Storytime Tapestry Newsletter

The newsletter devoted to spreading love and cultural awareness around the world.

All About Dreams – A Martha Jette Column

April 17, 2007

Martha Jette, friend and author will now be taking over the dreams column formerly presented by Parthena Black of Bella Online.  Many of you know Martha and will agree that her columns are always fresh and exciting.  Martha explains the unexplainable with style and grace.

Often, dreams can seem very real. Last week, I wrote about sleep paralysis and how one can truly believe that what is happening in a dream is actually occurring in real life. Another example of how dreams can seem like reality is lucid dreaming. In fact, it seems the two sleep experiences can actually overlap each other.

The Dutch poet and writer Frederik van Eeden was the first to use the term lucid dreaming. Lucid dreaming or “conscious dreaming” is defined as: “dreaming while knowing that you are dreaming.” This type of dream generally occurs when you are in the middle of a regular dream during REM (rapid eye movement) sleep. Suddenly, you become aware that you are dreaming and that what you are dreaming is a product of your own mind.

When this occurs, you may be able to control what happens in the dream. For instance, if you are having a nightmare about someone chasing you, you can take action to stop him from attacking you or if you are arguing with someone, you can change the conversation. The possibilities are endless and I’m sure many of you would have liked that kind of ability at some point in your dreams.

There are four levels of lucidity including:

1)      Pre-lucid in which you just feel that something isn’t right, but you can’t quite figure it out. You don’t fully realize it is a dream until you awaken.

2)      Low-level lucidity occurs when you are temporarily aware that you are dreaming, but are unable to become fully involved in the dream.

3)      High lucidity happens when you realize fully that you are dreaming and therefore know you are in no real danger. At this point, you can alter or change the dream sequence. You will recognize this state because colors, sounds, scents, etc. are much more distinct.

4)      Absolute lucidity occurs the moment you fall asleep and you know right away that you have control over the dream.

Until the 1970s scientists did not believe it was possible to remain conscious while dreaming and dismissed such claims as fantasy. However, tests conducted by dream researcher Stephen Laberge of the Lucidity Institute proved otherwise. See: http://www.lucidity.com/

But how does one acquire this skill? Most often it happens by chance, but there are ways to induce it. Here are a few steps you can take to improve your chances.

1)      Improve dream recall: As soon as you wake, write down your dreams in a dream journal or immediately type what you remember into a file on your computer. With every second that passes upon awakening, we loose recall of our dreams but if you write them down immediately, this tells the brain that you are serious about remembering them. If you awaken during the night with dream recall, don’t wait until morning to record the information.

2)      Mnemonic induction: Just before falling asleep, tell your subconscious that you will remember your dreams and that you will realize when you are dreaming. Try chanting your intentions to yourself as you nod off. As you become more skilled at this, you can also add the desire to wake up during a lucid dream, so you can better remember it.

3)      Alternative: Ask for help to remember your dream from your subconscious, your Higher Self, God, the Universe, your spirit guide or whoever else strikes your fancy.l

4)      Practice: Repeat steps 1) and 2) until you are successful.

5)      Reality checks: During waking hours conduct a reality check by noticing your surroundings. Then when you are dreaming do another reality check to see if everything is the same. These reality checks, which should be done regularly will help you realize when you are dreaming, since a dream may very well include, omit or change items from reality. (For instance, a particular piece of furniture is different or has been moved.  A clock has only one hand when it should have two.)

6)      As well, dreams often include people and things that just don’t make sense, so these too will trigger your brain to realize you are dreaming. A couple of tricks include trying to holding your nose and breathing through your fingers or sticking a finger through your opposite hand. If you can do anything like this, you’re obviously dreaming.

7)      Naps: Lucid dreaming most often occurs naturally when one is between wakefulness and sleeping. Try taking a nap a few hours after waking in the morning, since this is a time when you can fall into REM sleep, but still remain partially aware.

8)      Water trick: Consciously drink half a glass of water upon retiring. While doing so, tell yourself that you are going to dream and remember it. Then visualize waking up, drinking the other half of the water and remembering your dream. Your subconscious will eventually be triggered to let you remember your dream when you finish the water.

9)      Electronic aids:  An electronic lucidity device works by detecting your eye movements in REM sleep and reacts by giving a light signal, sound signal or both to cue you that you are lucid. However, it still takes some practice to recognize the signals and such aids can be expensive.

10)   Lucid foods:  I don’t know if there is any real validity to this or not, but apparently there are foods that can help you become lucid. Information at http://www.alt.dreams.lucid suggests eating any of the following half an hour before sleeping: milk and diary products, pickles and mustard, fresh fruit juice, bananas, lettuce, popcorn, fish, pistachio nuts, ice cream.

11)   Software: You can use your computer and special software to play a sound file at a self-determined time and interval. You will hear the sound in your dream to realize you are dreaming. You can use something like Dreamscape by Daprean, which offers a loud ticking clock that chimes three times or Dreamwatcher 1.0 by Rayor featuring a voice that states: “You are dreaming!”

What to expect?

Explore the fantasy world of lucid dreaming

Last week, I wrote about sleep paralysis and this is one of the things you might experience during lucid dreaming. However, once you realize that you are just dreaming you will know that you have nothing to fear. You may also experience “false awakening” whereby you think you’re awake, but you’re not.

You may also have a dream wherein you’re actually talking about dreams, writing them down or something similar. For instance, you may be dreaming you are in a room with beautiful furniture. You turn to someone and say, “Wow! I saw furniture just like this in my dreams. Hmm… I am dreaming!”

You may hear strange sounds as well, such as a swishing, humming or zooming. During regular sleep you don’t hear these things, but they do occur. You might also feel like you’re going very quickly through a tunnel or that you’re twirling around, rocking, flying or suddenly falling. While all these things may indicate that you are entering a lucid dream state, you might also be heading toward an OBE (out of body experience), but let’s leave that for another article. Either way, don’t panic, as both states are quite normal.

Since lucid dreaming allows you to do things you can’t do in real life, seize the opportunity and enjoy it! Fly to new heights, explore the universe, talk to famous people or ask questions and learn new things. Got a problem? Ask for a solution. You can even ask what particular dream symbols mean. Reach a new awareness of self. Search for the Light or God for answers, explore or relive a past life, contact your spirit guide or angels. Nothing is too far out there and you are only limited by your imagination!

There are countless books now available to further help you on the road to lucid dreaming. Just a few include: Creative Dreaming by Patricia Garfield, Dreaming While Awake by Arnold Mindell, Exploring the World of Lucid Dreaming by Stephen Laberge, Lucid Dreaming by Celia Green and Charles McCreery, Lucid Dreams in 30 Days by Keith Harary and Pamela Weintraub, The Art of Dreaming by Carlos Castaneda, The Conscious Exploration of Dreaming by Jay Vogelsong, Janice Brooks and J. Allan Hobson, and Tibetan Yogas of Dream and Sleep by Tibetan Yogi Tenzin Wangyal.

Sources:

http://www.wikihow.com/Have-a-Lucid-Dream

http://www.ld4all.com/