Jumping in & out of a Lucid Dream

Have you ever experienced the wind in your hair as you sail on a yacht through the Caribbean Sea? Sun beating down upon you as you glide through the calm waters, the top sail is taut & the rigging is holding, all is well until you realize you’ve been sailing in a circle. It’s only made worse when you see the Flying Dutchman quickly approaching your yacht – oh wait, it’s an inflatable rubber dingy now and your oar is the length of a school ruler. It’s only made worse when your pet dog has jumped off & is swimming towards a pink fin, b-lining it straight towards you. You paddle madly only to find that you are moving nowhere, stuck in a gravitational pull which confuses & frightens you at the same time. The answer – you are dreaming, well actually, you were as you’ve awoken to a sweaty-brow with all the bed sheets on the other side of the bed.

You sit up in bed, breathing heavily only to realize, you don’t remember an ounce of what happened just moments before. Were you dreaming? What happened to make you sweaty? And why was your childhood pet dog ‘Gibby’ there?

You would be granted to begin to think and wonder why you dreamt of such things & why it was so bizarre & choppy. It didn’t make any sense! Why did I act like that? What if I were to tell you, that amongst you, are people who cannot only remember what they dreamed the night before but also control it? No I’m not talking about good old Leo and his crew, I’m talking about Lucid Dreamers – and please note, they are not drug users.

Dreams are generally perceived as random images our brains have concocted in a seasonal order for us to pass time. It is done so quickly in the mental state while we sleep so we can be active again in the physical state. Some people have more dreams within a week than others who cannot recall if they’ve had one in the pass six months. What causes humans to dream & why is it that some people can recall dreams from over a year ago while some cannot recall what they had before at the party the night before? The answer – your brain is being influenced & dictated by chemical changes within itself by the likes of serotonin, amygdala, norepinephrine, dopamine & gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA).

Now, do I have a PhD in Oneirology or Psychology? No, I don’t, just a degree in arts in communications in writing and a passion in understanding dreams – but it always interested me the fact that I have been able to recall every single dream I’ve had, some more than others. Especially after having take-away Chinese food or Domino’s pizza and having multiple dreams that seemed to span hours whilst I slept during the night. When in fact, in real-time on average, it’s only been about ten minutes you’ve experienced. Just like the film Inception, our mind can stretch time – your mind is an actual TIME MACHINE, turning memories into imagination & imagination into dreams. But like all machines, it needs good quality fuel & oil to be kept running at optimal performance. It is also dependent on the amount of brain chemicals your body not only produces naturally, but what it can access in order to ‘time-travel’. Your mind is also only capable of this feat though in short bursts before other brain functions respond to this mass amount of ‘brain-power’. What functions inhibit dreams then?

Firstly, understand that the human brain is so complex, intricate & powerful, that its daily processes rival that of the latest in super-computing - even though you forgot to turn the dishwasher on this morning. Within the human brain you have several sections tasked with special duties to keep your body functioning & mind thinking. When we go to sleep, a section at the bottom of our brain at the brain stem called the ‘Pons’, is activated to help immobilize the body during sleep. In collaboration with ‘pons’ your pre-frontal cortex (aka creativity dream machine) starts to gather up speed, like a train pulling a heavy load behind it. It works during the same time your body is experiencing what is called Rem Sleep, a crucial periodic sleeping pattern your body has when resting. It is after the first two rem-sleep-cycle periods that your pre-frontal cortex has gathered up enough power/motion to develop what we call dreams. Drawing upon at random memories or scenes and formulating them visually into a multi-hour experience in the ‘Dreamscape’ (personally description of oneself in a dream within the mind). Your dream pattern, speed and intensity are then influenced by the levels of serotonin & amygdala released & activated within the body. However, your body is still going through the rem-cycle with several periods still occurring which disrupts the foundations of your dreams - causing memory decay, resulting in your recollection of the dream as foggy the next day. This however is a different story for those with an increase in certain vitamins & have a disruptive rem sleep, these people are Lucid Dreamers.

Lucid dreaming scientifically is linked to a neural interruption of rem-sleep or external stimulation during the important periods of the rem-cycle. What differs between the usual dream that you would experience, and a lucid dream is that whilst within the dreamscape you become aware that it is in fact just a dream. For example, as mentioned in the first paragraph: you would realize as part of a lucid dream that you don’t own a yacht, nor are you being pursued by the Flying Dutchman because it isn’t real. It dawns on you that the whole scenario isn’t real because you were moments before entering the dreamscape, you were getting comfy in bed. The visions of seeing your childhood pet Gibby within the lucid dream would also cause you to realize that it is just visions of a memory made to look very convincing and real. It is from this moment within the dreamscape that you as an individual could take control of the dream.

I remember one dream where I was at the beach swimming with my family. The water was clear to a certain point before it blended into a darker shade of blue. I didn’t know what beach I was on, but I was aware within a moment that it was a beach I had seen somewhere before. Not too long into it, I could feel a tension in the air & water, an ominous and familiar sound echoed within the dream.

Ba-dum… Ba-dum… Ba-dum

A dark fin had appeared from the darkness and was coming right at my direction. I tried to swim and jump out of the water, but it was no use, it was as if I was being anchored by a gravitational force stopping me from getting to shore. The shark’s jet-black eyes came into view and I was in a panic. I responded by closing my eyes tight and holding my breath as I attempted to dive unwater. To my delight, I shot upright in bed - cheeks still filled with dreamscape air by dry all over. Flooding into my mind at that point, I remembered that I had seen hours before bed for the first time the film JAWS. It wasn’t real at all. I also remembered that within the dreamscape I was on the same beach when the shark attacked during the middle of the day. With this knowledge & only a few seconds passing by, I closed my eyes, took a deep breath & quickly thrusted my head backward into my pillow. For a moment everything was cloudy until I had returned right back to the scene in the dreamscape. Only this time I knew nothing could harm me because I was mentally aware & prepared. Little did I know that I had just experienced a Lucid dream.

As cool as that may sound being a lucid dreamer, there are some drawbacks from lucid dreaming that scientists and sleep therapists may discourage you from. Such as to say an individual could start to disruptive & interruptive sleep, loose sense between the dreamscape & reality also known as derealization (mental state where you feel detached from your surroundings). Or in many cases suffer a Lucid Nightmare where the individual is within the dream but unable to move or change it due to low amounts of the brain chemical serotonin – the happy drug your brain produces. It is also extremely advised to those who suffer from anxiety to not participate in lucid dreaming due to the low brain chemicals of serotonin.

But just like most things in the world, there are also positives to lucid dreaming when the conditions are right. A series of positives you can take from lucid dreaming is the potential to reduce nightmares, relieve anxiety, improve brain creativity & motor skills for the individual within the dreamscape. This can only be achieved though through the right input of fuel for the mind to properly operate in order to produce the best possible dreamscape. But what fuel is needed then to achieve and maintain lucid dreaming?

An active theory I have when trying to experience this within the dreamscape & asking other people is could your diet really affect the way you interact within the dreamscape? I worked out and had confirmed via studies that when the human body has consistently high or excess amounts of vitamin B complexes & tryptophan found in certain foods, that it can enhance, assist in control & recollection of dreams. Foods such as poultry, fish, eggs, peanuts, milk, mushrooms, watermelons & many more all assist in putting your mind in the control seat. In a study by Dr Denholm Aspy of the University of Adelaide’s School of Psychology, it was noted that subjects were able to have uninterrupted, well-rested sleep with the ability to realize, control & recall within lucid dreams.

Not only had I discovered a whole new ability where I was able to have a realization of surroundings within the dreamscape, but I was able to at will exit & re-enter the dreamscape. Previously mentioned before in locating the vital fuel & oil to keep the This became handy when I would experience a nightmare or lucid nightmare on the odd occasion and be able to ‘jump-out’ of the situation with ease. I also discovered the vital fuel I needed to use & necessary vitamin B oil needed to run the dream/time machine. It was also brought to my attention much later down the track, that foods higher in acids were linked to actives to amygdala which could trigger the ‘flight-or-fight’ mode. Essentially causing the dreamer to override the influence of the pons & cause the individual to redirect muscle movement whilst asleep (aka sleeping walking/talking).

Essentially, at the end of the day & the start of the night, as an individual, you only have a small influence into what creation your brain makes when it comes to dreaming. The power you do have in controlling & having the fullest experience within the dreamscape is reliant on your diet, the fuel/food you put in – you can only get out what you put in.

So the next time fall asleep & see you are in scene from 'Lord of the Rings' with Gandalf giving you dating advice & realize you are in a dream remember - you're lucid-dreaming, ask him everything about it!