Typically, when we dream, we do not know that the dream is not real. Share on Pinterest What is lucid dreaming, and how can you achieve it? In this Spotlight, we look at what qualifies as lucid dreaming, whether these experiences can have any practical applications, and how a person might be able to become a lucid dreamer. Whether or not he is right is a matter for philosophers to debate, but the boundary between dreams and reality is something that lucid dreaming appears to explore. In his much-cited poem A Dream Within A Dream, Edgar Allan Poe wrote, “All that we see or seem/Is but a dream within a dream.” In fact, a number of people are able to experience something called lucid dreaming, and some of them are even able to control certain elements of their nightly dreams.Īccording to some research, around half of all people have had a lucid dream at some time in their lives, and around 11% experience one or two lucid dreams per month. Such feats of dream manipulation may not seem possible to the same extent in our real lives, but they are not altogether absent.

This movie features impressive dream artisans who are able to control the shape and content of their dreams, as well as the dreams of others. Movies such as Inception have popularized lucid dreaming. Lucid dreaming is when a person becomes aware that they are dreaming during the dream.

Lucid dreaming is not only real but is relatively common.

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