Lucid Dreaming

A sleep outreach project by the students of UC Berkeley's Psych 133 Class - Fall 2009



Welcome back!

If you've gotten this far, that means you must be at least the slightest bit interested in the concept of lucid dreaming. You may have heard about it from a friend who has experienced it or from watching a movie (maybe from watching Waking Life for a certain Psych 133 class at Cal?), or you may not know anything about it at all. In any case, this post is meant to give you a general summary behind what lucid dreaming is; later on, we'll delve into more detailed topics, such as induction and personal experiences. But for now, here's the basic rundown:

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What is lucid dreaming?

Put simply, lucid dreaming is the state of being aware of or conscious that one is dreaming. For example, if for some reason you realize during a dream that you are dreaming, then you have experienced a lucid dream.

How does lucid dreaming occur?

Becoming lucid can happen naturally without any conscious effort on the part of the dreamer, or it can be induced by some kind of in-dream cue that alerts the person to the fact that he or she is in a dream and not awake. We'll go into more detail later on just what techniques and cues have been found to be effective in inducing lucidity.

Do you have to be in control of your dream for it to be lucid?

NO! It is a common misconception that one has to be able to manipulate his or her dream in order for it to be considered a lucid dream, but that isn't necessarily the case. Simply being aware of being in a dream state is enough to be lucid. As we'll discuss in future posts, there are different levels of dream awareness, and being conscious of one's dreams is just one of them.

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Alright, well that's all for now... stay tuned! :]

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About this blog

We are a group of psychology students from the University of California at Berkeley who are studying the interesting sleeping phenomenon of lucid dreaming.

Our blog is dedicated to compiling information from various sources and spreading the word.

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