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Basic outline for the topic of lucid dreaming
Basic outline for the topic of lucid dreaming
Short essay on lucid dreaming
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1It is fascinating to think that dreams are a succession of images, ideas, emotions and sensations that occur in the mind during certain time stages of sleep. Researchers have often discussed the content and purpose of dreams but cannot fully understand the meaning of them or the underlying message that are displayed in the unconscious state. What are dreams exactly? Dreams are the succession of images, ideas, emotions and sensations that occur when involuntarily in the mind during certain stages of sleep. Dreaming mainly happens in the "rapid eye movement" REM stage of sleeping when the brain activity os high and resembles being awake. Sometimes dreams can happen during other stages of sleep. But these dreams tend to be less vivid and memorable and can vary from a few sec to 20-30 minutes. The average person has about three to five dreams a night. There are 6 common dreams states that everyone
Sometimes this sudden sense of knowing you are dreaming allows you to do fantastic things like fly over the buildings that you see. Many people actually wake themselves up within the dream to remain in this lucid state so they can explore how they can influence dreams. Having this ability to wake up in the lucid dream state is an important initiation into mastering the power of thought and its ability to influence events inside the brain. Lucid dreams is the ability to consciously observe and/or control your dreams.It transfers you into an alternate reality were everything you see, hear, feel, taste, and smell is as real as when you are wake. Inside normal dreams your self awareness is shut off and this is why they feel fuzzy and distant. With lucid dreams you are always asleep in bed but feel as if you wake and functioning in the reality. In addition to being awake some people often claim to have an out of body experience during the lucid dream state where they see their sleeping body as they float above
What is a dream? A dream is number of events and sensations that pass through the mind while sleeping. Sleep is not a break for your mind, but it is a state of consciousness (Turner, 2012, 1). People may lose their sensor skills when they are unconscious, yet the mind is running with full ability until the end of time. What is sleep? Sleep is a natural period in which one loses complete consciousness (Turner, 2012, 1). An average human spends one third of their life sleeping. Sleep is a basic need for the health of the human body, yet our mind does not truly rest like the rest of our body. Dreams have always been a mystery in the historical world, but it has been known dreams can be understood as events in another objective world. Dualism is
Dreams are incredible events that occur to each of us every single night. From lucid dreaming to nightmares, they’ve had a huge impact on life as we know it today, yet we’ve barely scratched the surface on knowing how they work and what they mean. Maybe it’s our brain trying to solve our life’s problems, or maybe it’s just a mess of thoughts and experiences from the past few days. No one really knows, and that’s why they’re so compelling.
The average person spends over one-third of their life sleeping, and over this period of time he or she can have over 1,825 dreams (Wicklinski). By definition, dreams are mental images, thoughts, or emotions that are experienced while sleeping. In the beginning, dreams were thought to be messages sent from the gods or spirit world. Researchers now have many theories explaining why people dream. Many of these theories explain that dreams can resemble an individual’s sensory experiences or even secret wishes. All people dream, but only 42% of people can recall their dreams from the night before (“Dreams”). The study of dreams is a topic that is constantly being debated by researchers for many reasons. Dreaming is important because it can impact people’s health, provide insight into what they are feeling, and reveal information about their behavior.
Dreams have long exercised a fascination over the human imagination. Many people have questions about them. Dreams over time have captured the interest of many. They have continued to intrigue the simplest of people because of their meaning, their occurrences and their different styles and patterns. One of the most common questions that come up about dreams is how they occur. The theory of REM explains this. REM stands for Rapid Eye Movement. Dreaming is simply the early stage of sleeping. It takes place during REM, using a portion of the brain called pons, which generates signals to the brain (Lewis 3). It is a known fact that everyone dreams, and that REM occurs every 90-100 minutes as stated by Deming (4). The process of dreaming is not a psychic activity but rather a somatic process, which makes itself known as psychic (Crisp 45). Dreams most commonly concern themselves mainly with the future. They are visionary wishes of fulfillment. When a person dreams they may dreams about a certain part of their day, or something that they would like to happen. It is true that everyone dreams however, remembering a dream is often not possible (Uchida 119). When looked at closer it is quite interesting to see how many people actually remember their dreams. 15% say that they never recall their dreams, 5% remember one a night and the average person recalls his/her dream 2-3 times a week (Shafton 350). It is also important to take a look at the different meanings of dreams.
Dreams are one of the best ways to get to know one’s self and realize self-fulfillment. Dreams can help reach goals, validate intuition, and surface underlying emotions. Through understanding the history of dream research, personally interpreting dreams with dream guide tools and dictionaries, and make a commitment to record and pay attention to dreams and use their insight for an emotionally healthy life.
Dreams are series of thoughts, images, and sensations occurring in a person’s mind during sleep. Dreams occur during a certain stage of sleep known as REM. Several different psychologists, including Freud and Hobson, have studied dreams. Psychologists have provided many theories as to what dreams are and the meanings behind them.
...esults. One interesting thing found, is that although it is though that dreams happen in a blink of an eye that they actually happen in a realistic time span (General Information). Another is that dreams generally take place in familiar settings and are random leftover thoughts from the previous day. What’s interesting though, is that during studies in which participants were woken on a regular basis, scientists found that the dreams remembered the following morning were “more coherent, sexier, and generally more interesting” than the dream descriptions that were collected in data for research. Most participants remembered very little of their dreams and only about the last fifteen minutes of dreaming before awoken.
Oprah Winfrey once said, “The best thing about dreams is that fleeting moment, when you are between asleep and awake, when you don't know the difference between reality and fantasy, when for just that one moment you feel with your entire soul that the dream is reality, and it really happened.” But, what actually is a dream and what do dreams really have to do with one’s everyday life? In essence, a dream is a series of mental images and emotions occurring during a slumber. Dreams can also deal with one’s personal aspirations, goals, ambitions, and even one’s emotions, such as love and hardship. However, dreams can also give rise to uneasy and terrible emotions; these dreams are essentially known as nightmares.
A man with an unknown disease was going to die. He tried every possible medication, treatment, and therapy available. None of them worked. As hopes of living were quickly diminishing, he came across a man who saved his life. This man revealed a method to him known as Self-healing through Lucid Dreaming, which after a couple of weeks helped the man make a miraculous recovery. This example helps demonstrate the idea that self-healing can be obtained through Lucid Dreaming. Lucid dreaming enables a person to be aware that they are dreaming and they therefore can control themselves within their dreams. It is possiable to achieve mental clarity while in a dream like state. By establishing a sense of the mental clarity one can heal their mind psychologically and physically, boosting levels of creativity and self realization, as well as significantly improving their problem solving skills and spike curiosity of life. Lucid Dreaming is an escape from reality that is waiting to be explored. Lucid dreaming is defined simply as, dreaming when one is aware they are doing so. The term “lucid”, meaning mental clarity, was thought of by Fredrik Van Eeden in the late 1910’s. Lucidity is normally known to happen in the midst of a dream, which happens as soon as the dreamer becomes aware that they are dreaming. At this point, the body then detaches from the mind in a way that makes most of the dreamers body not act out the dream occurring.
According to the Merriam-Webster dictionary, dream is defined by a series of thoughts, images, and sensations occurring involuntarily in a person’s mind during certain stages of sleep. Dreams have fascinated humans since the beginning of time. The recorded history of dream interpretation dates back to 3000-4000 B.C. with the Sumerians in Mesopotamia. They documented their dreams on clay tablets. People back then saw the dream world as an extension of reality, but that it was a more powerful realm. Furthermore, they believed that when they dream, their souls would leave their body during sleep and travel to the dream world.
Conclusion: By gaining a better understanding of the history, science, and interpretations behind dreams, we can better appreciate our subconscious. Dreams can be very difficult to research and understand, but the various aspects of dreams is still intriguing. Even amongst all of the theories, myths, ideas, and opinions that attempt to justify and define these aspects, the fact that everyone dreams remains. The closer we are to understanding and interpreting our dreams; each one unique to the dreamer, the closer we are to appreciating ourselves. No dream is the same, and new understanding awaits us each time we wake up. Sweet dreams.
What is a dream? Why do we have dreams? Do dreams have deeper meaning in our lives? The answers to these questions have eluded and intrigued many psychologists throughout history and have sparked my interest as well. As an avid and vivid dreamer I have often found myself wondering what the true meanings to my dreams were. So what are dreams? “Strictly speaking, dreams are images and imagery, thoughts, sounds and voices, and subjective sensations experienced when we sleep.”1 Even after thousands of years of research, psychologists have still not come to an agreed answer on why we dream. There are as many opinions out there as there are individual dreams. Some psychologists believe dreaming is simply the minds way of distracting itself from outside information during sleep to allow people to get deep rest. Others such as Dr. Eric Hartman suggest dreams serve almost as a psychotherapy in which the brain can make connections between different emotions and thoughts in a safe protected environment. Do dreams have any direct correlation to everyday events and experiences? Are they meant to aid individuals in understanding and interpreting their world around them?
Despite the large amount of time we spend asleep, surprisingly little is actually known about sleeping and dreaming. Much has been imagined, however. Over history, sleep has been conceived as the space of the soul, as a state of absence akin to death, as a virtual or alternate reality, and more recently, as a form of (sub)consciousness in which memories are built and erased. The significance attributed to dreams has varied widely as well. The Ancient Greeks had surprise dream encounters with their gods. Native Americans turned to their dreams for guidance in life. Shamans dreamed in order to gather information from the spirits.
Lucid dreaming is the ability of an individual to consciously direct and control one’s dreams. It transforms an individual’s inner dream world into an alternative reality – where everything the dreamer sees, hears, feels, tastes and even smells is as authentic as real life. Lucidity transpires during altered states of consciousness. According to Snyder & Gackenbach, as cited by LaBerge, lucid dreaming is normally a rare experience and only about a percentage of 20% of the world’s population reports to having lucid dreams once a month or more (LaBerge, 1990) which probably does not justify the existence of lucid dreaming. In addition, people have argued that lucid dreaming is just another theory and it is seems critical for one to be aware in an experience such as this.
Since the beginning of time, people have been trying to understand the different functions of the human body, how we move, talk, act, and for the most part many of these physiological behaviors have been explained on some level. However, one area of the human body that has had researchers and scientist confused for a long time is the mind. Many things go on inside the mind that don’t make sense and so far have no tangible explanation of why it occurs and how. One of the most fascinating and mysterious sections of psychology is that of dreaming. We dream thousands of dreams every night, but why and what do they mean?