Haller

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Leslie Haller
Ms. Lindsay Hastings
Comp II
September 25th, 2016
Persuasive Research Paper on Lucid Dreaming
Imagine youre in a cold, dark forest. The trees around you seem to tower over you with
their prickly branches. The dry leaves crack beneath your feet with every step you take. Crack.
Crack. You stand still. Crack You snap around and look behind you. You see a tall dark
figure standing behind a tree. Blood rushes from your head and your body begins to tense up.
The figure steps closer, crack, and closer, crack, and closer, crack, until it is 30 feet away. The
moonlight shines upon its face. Your heart begins to race when you catch a glimpse of the
creature. You being to run, as fast as you can. All the while, the creature howls and starts
barreling towards you. You see a spec of light, a house. You make way towards it, looking for an
opening. When you reach the door, you turn the handle. Locked. The creature is 50 feet away.
You run to another door. Locked. 40 feet away. You pound on the door. No answer. 25 feet. You
see a doggy door. 15 feet. You sprint towards it, 10 feet, drop to the ground, 5 feet, and try
desperately to fit through the tiny opening but the creature grabs you and- you wake up.
Nightmares, such as this one, can often be a reoccurring dilemma for people. But, imagine being
able to change the outcome and take control of the dream. This ability is called lucid dreaming.
As defined by Stumbrys, a lucid dream is a dream during which the dreamer is aware of the fact
that he or she is dreaming and therefore often can consciously influence the dream content
(1457). Lucid dreaming can be extremely helpful in instances like this, where you can have the
capability to take control of the situation and make it much less frightening. Lucid dreaming can

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also benefit you in less fearsome dreams. Everyone should be more open to attempting to lucid
dream because of its benefits on not only your mental health, but can also help prepare you for
varying situations.
Whenever you go to sleep, your body enters different stages called NREM (Non Rapid
Eye Movement) and REM (Rapid Eye Movement). NREM sleep is categorized into stages N1,
N2, N3, and N4, and REM, 5th and final stage of sleep. But, one must fully complete each cycle
before they reach the REM stage of sleep. If the cycle is disrupted, it will start over again,
commencing with stage N1. The amount of time that is spent in each stage varies. We spend
almost 50 percent of our total sleep time in stage 2 sleep, about 20 percent in REM sleep, and the
remaining 30 percent in the other stages. (Brain Basics: Understanding Sleep) Also, the stages
vary in length at varying times of night. In the beginning of the night, there is less REM sleep,
and then as the night progresses there is more REM sleep and mostly stage two sleep. This
continues until the sleeper wakes up (Shaw 48). Scientists believe that most dreams occur in
stage 5 of sleep. In this stage, the brain produces more activity than when it is in NREM (Natural
Patterns of Sleep). My argument is based on the assumption that you want to remember your
dreams, which relates to being able to lucid dream.
A question that many dreamers pose is this: Why do we often forget our dreams
whenever we wake up? Many a time, whenever one has had a dream, the recollection of it often
fades after we awake. We often wake up, remember that we had dreamed, but we often forget
what exactly we had dreamed about. Freud reports that authors including Strumpell and Calkins
suggest that we often forget very quickly dreams that we know were very vivid, while many
shadowy, faintly perceived images are to be found among those retained in our memory. (39)
However, dreams can be remembered. According to Strongman, REM sleep is also that which is

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inductive to memory of dreams upon wakening (190). So, this means that you are more likely to
remember your dreams if you awake when you are in the REM stage of sleep rather than if you
awake when you are in the NREM stage of sleep. Also, according to recent studies, patients who
are awaken when they are in the REM stage of sleep report to have more recollection of dreams
than when they are awaken in the NREM stage of sleep (Natural Patterns of Sleep). It is
important to be able to remember your dreams because this is a key fact in being able to lucid
dream. If you have a high ability to recollect your dreams, your mind will be more likely to
realize its state of consciousness and in return trigger you to be able to control the dream.
Dreams come from our memories, our experiences, that happened in our life. Somehow,
your brain pulls information from daily life, movies, books, etc., and creates it into a dream. All
the material composing the content of the dream derives in some way from our experience, and
so is reproduced, remembered, in the dream- this at least we may count as undisputed
knowledge (Freud 12). So, depending on what is happening in your life, it may cause you to
have different kinds of dreams. This relates back to being able to lucid dream because depending
on what events are happening in your life, you will be dreaming different scenarios. Say you
have an audition for the play coming up. You could lucid dream the different possibilities that
could come out of that event so you could be more prepared for when you actually audition.
A common fear for dreamers are nightmares. There are two therapeutic approaches to
said terrifying dreams. One is imagery rehearsal therapy (IRT) which, involves developing
pleasant imagery and drawing on past nightmare images to slowly create a new dream, which is
rehearsed 5 to 20 minutes per day (Holzinger 356). This could help you to reduce the frequency
of nightmares by imagining dreams before you go to bed. However, this technique only helps
you to try and prevent nightmares. It wont always work no matter what. The other technique is

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to lucid dream. As stated by Holzinger, this approach allows the sleeper to have a tool which
can be applied when the nightmare occurs (356). According to a study done on the effect that
lucid dreaming training had on the frequency of nightmares, the results returned to be in favor of
lucid dreaming. In this study, 75% of our patients were able to experience cognition in sleep
during a nine-week training program Nightmare frequency was significantly reduced in both
treatment groups The number of nightmares declined from several nightmares per week at
the beginning of therapy to about two nightmares per month (Holzinger 360). Even by
training yourself to be able to lucid dream provides a positive effect in the disappearance of
nightmares. Although the ability to lucid dream is no easy task to accomplish, it isnt all together
impossible. Lucid dreaming is a learnable skill that can and has been achieved by many.
According to Bethan Victoria Smith and Mark Blagrove, It is estimated that 50% of the general
population experiences at least one occurrence of a lucid dream in their lifetime, and
approximately 20% of people are experiencing lucid dreams regularly (i.e., at least once a
month) (291). So, it is not impossible to achieve the ability to lucid dream, seeing as it is a skill
that can be learned. lucid dreaming comes with many benefits, other than the fact that you have
the ability to change the outcome of a nightmare. The benefits of lucid dreaming comprise a
positive change of the personality structure, which manifests itself in the disappearance of
nightmares, increased ego strength, the disappearance of anxiety and obsessive-compulsive
symptoms, increased self-confidence, and emotional safety and balance (Holzinger 356). Lucid
dreaming is a free alternative to helping to cope with negative effects. Along with all these aids,
you could use lucid dreaming to help you prepare for an event that may happen in your life. You
can dream a scenario and play out different outcomes so that you would be prepared for

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whatever may come your way. For example, if you were nervous about a speech that you needed
to present, you could lucid dream the scenario to help you prepare for the event.
Sometimes, you may be lucid dreaming and not even realize it. Some dreams are more
lucid than others, which will cause you to realize that you are in fact lucid dreaming. Stumbrys
states, It is important to acknowledge that dream lucidity is not an all-or-nothing phenomenon
but rather a continuum with different degrees: some dreams can be more lucid than others
(1457). Depending on the lucidity of the dream, you will be more conscious of your state and
some dreams will allow you to be more controlling of the events that take place.
One downside to attempting to lucid dream is the fact that you may fail. One must be able
to distinguish primary consciousness, which allows one to experience the present moment
without a sense of past or future (Busby) and secondary consciousness, which is the ability to
have awareness of awareness (like self-reflection) as well as volition and access to memories
and future plans (Busby). Lucid dreaming is a hard skill to perfect and may take several tries to
be successful. The application of primary and secondary consciousness to dreaming is rendered
difficult by the fact that non-lucid dreams potentially blur their respective distinguishing
features (Voss 9). So if you cant master the recollection of regular dreams, it will be very
difficult to accomplish lucid dreaming. However, lucid dreaming is not all together impossible,
as proven by the studies that I have mentioned earlier, and can be achieved with practice.
Lucid dreaming can be extremely beneficial to you in many ways. As stated in the
previous paragraphs, lucid dreaming can not only improve your mental health, but can also help
you prepare for different real life scenarios. Even though it is no easy task to accomplish, lucid
dreaming is an attainable skill, if practiced enough.

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Works Cited
Busby, Zachary Lucid Dreaming and its Insights into Consciousness REM Sleep Macalester
EDU
http://www.macalester.edu/academics/psychology/whathap/UBNRP/Website_REM_Slee
p/lucidConsciousness.html Accessed on October 24th, 2016
"Brain Basics: Understanding Sleep." U.S National Library of Medicine. U.S. National Library
of Medicine, 25 July 2014.
http://www.ninds.nih.gov/disorders/brain_basics/understanding_sleep.htm Accessed on
01 Oct. 2016.
Freud, Sigmund, and James. Strachey. The Interpretation of Dreams. [8th ed., rev.]. New York:
Avon, 1965. Print. Discus book.
Holzinger, B., G. Klsch, and B. Saletu. "Studies With Lucid Dreaming As Add-On Therapy To
Gestalt Therapy." Acta Neurologica Scandinavica 131.6 (2015): 355-363. Academic
Search Complete. Web. 1 Oct. 2016.
"Natural Patterns of Sleep." Healthy Sleep. Division of Sleep Medicine, WGBH Educational
Foundation, 18 Dec. 2007.
http://healthysleep.med.harvard.edu/healthy/science/what/sleep-patterns-rem-nrem
Accessed on 01 Oct. 2016.
Schredl, Michael, and Anja S. G;ritz. "Changes In Dream Recall Frequency, Nightmare
Frequency, And Lucid Dream Frequency Over A 3-Year Period." Dreaming 25.2 (2015):
81-87. Academic Search Complete. Web. 1 Oct. 2016.
Shaw, Bryony Developments in the Neuroscience of Dreams Academic Search Complete Nov.
1-2, 2016

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Smith, Bethan Victoria, and Mark Blagrove. "Lucid Dreaming Frequency And Alarm Clock
Snooze Button Use." Dreaming 25.4 (2015): 291-299. Academic Search Complete. Web.
2 Oct. 2016.
Strongman, Luke. Conscious States of Dreaming. Journal Of Mind & Behavior 35.4 (2014):
189-200. SocINDEX with Full Text. Web. 20 Sept. 2016
Stumbrys, Tadas, et al. "Induction Of Lucid Dreams: A Systematic Review Of Evidence."
Consciousness & Cognition 21.3 (2012): 1456-1475. Academic Search Complete. Web. 3
Oct. 2016.
Voss, Ursula, et al. Measuring Consciousness In Dreams: The Lucidity And Consciousness In
Dreams Scale. Conscioiusness & Cognition 22.1 (2013): 8-21. Academic Search
Complete. Web 6 Oct. 2016