Lucid dreaming is real and that is a fact. This article will go over a lot of lucid dreaming facts, you may not know.
Interesting Lucid dreaming facts
The first facts are interesting lucid dreaming facts, in this article, we go over other facts as well. You can find those under these.
1. A lucid dream is just a normal dream.
Most lucid dreams start with a normal dream and you become aware of this dream state later. This is called a dream induced lucid dream (DILD). A lucid dream can also occur directly from wake state to sleeping state, this is called a wake induced lucid dream (WILD). Lucid dreams are not special kinds of dreams, they are normal dreams but you became aware of the dream state, and this is a fact.
2. Lucid dreaming is scientifically proven.
It is in fact scientifically proven by research by Stephen Laberge and the Standford University in 1980. They tested 5 subjects over 27 nights who were lucid dreamers. The subjects had to try to signal the scientists with a certain pattern to prove that it was real. Lucid dreaming got proven by an eye movement test during the REM state of sleep. In this state, you have more brain activities and a bigger chance to become lucid. There was a subject who did a certain eye movement and this got proven by a device that checks eye movement.
3. You have a bigger chance to become lucid in the REM state.
In the Rapid-Eye Movement state of sleep, you have an increased chance to become lucid. The reason why you are having an increased chance is that in this state of sleep your brain is more active and makes it easier to be in a lucid dream and often dreams in this state are recorded more vivid. The dreams from the REM state are also easier to remember.
4. Lucid dreaming is a skill.
Lucid dreaming is just like learning a language. You learn the subject until you master it but with lucid dreaming, it is sometimes different. Lucid dreaming you can lose a lot of progress if you are deciding to take a break from learning lucid dreaming, while with a language you don’t lose too much skill.
5. You can learn skills in a lucid dream
You can learn waking life skills in a lucid dream, this means that you can practice basketball in your dreams and be able to learn from it. There has been a study that showed what difference it made if you learn a skill from within a lucid dream, from the waking state, and from not practicing. The answer was that the people who practiced lucid dreams had a good improvement rate.
6. Lucid dreaming does not hurt your sleep.
People in the community said that lucid dreaming damaged their sleep, and woke up often tired. This is in fact not true, there is no difference if you lucid dream or not while sleeping. However, there have been studies that waking up during the night with an alarm harms your sleep. The thing you can do instead is by waking up with intent or with a mantra.
7. Lucid dreaming can stop nightmares.
You can in fact stop nightmares with lucid dreams, and you can induce a lucid dream with a nightmare. If you have a regular occurrence of a nightmare you can use it to become lucid, this is done by using techniques that help you separate real life with a dream. For example, Reality checks are great for people who have nightmares.
You can stop the nightmare by using dream control against the nightmare. You can change the location of the dream, fight the nightmare, or whatever comes to your mind.
8. WILD does not cause sleep paralysis.
A lot of people are scared by sleep paralysis when it is in fact not as scary as it sounds. People say that they experience sleep paralysis a lot quicker while doing Wake Induced Lucid Dreaming (WILD) techniques, this is not true. You are going to be aware of it happening quicker, but this is by awareness you gain from waking up. You are not getting an increased chance to get sleep paralysis.
There is also a lucid dreaming myth that you have to go through sleep paralysis to succeed in WILD and this is completely false. You don’t have to go through sleep paralysis at all and almost always people don’t even go through this state at all.
9. Lucid dreaming is not dangerous.
Lucid dreaming is not dangerous, this is because it does not harm you. The most common thing you may experience is that you lose some quality sleep. People with mental issues or disorders may struggle with lucid dreaming because it can show you things in the past or things that can harm your mental more. It could also help you cure a mental disorder but first ask for advice from your therapist.
10. MILD has the highest success rate.
Did you know that Mnemonic Induced Lucid Dreaming (MILD) has the biggest success rate of all lucid dreaming techniques? Apparently, there is a guaranteed success rate when performed correctly of 65% within 2 months, and after that 78%. The expert lucid dreamers I talk to almost all use a form of MILD or DILD to have the biggest chance to become lucid. Some of them are lucid in almost every dream with those techniques.
11. Drugs can prevent lucid dreaming.
Some drugs can prevent you from lucid dreaming, or make you unable to recall dreams. For example, weed can cause your REM sleep to disappear, and if you can only remember dreams from the REM state you will lose your chance to become lucid. However, after smoking weed for a long time and suddenly quitting completely you will experience REM rebound, this is where you are getting a lot of REM sleep in one night.
12. The degree of vividness can vary
You may have experienced super long steady lucid dreams, but also short lucid dreams that end rather quickly. This is completely normal. You can also lose control of a lucid dream or lose vividness in your lucid dream. However, people who are more experienced know techniques that work for them to not lose lucidity. You can learn to have longer lucid dreams or you can practice techniques that help you re-enter a lucid dream with for example Dream-Exit Induced Lucid Dreaming (DEILD).
Funny lucid dreaming facts
This is a list of lucid dreaming facts that goes over the funny side of lucid dreaming.
1. Eating meat increase lucid dreaming chance.
Meat can ramp up your serotonin levels, this is cause meat has tryptophan in it. However in meat, there is not a lot of tryptophan, but maybe one day you decide to get Kentucky Fried Chicken and you have better recall, or maybe even a lucid dream.
2. You can have orgasms from lucid dreams.
It is possible to get orgasms from a lucid dream, these can feel more intense or close to what you have experienced before. There has been researched about it by Stephen Laberge, and he said “Your body reacts the same as you would in a waking state. This means that you have a real physical response that includes increased heart rate, and often for males an actual ejaculation”
Experience Lucid Dreaming Sex.
3. Cheese can make you lucid.
Cheese has tryptophan in it that helps ramp up your serotonin levels, but cheese also has a lot of vitamin b6 in it. Vitamin b6 helps you with your quality of sleep and it can lead to vivid dreams or even lucid dreams. There was also in the community a meme. It was called the Cheese Induced Lucid Dreaming (CILD) where they ate a lot of cheese before bedtime for a chance to become lucid. Don’t know the results, but you can always give it a try.
4. Sex is the number one reason for lucid dreaming.
There has been researched about what the number 1 reason was to lucid dream, the answer out of the surveys where sex, flying and learning more about yourself. In the younger age group, sex was the primary reason for lucid dreaming.
Scary lucid dreaming facts.
There are also some scary lucid dreaming facts out there that can scare you.
1. The most common dream sign is a nightmare.
People who became lucid at a young age often had a nightmare that questioned their reality. Even at an older age, a nightmare can still be an amazing dream sign to become lucid.
2. You may experience sleep paralysis.
You can experience sleep paralysis while practicing lucid dreaming. However, this is quite rare and often doesn’t happen a lot. Sleep paralysis itself is not scary, it is only scary if you don’t know about it.
3. Fever lucid dreams.
It is possible to get fever dreams, but it is also possible to experience a fever lucid dream, these are often experienced negatively because you cannot be in control of the lucid dream. However, this is not for everyone the case, it may be experienced quite peacefully or it can feel like a drug trip.
4. You may experience pain from a lucid dream.
You can experience real pain from a lucid dream. For some people, this is a stronger feeling for others it could be muscle pain or mental pain. This happens when you wake up from a lucid dream where you were fighting or seeing something that still causes pain.
5. You can pee yourself.
You can pee yourself from a lucid dream. Do not try to go to a toilet in a lucid dream, there is always a chance that you actually pee yourself. This can happen if you are going to bed when you need to pee, so always go to the toilet before you go to sleep to prevent this from happening.
Final thoughts
These facts are based on research that can be found online, I have added some facts that could be interesting to know as well. I personally like that some facts are so obvious but no one thinks about it!