About this blog

Oh word, its Ty and Jacob's totally awesome lucid dreaming blog.

Our Purpose:

With this blog my colleague Jacob and I wish to further explore, educate, and unravel, the world of lucid dreaming for ourselves and the public at large.  This topic that has been heard about by many, but only experienced by few, so we hope to help all that our curious to learn something new. We hope to provide some perspective and guidance for anyone who has had some previous experience with lucid dreams or would like to learn more about why they dream.

What to Expect:

In this blog we will post articles and other findings that we deem educational and/or interesting, and then use them to generate open discussion.  Along side of this we will be using this blog as a dream journal where we will intermittently post the descriptions of dreams we've had.

Our Interest:

Ty:  I first heard about lucid nearly a decade ago and found it to be a unique idea since it is something I had never thought about before; a world where anything is possible.  I briefly looked into it, but lost interest as the technique I found to induce them seemed painstakingly impractical.  However recently, I have begin to take interest in the topic again.  What fascinates me are the creative and practical applications of dreaming.  They are a place where your imagination can become reality and a world where creation become uninhibited, though maybe never tangible.

Jacob:  My interest in this blog is to use it as a dream journal and to use my knowledge if neurobiology to respond to the articles that Ty finds. I do not remember my dreams often so it will be nice to have a place to record the ones I can remember in a public forum. This is an attempt for me to explore a more personal side of a topic that I have studied in several classes. To this end I will leave comments on Ty's posts as well as my own dreams talking about what might be going on in terms of the concepts that I have been taught or have come across in my research. I look forward to seeing if common themes arise from my dreams and to see if Ty and I can help to further the understanding of what dreaming and lucid dreaming mean. Furthermore, I am going to try and write ridiculous (but logical) interpretations of all the dreams to show how they can been easily misinterpreted. 

Deviled Eggs (Dream 12/6/12)

All I can recall is...

I was hosting a small gathering of people whom I can't remember, I was asked by a friend if we have enough deviled eggs so I said to her, "Yeah I think we do," while walking her to the fridge.  When I opened the fridge door I said, "We've got eggs on top off eggs" while revealing to her that that half of our fridge was filled from top to bottom with cartons of deviled eggs.

The end of my dream recall.

Dream Number One (and Two)

There were two distinct dreams I can remember having last night. In one I was playing soccer again for my high school soccer team. I was playing goalie, which was odd because that was never a position I played. The team seemed to be the one from last year, as my brother (who is now a college freshman) was still on the team with all of his friends. I didn't recognize the field we were playing at, nor the team we were playing. Throughout the game I made a several saves but there were also a few lucky incidents where the ball bounced off a post or barely missed the goal. Come to think of it there is nothing to specifically denote that it was my high school team, it just felt like it was.

The second dream had to do with returning from Japan (or maybe China?) My dad was driving me home from the airport, which seemed to be on the other side of some mountains from our house. While the mountains had the distinct feel of the Sierra-Nevada range (I used to live in California) the house and town we arrived at was definitely our house in Longmont, which is just up the road from Boulder. The strange thing about this dream was that my dad was explaining to me about a bike ride that he did, and even though the locations were made up I seemed to follow along and the dream even flashed images of the locations he was mentioning. The drive back was also not any path that I can equate to real life, but seemed to be the reverse of another dream in which my family and I went on an evening hike in the same mountains. This was particularly odd as in the dream I did not remember it as a memory from another dream, but rather it just seemed to be an actual memory. There were also rapid changed in weather as we were driving, and when we arrived home both my current dog and dog that has been deceased for about two years were both there.

Dreaming and Confidence

Continuing this section of how dreaming can help a person physically, and creatively, I found another article which has suggested that in return, that many of these people feel more confident in their day-to-day life due to their dreaming experience.  This article has prompted me to look into the psychological benefits (also seen in the article posted before about PTSD) of lucid dreaming.  Another claim by the article is that lucid dreaming has helped people regain movement after strokes, this has  has prompted me to look into the medical benefits.

Reality gets a Kick

Reference:Hamzelou, J. (2011). Reality gets a kick via dream control. New Scientist, 212(2844/2845), 4-5.

On a side note, this article suggests that the movie Inception is incorrect about how dreaming and time scale works, which was disappointing to me.

dreaming and movement

I began to wonder what may help validate the concept that dreaming an action would help one to be able to perform it.  A study here shows that when a person lucid dreams of doing a specific task, that the motor sensory section of their brain lights up that, and corresponds to the same sections as when they perform the task when awake.

dreaming and the motor sensory

Reference:

Martin Dresler, Stefan P. Koch, Renate Wehrle, Victor I. Spoormaker, Florian Holsboer, Axel Steiger, Philipp G. Sämann, Hellmuth Obrig, Michael Czisch, Dreamed Movement Elicits Activation in the Sensorimotor Cortex, Current Biology, Volume 21, Issue 21, 8 November 2011, Pages 1833-1837, ISSN 0960-9822, 10.1016/j.cub.2011.09.029.
(http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0960982211010311)

Edit (12/11/2012):

What I found most important about this article is the fact that the brain lights up while asleep similar to how it lights up for corresponding awake actions.  This gives credence to the idea that one is able to learn or practice skills in their sleep and the brains neural pathways have the ability to reinforce connections. 

dreaming and creativity

Much of the abstract art work we see today is commonly associated with hallucinogenic drugs, but this may not be the case.  Dreams can often lead/develop a persons creative abilities.  Many artist and scientist claim that their dreams are what give them their inspiration.  A surreal landscape in a dream inspiring a painting, practicing different shots for a movie's cinematography, or hearing song melodies, are all effects that various have claimed lead to their success.

This article tries to study these claims in a scientific manner, however, it shows that dream recall tends to be the most important factor for dreams' creative influence, though lucidity does help.Dreaming and Creativity

Dreaming for the Impossible

Often when thinking about lucid dreaming people think about a different reality that they could participate in. This article is great at explaining the alternate realities people are able to put themselves in and the fun they are able to have by playing with ideas that are impossible.  It also begins to look at another aspect of lucid dreaming I wish to look further into.  How lucid dreaming effects ones creative abilities, and practicing abstract thinking.

Directing your dreams.
Refernce:
Rosenbloom, S. (2007, Oct 21). Directing your dreams; adventures in bed; with lucid dreaming, if you can dream it, you can do it -- whether it's flying through the air, plucking a mean guitar or indulging your sexual fantasies. Edmonton Journal. Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com/docview/253492592?accountid=14503
and another link to another article citing the same Doctor Lebarge, but gives suggestions on how to dream problem solve.
Dream and Problem Solving
Reference:
DREAM team there's a knack to lucid dreaming, and some say that once you can control your dreams, you can revolutionise your life. (2007, Nov 28). Townsville Bulletin. Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com/docview/376635712?accountid=14503

Yelling at Teachers

The dream last night was unsettling. There I was at some sort of elementary school presentation for my sister, which I only know for certain because there were other younger kids and their parent there. As far as I can remember I had just come there from a soccer game. The teacher kept doing things that agitated me: she sat at her computer while the kids ran wild, and she kept misusing popular phrases and slang in a way that made my ears just screech with pain. I finally snapped and launched into a tirade about how she was a terrible person, with little provocation directly toward me. Afterward I stormed out of the classroom with all the parents awkwardly watching. It certainly felt in no way good, and looking back on the dream I can still feel the anger and rage that I felt. It is strange that a dream would be composed of such a confined incident. As it as not a lucid dream, I did not recognize that I was dreaming, I barely remember how I arrived at the school, and have no idea where I was headed afterward. As far as I can tell, my subconscious placed this provocation there only to make me angry. But perhaps this is a sneaky attempt at temperament. If our dreams are lectures that our mind concocts on how to survive the waking world, then there might be some sort of reasoning here. Next time I am enraged and want to start chewing someone out, my mind will remind me of both how bad it feels afterward and how bad I am at doing it. Perhaps this dream somehow served the purpose of giving me an experience that is more geared toward how my subconscious would like me to act. As it is, sometimes the best teacher is experience.

Lucid Dreaming and Nightmares

After looking further into other practical applications of lucid dreaming, I found something that could be seen as a true life saver for many people.  One of the effects of war on soldiers can be PTSD, which leaves them with terrible nightmares.  These nightmares leave them shaken, and force them to relive the horrors that they have witnessed.  One study decided to look at lucid dreaming as possible cure for this. If the soldiers were able to redirect their dreams to be something more desirable, they could effectively end their nightmares.

PTSD and Lucid Dreaming
Reference
Spoormaker, V. I., & van, d. B. (2006). Lucid dreaming treatment for nightmares: A pilot study. Psychotherapy and Psychosomatics, 75(6), 389-94. Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com/docview/235469783?accountid=14503

I found this to be a very interesting concept and something I had never thought of.  If people are able to alter the paths of their dreams to improve the quality of their lives what other benefits can be found?

Can Dreaming Something Make You Better At It?

When first hearing about lucid dreaming everyone thinks, "Aw man I could fly, and shoot electricity out of my hands like that guy in Star Wars," or that could have just been me.  However, the more I thought about it, I began wondering what practical things could be gained while dreaming.  I remembered some words of advice given to me by my ski racing coach.  She told us the night before a race imagine running the course, and going through the gates while in bed before going to sleep.  She said that during this time our muscles would contract, though minutely, and give us some muscle memory to help in the race the next day.

Since then I've stopped racing but have begun snowboarding.  I started wondering if this same concept could apply for practicing snowboarding tricks, and then I began to wonder if practicing these skills while dreaming could have any effect.  It would give me a chance to run through motions for hours without having to go through physical exhaustion.  This article by Dr. Erlacher says it could be a possibility.
Reference 
Erlacher, D. (2012). Practicing in Dreams Can Improve Your Performance. Harvard Business Review, 90(4), 30-31.

Edit (12/11/2012):

When I first read this article all I could think about was how beneficial this would be for any activity as practice becomes almost effortless.  Its something you literally do in your sleep.  However, upon further review I found one may not got as much benefit from these activities as I first thought.  When thinking of the movie Inception dream time becomes slower (as this info-graph demonstrates) so I figured one could get more practice comparative to the time they put into it.  However, according to the study put Hamzelou, J. (2011). Reality gets a kick via dream control we actually move 50% slower in our dreams compared to reality.  So if we consider that one only gets a total of 90-120 minutes of REM sleep a night, they will only be able to practice a skill for 45 minutes to an hour.  Still pretty neat in my opinion though.

Paintballing in Old Places

Last night there was another dream. This time I was paintballing, which would be odd except that my friends and I have long standing plans to go this weekend. This dream stood out due to the changes in surroundings. I would take cover behind an object, and it would either disappear or diminish until I was within the enemy sights. There would also be large scale alterations, such as that north and south would suddenly change orientation (how in the dream I was sure of this I do not know, only that I was indeed aware of it), or there would suddenly be a creek and some trees as part of the course where there were not before. Strangely enough, I do not believe that anyone involved in the game was someone I knew, or at least no one I could put a name to.

Before hitting publish on this post I have come back to look at it a few days latter, and what really stand out to me is the memory recall just from reading the paragraph above. A few hours after I had the dream I couldn't remember any of the details, but from the description of it there are very distinct memories that return. I know that the game of paintball was held in Miadu Park, which is near to where I used to live in California. I also know that I had the classic trouble with movement that is experienced in dreams, which is I guess ironic because it turned out to be really muddy when we actually went paintballing, and impossible to to move anywhere.

References

Just to formally acknowledge some of our sources that were not directly cited or paraphrased but definitely have lead to our interpretation of dreaming and/or lucid dreaming, here is a list of references that contain further information.

1.         LaBerge S, Levitan L, Dement WC. Lucid dreaming: Physiological correlates of consciousness during REM sleep. J Mind Behavior 1986;7:251-58

2.         Weissburg, Michael. REM sleep and consciousness, Interview by Jacob Cooper, Allison Strauss, Mari Weyman. Boulder Sleep Clinic, 11-8-2012

3.         Voss, U. Holzmann, R., Tuin, I., Hobson, JA. 2009. Lucid dreaming: A state of

            consciousness with features of both waking and non-lucid dreaming. SLEEP. 32(9):

            1191-1200.

4.         Antonio Zadra, Sophie Desjardins, Éric Marcotte, Evolutionary function of dreams: A test of the threat simulation theory in recurrent dreams, Consciousness and Cognition, Volume 15, Issue 2, June 2006, Pages 450-463, ISSN 1053-8100, 10.1016/j.concog.2005.02.002.

(http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1053810005000498)

5.         Michelle Neider, Edward F. Pace-Schott, Erica Forselius, Brian Pittman, Peter T. Morgan, Lucid dreaming and ventromedial versus dorsolateral prefrontal task performance, Consciousness and Cognition, Volume 20, Issue 2, June 2011, Pages 234-244, ISSN 1053-8100, 10.1016/j.concog.2010.08.001.

(http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1053810010001492)

6.         Tadas Stumbrys, Daniel Erlacher, Melanie Schädlich, Michael Schredl, Induction of lucid dreams: A systematic review of evidence, Consciousness and Cognition, Volume 21, Issue 3, September 2012, Pages 1456-1475, ISSN 1053-8100, 10.1016/j.concog.2012.07.003.

(http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1053810012001614)

          7.         Dresler, M., Wehrle, R., Spoormaker, V., Koch, S., Hoisboer, F., Steiger, A., Obrig,

H., Samann, P., Czisch, M. 2012. Neural correlates of dream lucidity obtained from

contrasting lucid versus non-lucid REM sleep: A combined EEG/fMRI case study.

SLEEP. 35(7): 1017-1020.

       http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmedterm=Neural%20correlates%20of%20dream%20lucidity

8.         Michael Schredl, Daniel Erlacher, Lucid dreaming frequency and personality, Personality and Individual Differences, Volume 37, Issue 7, November 2004, Pages 1463-1473, ISSN 0191-8869, 10.1016/j.paid.2004.02.003.

(http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0191886904000352)

9.         István Bókkon, Jiapei Dai, István Antal, Picture representation during REM dreams: A redox molecular hypothesis, Biosystems, Volume 100, Issue 2, May 2010, Pages 79-86, ISSN 0303-2647, 10.1016/j.biosystems.2010.01.005.

(http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0303264710000158)

10.       Eva Murzyn, Do we only dream in colour? A comparison of reported dream colour in younger and older adults with different experiences of black and white media, Consciousness and Cognition, Volume 17, Issue 4, December 2008, Pages 1228-1237, ISSN 1053-8100, 10.1016/j.concog.2008.09.002.

(http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1053810008001323)

11.       Christof Koch, Susan Greenfield, How does Consciousness Happen? Scientific American, October 2007, Pages 76-86

12.       Jennifer Knight, Lecture Notes: Sleep and the Reticular system. University of Colorado Boulder, September 2012