Lucid dreaming and the subconscious

A lucid dream is a dream in which you know you’re dreaming. Sometimes you can even steer what happens. Here’s a short look at where the idea comes from, what we know about it, how people learn to do it, and why it interests people who do inner work.

An old practice

People have been interested in lucid dreaming for a long time. In Tibetan Buddhism, dream yoga uses dreams as a path to enlightenment: a way to explore the nature of reality and to prepare for death. In ancient Greece, Aristotle wrote that sometimes, while we sleep, something in us recognizes that what we’re seeing is only a dream.

Many Indigenous cultures, including many Native American peoples, have long treated dreams as a source of guidance and a link to the ancestors.

What happens in the brain

Most vivid dreaming happens during REM (rapid eye movement) sleep, when the brain is almost as active as it is awake. A few small brain-imaging studies suggest that in lucid dreams, areas at the front of the brain linked to self-reflection are more active than in ordinary REM dreams. Some researchers describe lucid dreaming as a hybrid of waking and dreaming.

Nobody fully agrees on what triggers it. People who practice self-awareness during the day, through meditation or mindfulness, often say it’s easier for them to become lucid. Intention seems to matter too: people who think about lucid dreaming and want to have one tend to have them more often. Waking in the night and going back to sleep can also help (more on that below). And some people have lucid dreams on their own, with no practice at all.

Ways to practice

Lucid dreaming can also be learned. These are the most common techniques.

1. Mindfulness and meditation. Some people find that a regular mindfulness practice carries into their dreams, so they’re more likely to notice when they’re dreaming. Meditating before sleep with the intention to become aware in your dreams can help as well.
2. A dream journal. Write your dreams down as soon as you wake. It improves dream recall, which you need for lucid dreaming, and it makes you familiar with your own dream world, so you’re more likely to recognize it.
3. Reality checks. Several times a day, ask yourself whether you’re dreaming and do a simple test: look at a digital clock, read some text, or try to push a finger through the palm of your hand. In a dream these often go strangely. If you make it a habit when awake, it can carry over into your dreams.
4. MILD (mnemonic induction of lucid dreams). Developed by Dr. Stephen LaBerge, it means waking after a period of sleep and, before falling back asleep, telling yourself you’ll remember that you’re dreaming, often while picturing yourself becoming lucid.
5. Wake-back-to-bed. Wake after five or six hours of sleep, stay up for 15 to 60 minutes, then go back to sleep intending to dream lucidly. Later in the night is when REM sleep tends to run longest, which is when lucid dreams are most likely.
6. Cues while you sleep. Some people use sleep masks or apps that play a sound or flash a light during REM sleep, meant to show up in the dream as a signal that you’re dreaming.
7. Good sleep habits. A regular sleep schedule, a comfortable bedroom and no caffeine close to bedtime all help you sleep well, and good sleep gives you more chances to dream.

Exploring the subconscious

In a lucid dream you’re awake inside the part of the mind you usually only meet through dreams. That’s what draws many people to it.

Dreams often bring up feelings and thoughts we push aside during the day. In a lucid dream you can meet them on purpose: turn toward a fear instead of running from it, or ask a dream figure what it wants. Some people find it helps them work through inner conflicts. Psychologists have also looked at lucid dreaming as a way to help with recurring nightmares.

People also use lucid dreams to try out different sides of themselves, to rehearse, or to look at a problem from a new angle. Artists, writers and musicians have long reported finding ideas in their dreams.

The spiritual side

For many dreamers the experience goes beyond psychology. Lucid dreamers often report a loosening of the usual sense of self, feelings of deep peace, a sense of being connected to everything, or encounters with figures and symbols that feel spiritual. Many traditions see lucid dreaming as a chance to meet deeper parts of the self.

Lucid dreaming is also a place to practice qualities many spiritual paths value, like mindfulness, compassion and letting go. Learning to be present and act with intention inside a dream is practice you can bring back into your waking life.