lucid dreams

Lucid dreams are the conscious perception of one's state while dreaming, resulting in a much clearer (lucid) experience and usually enabling direct control over the content of the dream. Lucid dreams or to be precise lucid dreamers, regularly describe their dreams as exciting, colourful, and fantastic. Many compare it to a spiritual experience and say that it changed their lives or their perception of the world. Some have even reported lucid dreams that take on a hyper-reality, seemingly ‘more real than real‘, where all the elements of reality are amplified. Lucid dreams are prodigiously more memorable than other kinds of dreaming, even nightmares, which may be why they are often prescribed as a means of ridding one's self of troubling dreams.

Many people report having experienced lucid dreams during their lives, often in childhood. Children seem to have lucid dreams more easily than adults do, maybe because they sleep sounder than adults. Although lucid dreaming is a skill that can be learnt, achieving lucid dreams on a regular basis can be difficult and is uncommon, even with training. The ability to remember one's dreams, is very important to lucid dreamers because it is usually desired that the lucid dreamer be able to remember lucid dreams. Improvement of dream recall is usually the first step people take to learn to have lucid dreams. A common practice used to increase dream recall is to keep a dream journal, or a notebook of dreams. The dream journal should be kept right next to the bed so that dreams can be written down as soon as a person wakes up.