A strange, scary or simply unusual situation is happening. You already feel nervous, distressed, afraid or uncomfortable and… wake up! The relief of knowing it was just a dream - or nightmare - is great. Now, imagine being able to identify that you are dreaming, and not actually experiencing a situation, while you are still in the dream? What if the dream is incredible - the kind where you fly or have powers you've always wanted - and you realize that you're dreaming, but you could stay there, without waking up, to enjoy the moment? This is possible when we are able to have lucid dreams and remain in them.

The lucid dream is a state of consciousness of someone who realizes dreaming while still asleep. Researchers have already realized that this can be more common in children and become more rare when the young person reaches 16 years of age. Therefore, they proposed a link between the natural occurrence of lucid dreams and the maturation of the brain. There are findings pointing to the fact that lucid dreams are a single state of consciousness separate from any other state of mind. In addition, scholars have also noticed that certain cortical areas of the brain are activated while this type of dream happens. These three surveys were cited in an article on Medical News Today about dreams.

It's dangerous?

If lucid dreams don't happen to you very naturally, before knowing instructions that can help you “dream lucidly”, it is important to understand that some dangers are pointed out, which according to this article , would be small, but exist. For example, difficulty in distinguishing between reality and dreams would be one of the dangers, but this would happen more when it comes to remembering whether a memory you have was really lived or only dreamed of, and less in moments of questioning: now?".

Another risk pointed out is that you become, in a way, addicted to the practice of trying to stay in a lucid dream, and this disrupts your routine by wanting to spend more time sleeping and making several attempts.

How to have lucid dreams

Before attempting to induce lucid dreams, it is important to research more about the subject in reliable sources, in addition to paying attention to possible risks. A search of the School of Psychology at the University of Adelaide, published in the journal Dreaming, found a specific combination of techniques that can increase the chances of reaching these dreams. Until then, there were other techniques to achieve a lucid dream, but which, according to the researchers, did not have good efficiency rates.

The study involved three groups of participants and investigated the effectiveness of three different techniques for inducing lucid dreams:

• 1st Reality test - check your environment several times a day, to see whether or not you are dreaming.
• 2nd Waking up and going back to bed - After five hours sleeping, waking up and staying without sleep for a short period of time, then falling back asleep to enter the REM sleep period (acronym in English that means “rapid eye movement” and refers to one of the phases of sleep, in which dreams are more likely to happen).
• 3rd mnemonic induction of lucid dreams - When you wake up after five hours of sleep, the idea is to develop the intention to remember that you are dreaming before going back to sleep. For this, the technique is to repeat to yourself the phrase "the next time I'm dreaming, I'll remember that I'm dreaming". Another technique is to imagine yourself in a lucid dream.

One of the researchers, Dr. Aspy, explains that the MILD technique “works in what we call 'prospective memory' - that is, your ability to remember to do things in the future. Repeating a phrase that you will remember that you are dreaming, forms an intention in your mind that you will, in fact, remember that you are dreaming, leading to a lucid dream “. He further explains that, among the participants, the lucid dreaming technique "had no negative effect on the quality of sleep" the next day.

Among the group of 47 people who combined the three techniques, the participants had a 17% success rate in having lucid dreams during the period of a week. Among those who managed to sleep in the first five minutes after performing the MILD technique, the success rate of lucid dreams was higher: in almost 46% of attempts.

These dreams can help you solve problems

Another research , from 2014 and released by the magazine of the International Association for the Study of Dreams (Dreaming Magazine), says that those who have lucid dreams are better at solving problems while they are awake. This result was noticed by experts from the University of Lincoln, in the United Kingdom.

The film “Inception”, from 2010, talks about lucid dreams. The characters perceive inconsistencies in the dream situation and then identify that they are actually dreaming. Possibly, people who manage to identify these elements that do not make much sense and, therefore, “catch the dream in the act”, are able to do this because they have a higher level of insight. In the end, the brain detects that it is in a dream because in real life it would not make much sense what is happening there.

But how can this ability to realize that you are dreaming mean good development to resolve issues? This cognitive ability translates into finding solutions to problems, while the person is awake, realizing hidden solutions or inconsistencies, according to the researchers.

The research is by Patrick Bourke, Senior Professor at the School of Psychology at Lincoln University, who was assisted by then student Hannah Shaw. “It is believed that in order for dreamers to become lucid while sleeping, they need to see beyond the overwhelming reality of their dream state and recognize that they are dreaming. The same cognitive ability was found to be demonstrated, while awake, by a person's ability to think differently when it comes to solving problems, ”explains Bourke. So, the basic idea is to "think outside the box".

The study was the first to analyze the relationship between lucid dreams and insights, so the field still has a lot to explore. 68 participants were examined, aged between 18 and 25 years. Some have never had lucid dreams, others have experienced them several times a month. Everyone was asked to solve thirty problems, to test their perception. The questions followed the same logic: three words were given that could be combined to arrive at another word that lists them all. Example: sand, mile and age were three words whose result would be "stone". In the end, the researchers realized that lucid dreamers solved problems 25% more times than non-lucid dreamers.