Imagine the amazing possibility of mastering your dreams with your consciousness. You could manipulate dreams into any wished situation wherein even impossible events like flying, time travelling or even travel through space could become possible. Everything that could not be reached in life could be experienced in such a dream; dreams become true in a dream. Now would that not be amazing?

This possibility actually exist and it is called lucid dreaming, a form of dreaming wherein the subject is aware that it is not sleeping during its dream. The term ‘lucid dream’ was first mentioned by the Dutch psychiatrist and writer Frederik van Eeden (1860-1932), and described lucid dreaming as “a state wherein the dreamer can actively participate in and manipulate imaginary experiences in the dream development” (Kahan and LaBerge, 1994).

Although lucid dreaming is difficult to prove on a scientific level, Neuroscientist J. Allan Hobson has given a suggestion of what occurs in the brains during this process. Namely, he suggested that the first step to lucid dreaming, to become aware of dreaming, occurs in the part of the brain that is active during the REM-sleep, the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (Muzur, Pace-Schott and Allan Hobson, 2002). This area is activated when the recognition of dreaming begins, however, it has not yet been proved if this starting activity is indeed linked to the start of a lucid dream.

After having reached this state of being aware that one is dreaming, the subject has to be careful to remain the same state of balance; the dream has to continue and the subject has to be aware of it being a dream. For the process of this balance, it has been suggested that the amygdale and the parahippocampal cortex are less actively activated.

Several parties have researched lucid dreaming. The main critique was whether or not individuals that claim to be able to control their dreams are actually in a sleep-wake state. Therefore, the critics suggested that subjects had to be tested by giving them instructions so that they can communicate with the researchers while having a lucid dream.

If lucid dreaming is a phenomenon that can truly occur, it could have limitless opportunities. For example, people who have not reached what they wanted, ones that are depressive or people that are chronicle injured could all benefit of a few hours of any desirable type of joy a day. Even if people think they are having a lucid dream, whilst they are not, it could still help them as a result of a changed mind state.

Now, dreams can become true by dreaming.

Used sources:

Kahan, T., & LaBerge, S. (1994). Lucid dreaming as metacognition: Implications for  cognitive science. Consciousness and Cognition, Vol.3, pp. 246-264.         

Muzur A, Pace-Schott EF; Allan Hobson (November 2002). "The prefrontal cortex in Sleep." Trends Cogn Sci 1;2(11) (11): pp. 475–481.