(Upbeat music)
(creaks)
- Hello, dream warriors.
I'm Josh Clark and this is BrainStuff.
And this is the BrainStuff where
I explain to you how lucid dreaming works.
So lucid dreaming sounds like a bunch of
New Age jibber jabber as Mr. T would put it,
but science actually backs it up.
There's a caveat, though.
Science backs up the definition of lucid dreaming
as being aware that you're dreaming
while you're dreaming, which is still pretty cool.
It wasn't until the 1980s though that research
into lucid dreaming really took off when a
Stanford grad named Stephen LaBerge
founded what's known as the Lucidity Institute.
Most dreaming occurs during stage five of REM sleep
and REM stands, of course, for rapid eye movement.
And during stage five of sleep, when you do
most of your dreaming, your eyes can move all over the place
even though the rest of your body is typically,
for all intents and purposes, paralyzed.
Your body also undergoes some other changes as well,
like your heart and breathing rates rise,
your temperature fluctuates, and your brain converts
to alpha waves, which are usually
characteristic of being awake.
It basically means your brain's a going,
and you're a dreaming.
Now all of these signs that you're in
stage five REM sleep can be monitored externally.
The lucid dreaming key comes in when researchers
give the dreamer a prearranged signal using the eyes to
say "Hey, I'm dreaming right now, and it's pretty awesome."
and this has actually been done.
Signals have been given from the dream world to this reality
and in at least one experiment, one of the
researcher's heads blew clean off, it was so mind-blowing.
So we got that definition of lucid dreaming established
but plenty of other people say lucid dreaming is really
the ability to not only be aware you're dreaming
but to control your dreams as well.
Here's where things get a little more controversial.
The problem is, science says there's no objective way
to prove that someone has actually controlled their dreams.
Even if you wake up and say "Oh, I just
controlled my dreams," your recall could be faulty.
You could also be a liar and science says since
we don't know enough about the brain or dreams,
we can't really say that people have the
ability to control their dreams.
But there are plenty of other people who say
"No, lucid dreaming means you can control your dreams,"
and here are a few tips and tricks to do that.
We offer no guarantee whatsoever so don't sue us.
One of the first exercises you can do is called
reality testing and that basically consists of
just being more mindful of what it's like to be awake.
You flip light switch, light comes on.
Cause and effect rules the universe.
So by being a little more aware of
what it's like to be awake, you can notice
when something weird goes on and think,
"Oh, I'm dreaming right now, I'm not awake!"
You're lucid and maybe you can control things like
flip that light switch and turn a waterfall on and off.
That would be pretty cool and that would
definitely be controlling your dreams.
Conversely, a lot of lucid dream people suggest that
you take notes about your dreams by keeping a dream journal.
By noting down what your dreams are like,
you'll start to notice maybe patterns or characteristics
of what it's like while you're dreaming and
hence you'll get to know them better as well.
One of the ways that you can really keep
a top notch bango dream journal is
by setting alarms at random times.
That way, you can wake up from a dream,
write it down when you remember it more clearly,
and hence you'll understand your dreams more.
You should do this only if you
genuinely hate yourself though,
because that sounds awful to just randomly
set alarms while you're sleeping.
And then Stephen LaBerge of the Lucidity Institute
recommends something called MILD,
Mnemonic Induction of Lucid Dreaming, MILD.
Basically that is when you awake from a dream,
you visualize yourself back in the dream as
you're falling asleep and you look around
for what are called dream signs
and a dead giveaway could be something like
sprouting wings and flying around.
Now once you notice a dream sign,
you can be aware that you're dreaming
and then try to pitch to the left or the right.
Really give yourself some yaw and then
you'll be controlling your dreams too
and the lucid dreaming dream will be fufilled.
What's your worst or best dream?
We want to hear about it.
Leave it in the comment section below and
while you're here, why don't you just subscribe?
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And lastly, go to howstuffworks.com,
the mothership site of all awesomeness.
You will love it.