The realm of dreams has always been an item of fascination for human beings. Even its most basic concepts, the idea that you create new memories even while you are asleep, prone and completely unconscious to the world, raises some of the most compelling questions about the human psyche and the reality of our consciousness. Now that we, in our modern age of science, we are beginning to understand and answer these questions. With understanding comes familiarity, and with familiarity comes commodification. Lucid dreams could provide some very lucrative benefits for society; however, side effects could do more harm than good. In this essay, I will outline the basic processes of sleeping dreaming and lucid dreaming, then explore the known positives and negatives for the proposed methods of use.  

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Let’s start with the basics of how sleep works. Often, it is commonly believed that there are two states of sleeping: either being awake or being asleep. In this belief, a person would sleep on average for seven hours straight and dream the entire time without any interruption. However, there are in fact several layers to sleep, which are determined by the kind of brain activity your brain is making throughout the night. While the type of brain waves made in sleep can be broken into elements such as theta and delta waves, sleep spindles and K-complexes, the overall pattern of activity throughout the night can be broadly divided into two main states. 

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Slow-Wave Sleep (SWS) consists of big, slow, delta brain waves, which appear wen the brain is the quietest and the most at rest, whereas Rapid Eye Movement (REM) sleep consists of the quicker and shorter theta and beta brain waves, which is identical to the brain activity exhibited during very calm, subdued waking hours (while watching a movie or TV, for example). An average sleeper vacillates steadily between these two states throughout the night, usually spending 90 minutes in each state before transitioning to the next one. We do know that Slow-Wave Sleep always happens before REM, and decreases in occurrence as the night goes on, while REM begins later into the night and occurs steadily until waking up. 

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It is possible for dreams to form during non-REM sleep (NREM) however, it is far less common. They tend to be more random and sparser, more like stray thoughts strung together, and dream content tends to be less visual and less emotionally compelling (Appel, Pipa and Dressler 193). Dreams occurring during R.E.M. sleep are more common, and more often to be remembered outside of sleep. The evolutionary reason for REM sleep is still not entirely known to scientists, or rather, the research is still inconclusive. What we do know is that dreams occur after the Cerebral Cortex receives stimulation coming randomly from either the Pons, the Lateral Geniculate Nucleus, or the Occipital Lobe, or a combination of all three. These Ponto Geniculate Occipital (PGO) waves stimulate the cortex at random, activating thoughts, memories, motor instincts and emotions. (Appel, Pipa and Dressler 193) One theory for why dreams are so convoluted and strange is that when the brain triggers this sequence of random thoughts and ideas, the Cerebral Cortex tries to make the sequence make sense, forming the sequence into as coherant a narrative as it can manage (Appel, Pipa and Dressler 193). This would explain the bizarre and surrealistic nature of dreams, and why awakening thoughts of stress and danger might take different, more vivid or literal forms within dreams. 

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A controversial but common belief is that dreams can be interpreted to uncover and understand a person's inner self. It is a lot more likely that memories and thoughts you think of often tend to show up more prominently and vividly when you are dreaming (Appel, Pippa and Dressler 193). For instance, say its Thursday night, and you are worried about a math test that you’re going to take the next day. You also had a dinner that was not-so-great, and it made you feel nauseous. You go to bed thinking not only about feeling anxious about the “threat” of the test in the future, but also about the current “threat” of your stomach pains. Those two dangers could (plausibly) get synthesized within your brain as one mega stressor, and then attack you in your dreams as a nightmare. 

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The body is engineered to not respond to your dreams, instead sending signals that inhibit pulses from the brain to activate the muscles (Peters 3). This is called R.E.M. paralysis, and it keeps your body from responding to the simulated scenario that your brain is creating while you ae sleeping. There are times when REM paralysis occurs during the day: this is categorized as Narcoleptic Cataplexy. Yet, in the case of REM Behavior Disorder, it’s possible for REM paralysis to not activate during sleep, leading to movements and dangerous flailing while dreaming.

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A third dream theory, centered on why they occur in the first place, claims that dreams utilize the power of imagination and random thought generation to simulate and rehearse situations we could possibly experience in waking life (Peters 3). In the case of nightmares, a dreamer is shown a scenario in which they or their unconsciousness recognize a threat, and then respond and avoid it. When the dreamer wakes and they remember the scenario, then they can use reasoning to decide what to do with the dreams information.

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Normal dreams are usually categorized by the dreamer passively watching a dream unfold, either through first-person POV (in-body experience) or third-person POV (outside spectator) with no control over their actions or thought process while in the dream. Lucid Dreams differ from average dreams in this regard, because the dreamer can have control over their actions and thoughts within the dream, as well as have access to metacognition, the ability to think and reason about one's own thought and reason. They can question their own thoughts within the dream, think critically about dream plot and events, and calm themselves in the case of a nightmare with the comforting knowledge that it’s only a dream (Peters 2).   

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When it comes to differences in physical phenomena, the Parietal, Temporal and Anterior Prefrontal Cortex are all active during lucid dreaming where they wouldn’t be in normal dreaming. This activity reflects exactly how the brain would be active in waking movement, thought, and metacognition. (Peters 2) 

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The dreamer is able to imagine, plan and control the movements of their dream selves within the dream, running, skipping, jumping and talking to their heart's content without moving any muscle in the real world. While REM paralysis is still in effect as in normal dreaming, EMG readings of lucid dreamers can usually pick up incredibly tiny pulses along both the Dorsolateral and Ventromedial tracts into the muscles of the body. These pulses cause subtle muscle twitches, which can then be correlated more or less directly to actions the lucid dreamer makes during the dream. Therefore, we know that the sections of the brain for motor actions such as the Premotor and Primary Motor cortexes are also stimulated and active during lucid dreaming (Peters 3). Autonomic Responses also correlate to lucid dreaming: things such as breathing, heart rate, body temperature, etc. can increase slightly in response to lucid dreams, though not to the extent that that same scenario would cause during waking life (Peters 3).   

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If dreams are meant to be a rehearsal for real life situations, then lucid dreams serve as the “hard mode,” of gameplay, where consciousness of a bizarre situation could cause even more of a challenge (Peters 4). Using the same example as before, a dreamer is dreaming a nightmare scenario (say, a social situation.) The conversation goes bad, and in this example, the dreamer is suddenly left with the task of reacting to the situation live, which is much harder than having something happen and reacting to it later in memory form. As active participants, dreamers are made to put effort into the scenario, which makes the rehearsal more effective. 

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There are other benefits to lucid dreaming beyond its supposed extinctual evolutionary purpose. For instance, there are many ways in which lucid dreaming can be used to aid in psychological therapy. By training to recognize when one is in a dream, patients suffering from severe stress disorders and night terrors can actively learn to pause their nightmares from the inside or change the ending before sleep is disrupted and lost. In the case that a nightmare of night terror cannot be undone, the simple knowledge that the dream is only a dream and can’t actually harm the dreamer, and that it’s possible to control and change the plot, can be calming enough that a placebo affect occurs, and the dream settles and changes anyway.  

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There are also some scientists who view lucid dreaming as a form of motor function practice. We know that REM sleep is important for memory consolidation: oftentimes replaying the memories of the day within dreams helps them solidify more into the memory once a person wakes up. We also know that mental practice while an individual is awake can be essential for learning new motor task (Peters 1). The athlete that first shoots a few hoops and then spends the next 10 minutes mentally studying the movements he made during practice is going to be more effective at shooting those hoops then the athlete that shoots a few of those same hoops and then goes to do something else.  

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Therefore, if that mental practice is useful when done during wakefulness, it could possibly be productive during lucid dreaming in REM sleep as well. Athletes on leave due to injury or anything else would be able to keep up with their mental practice and drills for more hours within the day, saving them and their coaches, managers, and team owners lots of time. (and money!) There is a lot of value in the world of sports for a type of motor skill practice that can be done without the body's physical movement, without the body physical movement. (Peters 1)   

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There is also the benefit of fun. Dreams that you remember after waking are amusing, and lucid dreams, where you have control over the world around you, are even more so. Being able to experience this sort of scenario can be valuable for those who want to have either a recreational or spiritual experience without having to use hallucinogenic drugs.  

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However, every coin has two sides. While the negative effects of lucid dreaming are not well documented, as not many studies have been done on the topic, there are still a few very obvious side effects to consistant lucid dreaming. The most obvious issue with lucid dreaming is its disruption of normal sleep patterns. Lucid dreams don’t disrupt shortwave sleep in any capacity when occurring naturally, but many of the induction methods for lucid dreaming do, such as the “wake-back-to-sleep" method, where sleep is intentionally disrupted in order to stimulate REM sleep. (Soffer-Dudeck 1) This causes loss of sleep and degradation of sleep quality, which would in turn lead to sleep deprivation and its correlating symptoms of fatigue, weakened memory, dampened mood, inattentiveness, and reduced emotional metacognition.

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Too much lucid dreaming could also cause a psychological breakdown between fantasy and reality. (Soffer-Dudeck 3) Another such induction method for lucid dreaming involves the dreamer intentionally questioning themselves on whether their waking experience is a dream or reality.  While this can eventually result in incredibly vivid dreams, it can also mean that the person is unsure whether or not they are dreaming during waking life. They may also have or stimulate a real-life scenario within the lucid dream, which then they cannot discern as a recent dream or a real memory. This can cause confusion and distress within the person's life: a breakdown between social interactions with peers may occur when a conversation that was presumed to have happened had in fact been dreamt.  

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In conclusion, lucid dreams are incredibly fascinating phenomena to deal with. They allow us to imagine real life scenarios in vivid detail, and to control them in ways we wouldn't be able to in real life, allowing us the freedom of a fantasy that can be virtually experienced in near totality. However, there are still dangers to be cautious of, and there is still much to be studied and understood. Regardless, lucid dreams have given us much insight into the inner workings of the sleeping and waking human consciousness. The mind is a powerful and mighty thing. 

 

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Works cited

 

Appel, Kristoffer, Gordon Pipa, and Martin Dresler. “Investigating Consciousness in the Sleep Laboratory – an Interdisciplinary Perspective on Lucid Dreaming.” Interdisciplinary science reviews 43.2 (2018): 192–207. Web. 

 

Bulkeley, Kelly. “The Future of Dream Science.” Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences 1406.1 (2017) : 68–70. Web. 

 

Nirit Soffer-Dudek. “Are Lucid Dreams Good for Us? Are We Asking the Right Question? A Call for Caution in Lucid Dream Research.” Frontiers in neuroscience 13 (2020): n. pag. Web. 

 

Peters, Emma et al. “Extending Mental Practice to Sleep: Enhancing Motor Skills through Lucid Dreaming.” Medical hypotheses 174 (2023) : 111066-. Web