June 4, 2012
Taking Control of Your Dreams
Technology may help you shape your dreams. Photo courtesy of Flickr user Kaptain Kobold
Two summers ago the concept of lucid dreaming took a spin in the swirl of pop culture when the movie Inception hit the big screen. Its core premise is that a master corporate spy, played by Leonardo DiCaprio, could not only hack into the dreams of other people to steal secrets, but also manipulate their subconscious thinking.
Unfortunately, what most people remember about the film is the scene featured in the ad campaign in which DiCaprio demonstrates the notion of shared dreaming to co-star Ellen Page by exploding, in beautifully choreographed slow-motion, the streetscape around them–suggesting, more than anything, that in his dream world, Leo’s character is a 12-year-old boy.
Despite the movie’s success–or, maybe more likely, because of it–lucid dreaming remains, for most people, the stuff of sci-fi. But a growing body of research shows that humans can take control of their own dreams and now there’s a mini-boom of devices designed to help them do it.
First, a little history. Buddhists have been engaging is something called “dream yoga” for at least 1,000 years and no one less than Aristotle weighed in on the ability of our conscious mind to realize when we’re dreaming. But once 13th-century Catholic theologian Thomas Aquinas portrayed dreams as largely the work of Satan, scholars pretty much steered clear of the subject for the next 700 years. A Dutch psychiatrist, Frederik Willem van Eeden, invented the term “lucid dreaming” about 100 years ago, but it wasn’t until the 1970s that a Stanford scientist named Stephen LaBerge started doing serious research on the bridge between our conscious and dreaming states.
Sound and effects
Now, not surprisingly, mobile apps have entered the picture. A research project launched at the Edinburgh Science Festival in April by Richard Wiseman, a psychologist at the University of Hertfordshire in England, is built around an iPhone app called Dream:ON.
It gives you a choice of 20 “soundscapes”–one theme is “Peaceful Garden, another, “Space Shuttle,” another “A Trip to Tokyo.” Your sounds start playing early in the morning, during your last period of REM sleep, the state in which you’re most likely to dream. The app will assume you’re in REM if your smartphone doesn’t detect any movement in your bed. In theory, the sounds become part of your dream. And to increase the odds of lucidity happening, some soundscapes include a voiceover reminding you that you’re dreaming and that you can take control of what’s unfolding inside your brain.
Users who want to be part of Wiseman’s experiment are asked to record their dreams as soon as the app’s alarm wakes them. Already, the Dream: ON app has been downloaded more than 500,000 times and dreamers reportedly are filling out as many as 30,000 reports a night. So far, says Wiseman, the sounds are affecting the dreams of about 30 percent of the people using the app.
New York inventors Duncan Frazier and Steve McGuigan have taken a different approach. Instead of incorporating sound to help people shape their dreams, they use light. They’ve created a sleep mask they call the Remee, which comes with six red LED lights and runs on a three-volt battery.
The device waits until a person is four to five hours into their night’s sleep–a time when periods of REM sleep tend to last longer–then begins flashing the lights in a pattern that lasts 15 to 20 seconds. It’s a visual cue meant to remind the person that they’re dreaming, which is key to having them take control of what happens.
Clearly, there’s lots of interest in driving dreams. When Frazier and McGuigan posted their idea on Kickstarter, they hoped to raise $35,000. More than 6,500 people have pledged almost $600,000 to help them out.
While you were sleeping
Here are other recent developments in sleep and dream research:
- So much for the light at the end of the tunnel: At least that’s the conclusion of Michael Raduga, head of the Out-of-Body Experience Research Center in Los Angeles. Volunteers trained in lucid dreaming were able to recreate the classic near-death experience of leaving their bodies and flying through a tunnel to a light at the end of it. That, says Raduga, suggests that the experience may just be “the result of spontaneous and hyper-realistic lucid dreams, induced by narcosis or brain damage during dying,” and not evidence of life after death. The study has not yet been peer-reviewed.
- Your Etch-a-Sketch brain: A study at the University of Wisconsin boosts the belief that sleep is critical to the brain being ready to learn and process new information. Based on his research, psychologist Giulio Tononi theorizes that during sleep, the brain breaks connections and wipes itself clean of unnecessary impressions.
- Asleep at the wheel: French scientists say sleepy drivers are almost as dangerous as drunk ones.
- Sleep more, weigh less: People who sleep less than seven hours a night are more at risk of gaining weight due to genetic factors. That’s one of the conclusions of a study of more than 1,000 pairs of twins by the University of Washington Medicine Sleep Center.
- Or do we have a serious zombies problem?: Almost one out of every three people say they’ve gone sleepwalking at least once in their lives. And, according to a study published in Neurology, 3.6 percent of those surveyed remembered taking at least one nighttime stroll during the past year.
Audio bonus: Still not sure about the value of lucid dreaming? Listen to this Radiolab piece on a man who was able to confront a stranger who’d been haunting his dreams for 20 years.
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Lucid dreaming is very simply the very coolest thing you can possibly experience whilst laying in a bed with your consciousness entirely unaware of the world around you.
The moment when lucidity ‘kicks in,’ when your waking consciousness engages with the supranormal reality of your dreaming brain, is one so shocking and amazing that I would say it rivals orgasm. Lucid dreaming could just as easily be called “sleep gobsmackery.”
Well, for me, “DreamZ” app worked even better then “Dream:On”, even though I really enjoyed using it. Both are cool apps..
Lucid dreaming rocks!
I personally don’t subscribe to the idea that lucid dreaming can be totally controlled. You always here stories about it, but it’s usually one thing in the dream that was controlled. I have yet to see a person that could force the same dream every night perfectly. There is always more factors in the dream that are beyond the dreamers control than are under their control. Mostly this is because dreams are symbolic reflections of the dreamers waking life, not toys you can just pick up and put down.
i started controlling my dreams around the age of 12. as chase mentions it’s not complete control like in the movies but i found myself able to recognize recurring dreams and change the outcome–especially when the outcome was bad. i’m able to dictate many things in the dream but there are still many others that seem to be beyond my control. i can also wake myself from dreaming when it gets particularly intense or frightening or stupid.
the only trick i ever used was to develop a strong belief that i could, in fact, control my dreams.
i would love to controll my dreams in night i wish i had the device
What I want to know is why my dreams always have an unpleasant outcome (for me). When I wake up, I am always relieved that they’re not true. Most times I am frustrated in my dreams, trying desperately to accomplish things that should be achievable but always go wrong.. Does that indicate I’m really a frustrated person in life, or is that most people’s dream experience? Dream control sounds fantastic!
Considering the most likely function of dreaming, organization of short and mid term memory into long term memory storage, this could be a dangerous procedure. If this process is altered by directed dreaming it could impact how the brain stores information. I suggest considerable caution when using this procedure.
I love lucid dreaming! It’s the best! It helps to keep a dream journal as well, keeps the idea fresh in your mind. I use a really cool online dream journal at http://www.dreamjournal.net, it’s free and very easy to use.
Sweet dreams!
Kelly
I’ve published a theory that dreams follow an emotional pattern. Unless the dream plot is disrupted by external influences such as noises, every dream begins with what the inner self loves, proceeds in the early-middle section with what is desired, continues in late-middle with what is undesirable, and ends with what is hated. Some dreams seem to end happily, but such “happiness” will be in relation to distressing topics and accordingly will be an unrealistic emotion which the inner self hates. Anyway, dreams can be controlled by mental exercises as one is falling asleep, but one’s dreams will continue to follow the love-desire-nondesire-hatred. One of the easiest and most effective of those falling-asleep exercises is to observe your thoughts and when you spot a happy thought whisper it aloud. This may help you have happy dreams.
I’m strongly supportive of ProfChuck’s cautionary statement. Lucid dreams can also help provide answers and concrete solutions to problems (as a scientist friend often reports). Symbolic information to understanding events and unresolved issues fill my dreams when I pay attention and them in my dream journal.
While in PTSD recovery, I was taught that I could change my nightmares. Some dreams were actual events that occurred, some were fears of possible future violence. My therapist slowly empowered me to realize that these were in fact, dreams and that I could alter the outcomes. This was a huge part of my recovery. Since then my nightmares are rare; I have used the technique to enjoy a night of flying or diving. Mostly I just sleep in peace.
The mind is a marvelously complex thing. I do know that sometimes when I am confronted by a particularly difficult problem I “assign” my subconscious the task of solving it. Quite often the process works and solutions that were not available to the conscious present themselves seemingly out of no where. It has been said that the conscious mind represents less than ten percent of mental activity. I suspect that the number is closer to one tenth of one percent or even less. Dreaming seems to perform a vital function to mental processes. Virtually all mammals dream, (I know my dog does) it is not exclusive to humans. We don’t really understand why but it must be important and should only be tampered with very carefully.
As a physician and practicing Buddhist, I have experienced “lucid dreaming” quite often. But it is usually an observational or awareness state, not an overt (or covert) way to manipulate dream content.
I learned to swim after a lucid dream experience in college. Beforehand I could not put my face in the water. In my dream I had fallen in a river. I remember floating downward, on my back, looking a sheer wall on my left, in crystal clear water, able to breathe. I realized I was breathing, and reasoned that I must be dreaming, and relaxed and enjoyed the experience.
When I awoke and went for my next swimming lesson I no longer had any fear of putting my face in the water and went on to not only swim but to enjoy the 3 meter diving board, too.
A bonus was getting the last laugh on those guys who teased me about not being able to put my face in the water, when they were too scared to dive, a couple of them even from the 1 meter board!
I have had a few lucid dreams but only controlled one. I have also had one or two dreams within dreams. I woke up and was still dreaming! What do you call that?
I started teaching my younger sister how to control her dreams when I was about 5 or 6, I can not recall not knowing how to do it…I would also program our dreams by asking her or telling a mini story….ie.”We will go to candyland where ther are lemonade springs….” (got that idea from a song)or we are going to meet some fairies…as a child my son never once recounted having nor woke from a nightmare, I was amazed there was a name for this…but better often are amazing dreams that come to me without control, I love watching where they go, but often I know that I am dreaming…also I can change things in the dream…My son has commented that he dreams so much he awakes tired and I can relate.
I first had a lucid dream before I was ten when I heard my own voice tell me that I was “just dreaming” during a recurring nightmare. From that point on, nightmares became fun and not nasty. I didn’t realize that lucid dreaming was unusual until my college years. Now, at 64 I seem to dream less and when lucid, it is more the third person watching than directly participating.
Lucid dreaming is not something that you need to purchase any type of device to do. There are simple steps to help yourself maintain or gain/regain lucidity in dreams. One thing is to fall asleep calmly, relaxed, and slowly. You also need to be in a consistent sleep routine (the hardest part for me). Another very simple but effective method is to set an alarm during waking hours, a simple but recognizable sound effect, and each time the alarm goes off take a look around you and figure out whether you are awake or dreaming. One way to check is to look for any number, then look at it again. In a dream, almost 100% of the time numbers will not stay the same if you look away (strange huh?). Also, you can look at the ground, most dreamers aren’t able to directly look at the ground. Do this “Waking-Check” 3-5 times during your waking day, until it becomes routine, then once accustomed, set the alarm (with the SAME sound) to go off an hour after you fall asleep. You will then hear the sound in your dream, and will routinely perform the same Waking-Check. If you don’t startle yourself awake when you realize you’re dreaming, the congratulations! You’ve reached lucidity!! And no purchasing of apps or devices involved!!
The fact someone can create a near death light at the end of the tunnel dream does not prove other people’s experiences are just dreams. Some test pilots who pass out during practice test flights report a light at the end of the tunnel experience also but never with the other experiences many near death people have. I was very skeptical about near death stories until I had one after a heart attack. I am not sure it proves life after death but it changed my mind about the possibilities. I taught psychology for 41 years and was always very skeptical about the subject. Dreaming, even lucid dreams seems a whole different experience.
I’d like to improve my erotic dreams through lucidity, as they often go awry for some reason. It would be exciting to take them to their logical, climactic conclusions, and get the most out of dreaming. Doesn’t anyone else think this, or are they afraid to say so?
In addition to the Remee, the Zeo headband is another electronic device that can help those interested in learning lucid dreaming. If you combine it with apps like ZILD for android, when the headband detects REM sleep, the phone starts flashing lights, playing sounds, or vibrating. The idea being that if you see/hear/feel these things in your dream, its a signal to you that you are in-fact dreaming.
Cool tech coming out for sure!
A lucid dream is a dream that you can control, a dream that gives you the ability to turn the situation in your favor, in case it’s a nightmare. In conclusion you can can control everything in your dream.
One man’s experiences: At age 66, even though I don’t have regular sleep patterns, just like in earlier years I frequently remember my dreams upon waking (though such memories usually quickly fade). There are times when dreaming I believe it’s real, and times when I realize it is a dream, but continue anyway. I’m surprised no one here has commented that vitamin B-6, taken in concentrations of 100-200mg (ingested B vitamins, water-soluble, can greatly exceed dosage RDAs without harm, as the excess is soon excreted) usually enhances lucid or memorable dreaming. When a child, I had memorable nightmares, like climbing a tree to escape an aggressive dog, only to have it grow as big as the tree; but as I learned to fear things less with experience, all my dreams are now pleasant. Often I’m imaging from school days traveling through buildings meeting people, or over outdoor hilly landscapes, and extending years-past athletic fun like long-jumping into running through the air as though weightless. A tapestry of entertaining memories scrambled together while I travel on some lucid quest. I dream in color, but seldom recall non-vocal sounds, though I hear well.