During dreams, bizarre scenes you encounter can seem as tangible as reality; you feel as though you’re really flying through the sky or being chased through a jungle of bright-purple trees. But in special cases, people realize they’re in the midst of a dream as it’s unfolding.
Called lucid dreaming, this phenomenon occurs when we suddenly regain our capacity for metacognition, or thinking about our own thoughts, in the middle of a dream. Lucid dreamers can sometimes even control the content or trajectory of their dreams. Now, researchers claim that they’ve found a way to “train” people to lucid dream by having them meditate and complete virtual-reality-augmented exercises while they’re awake.
In a study involving a few dozen participants, the scientists found that repeating this training twice a week for a month significantly increased how often participants experienced lucid dreaming. They say the approach could have practical applications as an intervention for people with nightmares, anxiety or post-traumatic stress disorder — but those applications are theoretical, for now.
If you could learn how to lucid dream, would you? Let us know in the poll below, and add your thoughts in the comments.
