What is lucid dreaming? An Ouslet Perspective

Normally, we are passive observers in your dreamland. Dreams can feel extremely real, but sense of reality where the events going on inside your dream are, simply, out of your control.

Ever curious of what would happen if you “woke up” during your dream? I mean, it’s literally a figment of your imagination. Being aware of the fact you are dreaming is the secret to lucid dreaming. You know you’re asleep, you know what you’re seeing is just a mirage from your brain… and yet there you are.

Would you be able to change your dream as you see fit? Maybe you start flying. Maybe you rob a bank or hike up Mount Everest in 20 seconds. Maybe you’re super boring and just Netflix and chill inside your dream.

While lucid dream earns an ethereal and esoteric reputation, it’s a very real scientific phenomenon. Scientists can tell when someone is lucid dream, in fact. Their eyes during REM move according to the reality inside the patient’s dream. And boy, some people have serious imagination’s on them. The society and world we create in a dream state may reveal layers of your consciousness you have trouble accessing during the waking day!

Master of Your Reality: Why Lucid Dreaming is so Powerful

To frame the secrets of lucid dreaming in a more scientific context, it helps to know that roughly 55% of adults have lucid dreamed at least once in their life. A quarter of them experience dreaming once a month, and barely 10% have regular lucid dream experiences.

And this may be a good thing, for while lucid dreaming is the definition of a “trippy” spiritual experience, it leaves the dreamer exhausted. Studies show that brain waves during lucid dreams are neither that of a waking state or REM sleep… it’s some weird hybrid in the middle.

Amazingly, the exact cause of function of lucid dreaming is still a confounding secret to scientists. However, a recent study suggested that lucid dreamers have a strong connection between three main networks in the brain:

- The frontoparietal network, responsible for executive decision-making by interacting with other control networks across the brain.

- The Default mode network (DMN), which lights up when individuals are focused on introspective topics, metacognitive functions, and memory retrieval – anything unrelated to the external environment.

The Dorsal Attention Network, one of two sensory orienting systems in the brain. The DAN is related to what we voluntarily decide to take in as sensory information and what cues we respond to when choosing where to direct our attention

The scientific curiosity behind lucid dreaming does not seem to be slowing down. In fact, as hyper realistic video games and virtual reality/metaverse activities become more popular in society, lucid dreaming will continue to be explored.

Lucid dreaming may help you answer this question:

Read more on how to lucid dream here