Page 47 - Healthy (March - April 2020)

theCLINIC

S H O U L D I T R Y I T ?

LUCID

DREAMING

It’s thought

learning how to
dream lucidly could
aid physical rehab,
improve sports

performance and
even treat PTSD.
Here’s how to go
full Inception

ver found yourself in the middle of a dream and spend your nights, lucid dreaming is believed to have several
realised that something wasn’t quite right? Whether positive applications in real-world scenarios.
you’re on a mission to Mars and bump into your old
E head teacher on board the spaceship, or you ind WHAT’S INVOLVED?
yourself in the middle of a zombie apocalypse with only While some people are able to lucid dream without much
a rubber duck to use as a weapon, suddenly something clicks thought, others have to mentally prepare while awake to
and you realise you’re dreaming. And more often than not, be able to experience a lucid dream. One technique called
you wake up. But what if you could not only stay asleep, but ‘reality checking’ relies on a real-world stimulus behaving
take control of the plot, too? Well, a practice called lucid diferently in a dream, so you know you’re really asleep
dreaming is based on exactly that principle. (think the forever-spinning top in the ilm Inception). You
Lucid dreaming relies on the individual realising that might train the behaviour of touching a wall when you’re
they are in a dream and purposefully inluencing the dream’s awake, only for your hand to pass through it in your dream,
narrative. Like most dreaming, it typically occurs during or begin to notice that if you come back to reading the same
rapid eye movement (REM) sleep, when your brain is more line of text in a dream, it changes. In another method, called
active and your heart rate increases, compared to non- ‘waking back to bed’, it’s recommended that you set an alarm
REM sleep. It’s believed that around 55 per cent of people ive or six hours after going to sleep, wake up and stay awake
experience a lucid dream during their lifetime, while just 23 for about half an hour, by doing something gentle like reading,
per cent of us have lucid dreams once a month, or more often. then go back to sleep. The aim is that you’ll be immediately
For some, it will occur spontaneously, while others actively immersed into REM sleep, where you’re more likely to dream
attempt to experience a lucid dream. You can also seek lucid lucidly. You could also try mnemonic induction, where you
dream therapy (LDT), in which the practice is presented repeat a phrase to yourself, such as, ‘Tonight, I will be aware
as a trainable skill. As well as being an entertaining way to that I’m dreaming’, in order to will it into happening.

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