Lucid Dreaming Research Paper

Don’t stop the ship from leaving the harbor just because you’re afraid of the adventures ahead. If you don’t take a risk you won’t achieve anything. “One doesn’t forego sleeping because of the possibility of nightmares” is an African proverb that demonstrates Kek’s emotional journey; take a risk even when there may be something you are afraid of ahead. Throughout part three of Home of the Brave, by Katherine Applegate, Kek takes a huge step forward in learning to sleep. He began making snowballs that held the key to belonging, he connected with the Gol, a lifesaving figure in his life, and become content with his immensely imminent loss. The sleeping aspect consists of realizing that he is not alone in this world, reuniting with Lou, and regaining hope that his mother may still come. The nightmare aspect consists of horrible heartbreak and remaining forever unforgiven.

Starting from the ancient times humans has always been interested in strange phenomena of sleeping and dreams. Dreams can be explained psychologically as images of subconsciousness and feedback of neural processes in human's brain. For most of us, dreaming is something quite separate from normal life. When we wake up from being chased by a monster, or being on a date with a movie star, we realize with relief or disappointment that "it was just a dream." Although in most dreams we are not aware of the fact that we are dreaming, a remarkable exception occurs in "lucid dreams" in which the dreamer “attains a clear cognition that he or she is dreaming while dreaming” (LaBerge 2000). This state can be viewed as being awake while

As the daylight fades, and the night approaches, Mindless Monsters prepare for their destruction. With the distraction from work, school, and activities depleted, the mind focuses on the one facet remaining – the self. Similarly to your post, the nighttime rests detrimental to me, as I lie in bed at night, replaying and creating scenarios. My mind begins to question my actions, point out mistakes, and stress over the uncontrollable. With my Mindless Monster out to play, I toss and turn, incapable of acquiring adequate sleep. Just as these Mindless Monsters prevent us from attaining sleep, they also avert us from achieving success. This mindset stimulates this destruction by proposing negative thoughts, such as: “You can not do it,” “You will

In this article, “Sweet, Elusive Sleep”, the first paragraph stated by telling a story about a man called Mike Trevino, who is 29 years of age who didn’t sleep all because of a quest to win a 3,000-mile, cross-country bike race. When he later tried to take a nap, he can’t remember his dreams. This case raised important questions such as; “If we don't sleep (or sleep enough), what happens to our dreams? And if we don't dream, what happens to us?” Towards the end, Springen, K. told us what to do if we are having trouble sleeping. He stated that, “stay away from caffeine and alcohol before bedtime, develop sleep rituals and avoid bright lights in the bedroom” (Springen 2004). Drinking caffeine at night keeps you awake so for you to get enough

In this essay I will discuss Flanagan’s reasons for believing consciousness is an adaptation, I also will discuss why sleep is an adaptation and his stance on dreams being spandrels. And I will end with my opinion on why dreams may or may not be significant based on Flanagan’s theory and the treat simulation theory. I will also discuss the reasons why or why not dreams may have an evolutionary function. As well as Freud’s view on what a dreams function could be. Lastly I will discuss how dreams sooth the soul before death.

Narcolepsy is a sleep disorder characterized by excessive daytime sleepiness and brief lapses into sleep throughout the day (Discovering Psychology Chapter 4 pg.156[4]). The first recorded cases of narcolepsy were noted in medical journals in the 1880’s. The late Jean Baptiste Édouard Gélineau was the first to discover and give the disorder its name(Goodrick, S. (2014). Defining narcolepsy. The Lancet. Neurology, 13(6), 542. doi:10.1016/S1474-4422(14)70108-5[5]). He described the condition as short sleep attacks and somnolence. Gélineau stated the individual would fall sleep for mere seconds or minutes.

Lucid dreaming is known to activate the prefrontal cortex during REM sleep, which causes an individual to become aware and control their dream. However, in nonlucid dreaming there is a deactivation in the lateral frontal areas causing an individual to have no self-awareness during REM sleep. Possible influences include a child's personality, emotion, and perspective of the world. Studies indicated that the prefrontal cortex, parietal lobe, and the ventromedial part of the brain help lucid dreamers to recall and recognize they are dreaming using specific eye movements as signals. Questionnaires in multiple studies were used to track lucid and recall dreaming in children. Positive effects of lucid dreaming includes motor learning and therapy,

Sleepless in American is a National Geographic documentary on the lack of sleep Americans are receiving each night. The film starts with the statistic that “40% of American adults are sleep deprived” and followed with different effects of sleep deprivation such as: weight gain, delayed reaction time, depression, anxiety, speeds the growth of cancer, and has been linked to Alzheimer’s disease. Although, there is no scientific evidence to support the need for sleep, it is an important process that allows our bodies to function properly.

Christopher Nolan's 2010 film, "Inception" depicts a world where corporate espionage runs rampant through dream stealing (specifically lucid ones) and can easily be controlled using something called a PASIV device. While although the movie has an interesting topic, the accuracy shown in the movie of lucid dream manipulation falls flat, due to the fact the most of its logic has not been proved by modern studies and findings.

The causes of night terrors are not well understood, but as a form of dream they are thought to be only a bare “reflection of person’s unconsciousness” (Schacter). Night terrors provide our awareness a possibility to bring back its stability by balancing the subconscious affects in our lives and neutralizing the stress accumulated during the normal working day. The physical explanation to the strange events of night terrors lies in the fact that before a person deeply falls asleep his/her brain waves begin regular alpha rhythms, indicating a relaxed state. While rhythms are being synchronized the inevitable wavelengths mismatches occur- they are the source for the brain to create phantasmagoric and also terrifying pictures (Barclay). There is a psychological connection of a person’s mental state to the kind of night dreams he/she has. One of the ideas in the research shows that the mentally unstable people (which may include permanent and temporary instability, caused, for example, by sickness or some psychological trauma) experience more vivid and long-lasting night terrors. When looking at a

Most people often do it incorrectly and they are less focused towards this particular method but, I believe that lucid dreaming reality checks are of utmost importance if you are willing to be a conscious dreamer.

Have you ever woken up but been unable to move your body? Have you felt as if your mind were awake, but your body was not? If you have, you are not alone. This phenomenon is called sleep paralysis and is the premise of the film The Nightmare. The Nightmare is a documentary covering the stories of eight people’s experiences with sleep paralysis. The topic of this documentary is interesting to me because sleep paralysis is something I enjoy hearing and learning about, being a sufferer of the living nightmare myself. The overall film itself plus its delivery was great because of the way the stories are illustrated.

The modern horror genre constantly uses sleep as a plot device. In A Nightmare on Elm Street, Freddy Krueger haunts people in their sleep and, in countless other movies and literature, ghosts and dolls always attach when the moon has risen. Even in reality, sleep can be horrifying. People can sleepwalk, have nightmares, or even awake temporarily paralyzed (sometimes even for hours). So, the use of sleep in the horror genre is anything but unusual and the device is definitely not a new construct. As early as 1897, authors were using sleep as devices in their own horror works. Bram Stoker does this in his novel Dracula. Like A Nightmare on Elm Street, the characters’ own subconscious minds are working against them. However, instead of Freddy

Sleep deprivation is a condition when a person has problems to get enough sleep. Nowadays, sleep deprivation has become a common problem. Sleep plays a vital role in people’s lives because by getting enough sleep at the right times a person can protect his/her mental and physical health. During sleep, your body and mind are resting and it supports healthy brain function and maintain person’s physical health.

According to Stephen LaBerge from the Lucidity Institute, a special machine that they used tracked the eye movements of people having lucid dreams thus making it able to show that lucid dreaming really does exist. They tested people by asking them to move their eyes from right to left after being conscious and recorded some information from the moment they were experiencing lucid dreams. Most people while sleeping are not aware of occurrence of dreams, although some may recall some things that happened in their dream when they wake up.