very intense dream, it helps to gain a sense of control by telling myself what is happening. You are sort of overruling your subconscious with your conscious voice.
- When you’re lucid dreaming, you can experience a loss of control when you want to wake up. It’s almost similar to sleep paralysis, but a bit different because you’re still dreaming. When this happens, try to stay calm. For me, it helps to wait for a certain transition point in the dream, such as a scene change or when you move to a different location. When a certain part of the dream was very intense, it was usually almost impossible for me to wake myself up, but I did manage to wake up after waiting a bit. Try to avoid panicking at all costs, because it will only heighten your stress.
What to do when you wake up after a lucid dream?
I’ve woken up many times from lucid dreams and felt disassociated, tired and confused. No matter how much you clear your mind, sometimes a lucid dream is unavoidable and you wake up feeling terrible. What can you do about that feeling after a lucid dream?
- Tell yourself it was a dream. This may sound stupid, but for me, it feels like I’m telling my brain that it was just a dream and that it can forget about it.
- Take some time to wake up. When you feel like you’ve spent all night running for your life or having an intense fight with your partner, you can benefit from taking a small break after waking up. Take up to 10 minutes to turn the lights on, calm down and prepare yourself for the day.
- Remember your dream once, chronologically, and then try to forget about it. I am prone to remembering lucid dreams, but they’re not important information that I should remember. For me, it helps to allow myself to go through my dream once (what happened, when, what do I remember). Then I know what happened, and I feel like it’s easier to forget afterwards.
- Remind yourself that it wasn’t real and what happened in your dream, doesn’t mean anything. I have often dreamt about things that made me feel disturbed, scared or emotional. I don’t believe in the meaning of dreams. I think it can lead you to a dangerous path if you apply meaning to your lucid dreams. I have been attacked and killed by and fought with countless people in my dreams, and I don’t think there’s any connection to reality. You are not guilty if you dreamt about cheating on your significant other, for example, and neither should you be mad at them if you two fought your sleep. It’s equally ridiculous, and it doesn’t mean that your subconscious wants to cheat on them.
In summary
Lucid dreaming is an often researched subject, but not much is known about it. There are numerous research articles that list the negative associations with lucid dreaming. My advice is to try to prevent lucid dreams in the first place by clearing your mind and avoiding as much stress and emotions during the day and before bad as possible.
When you’re in a lucid dream, there are some practical things you can try, such as associating with real life, narrating what’s happening and waiting for scene changes or clues so you can wake yourself up. After you wake up from a lucid dream, it’s a good idea to take a moment to allow yourself to wake up calmly and tell yourself it was just a dream.
Featured image by Илья Мельниченко on Unsplash
