Harriet Tubman

Lucid Dreaming

Imagine soaring through the air at outstanding speeds,

pretending to be Superman with a red and blue cape, then

deciding to become Tom Cruise in the movie Top Gun, flying

an F14 at two-hundred miles an hour over the Arctic Ocean.

Suddenly, you wake up and you think to yourself: "Wow, what

a dream, I did what I wanted to do," not knowing what you've

experienced is a Lucid Dream.

According to the Institute of Lucidity, the term Lucid

Dream means, "Dreaming while knowing you are dreaming" (4).

Knowing that you are dreaming will allow you to guide your

dream in the direction you want to go. The realization of

lucid dreams is done by the dreamer, when he or she notices

what they're doing is impossible to do in reality.

Anyone can lucid dream. There are techniques and

devices if one wants to lucid dream, like remaining

conscious until one starts dreaming. Telling yourself I

will dream tonight, I will dream tonight and thinking about

what you want to dream about during the day. There are also

herbs and drugs that can help you become more consciously

aware of your dreams. Lucid dreaming usually occurs in the

REM(Rapid eye movement) stage. It takes about 90-minutes

after you sleep to get to the REM stage. The more you

sleep, the more time you'll be in the REM stage, and the

more likely you'll have a lucid dream.

There are many reasons why we lucid dream, but the most

common reasons are in categories. First, there is

"Excitement