Lucid Dreaming

What is a lucid dream?

A lucid dream is a dream during which the dreamer becomes aware that they are dreaming, while the dream itself continues. The moment of recognition often comes from something odd, a door that leads to the sea, a dead relative chatting at the table, and with it comes a clear thought: this is a dream. Some lucid dreams last only a few seconds before the dreamer wakes; others continue for a while, with the dreamer able to look around, ask questions or change the direction of the scene.

Lucidity comes in degrees:

• Brief recognition: you realise you are dreaming, then lose the thought or wake up.
• Observing: you stay aware and watch the dream unfold without steering it.
• Partial control: you can choose some actions, such as flying, opening a door or speaking to a figure.
• Strong lucidity: awareness is clear and stable, though the dream still surprises you.

Lucid dreams differ from vivid ordinary dreams, which can be intense without the dreamer ever knowing they are dreaming, and from the half-awake images of falling asleep. They also sit close to false awakenings, dreams in which you seem to wake up, get dressed or reach for your phone, only to wake again for real. Many people notice their first lucid moment during such a scene, when something in the familiar bedroom looks wrong.

A person who dreams of being chased and then thinks “I’m dreaming, I can turn around” is having a lucid dream.

Where the term lucid dreaming comes from

Awareness within dreams has been described since antiquity: Aristotle noted that while asleep, something in the mind can sometimes declare that what appears is only a dream. Tibetan Buddhist dream yoga, a practice centuries old, trains awareness in dreams as part of a wider spiritual path.

In 1867 the French scholar Hervey de Saint-Denys published a book describing how he had trained himself, over years of dream notes, to notice and guide his own dreams. The English term goes back to the Dutch psychiatrist and writer Frederik van Eeden, who in 1913 published a study of his own dreams and called this type “lucid dreams”. In the late 1970s and early 1980s researchers, including Keith Hearne in England and Stephen LaBerge in the United States, showed in sleep laboratories that dreamers could signal with agreed eye movements while they were lucid, which confirmed that the experience happens during sleep, mostly during the phase of rapid eye movement.

Since then, lucid dreaming has become a subject both of research and of popular practice, and many dream journals now include notes on lucid moments.

Working with lucid dreams

Start with remembering. People who recall their dreams have more chances to notice when they are dreaming. Keeping a dream journal by the bed and writing as soon as you wake is the usual first step.

Notice what tips you off. Many dreamers become lucid when something impossible happens. Writing down these recurring oddities, a house with extra rooms, clocks that change, can help you recognise them next time.

Read the content, not only the feat. A lucid dream is still made of your images. What you were doing when awareness arrived, and what you chose to do next, can be reflected on like any dream symbol. Flying away from a conflict and turning to face it say different things.

Ask a figure a question. Many lucid dreamers, instead of flying or changing the scene, turn to a person or an animal in the dream and ask what it wants or who it is. The answer, however strange, is often the part of the dream most worth writing down.

Keep a record, not a score. Include ordinary dreams alongside lucid ones in your journal. Record whether awareness was brief or sustained, what you noticed and what you chose to do; the absence of lucidity does not make a dream less worth examining.

Keep it separate from prediction. Being aware inside a dream does not make the dream a prophecy. It is an inner experience, worth noticing for what it shows about you.

Lucid dream examples

Turning towards the pursuer. A student who often dreams of being chased realises in one dream that it is a dream. She stops, turns and asks the figure what it wants. The figure answers, “You never rest.” The reply makes rest the subject of this dream. Compare it with the student’s own feelings and recent routine, and note whether the words felt reassuring, accusing or surprising.

Flying over the old neighbourhood. A man becomes lucid and chooses to fly. He finds himself over the streets where he grew up. The choice of destination is as telling as the flight: his attention went back to a place of belonging.

Opening a locked door. A woman, lucid in a dream of her office, opens a door that is always locked when she is awake. Behind it is a bright, empty studio. Read the contrast between the familiar workplace, restricted access and an unoccupied creative space. Ask what she felt on entering and what she chose to do there.

Lucidity that ends the dream. Sometimes the moment of recognition wakes the dreamer at once. That is common. The useful part is often the image just before waking, which can be written down and read like any other dream.