For the History portion of my project, I created an annotated bibliography to organize my research on the subject of dreams and lucid dreams. I was fascinated by this subject and by the idea of the endless possibilities of the world of lucid dreams. My overall goal was to induce one in myself, and despite the fact that I failed to, I learned so much along the way. Not only did I make discoveries about the science and history of dreams, but I got insight into my own subconscious as well. To incorporate reasoning into this, in addition to my summarization of the information, I wrote about how my research influences my perception of Lucid dreaming
Linden, Sander van der. “The Science Behind Dreaming.” Scientific American, 26 July 2011, www.scientificamerican.com/article/the-science-behind-dreaming/.
This article discusses how we have viewed dreams throughout history, and how recent science has changed many perceptions about them and their meaning. For example, in ancient times, people thought that dreams were a means to tell the future. Even today there are written guides about how your fortune ties to what you see when you sleep. Notable psychologists such as Freud believed that dreams provided an insight into repressed feelings and desires. However, many scientists today believe that dreams are nothing more than random stimuli influenced by your day to day life. While many do not know the reason for this, it is believed that dreams are meant to enhance our brain's ability to respond to things in real life. For example, if we have a dream that a monster is chasing us, our mind is just preparing us for an event where we do have to activate our fight or flight response. All in all, dreams are a tool used by the brain to help us process emotions by essentially ‘practicing’ them in our dreams.
This influences my perceptions of dreams as I always saw them as something that could be interpreted to provide insight into our feeling about people and our life. However, after reading this, my project changed completely in my eyes as I realized that my attempts to analyze my dreams are futile and based in unfounded pseudoscience. Outside of my project, it explained how my dreams are more emotional when I am feeling anxiety throughout the day. While the events within the dream have no meaning, the feelings they give me do as it is my brain essentially “practicing” feeling emotion.
“A Brief History & Scientific Look at Dream Analysis & Interpretation • Great Plains Skeptic.” Great Plains Skeptic, 15 Oct. 2013, www.skepticink.com/gps/2013/10/17/a-brief-history-scientific-look-at-dream-analysis-interpretation/.
This article discusses how dream interpretation is not just a recent invention, but something that has been around for centuries. Ancient civilizations viewed dreaming as a means to communicate with the gods and predict the future. Dreams have always played a role in religion for centuries, especially Christianity. For example, Joseph in the bible was a known dream interpreter who saw visions in his sleep and deciphered them to make clear the will of God. Many years later, in the Medieval Ages, people viewed dreams not as a way for God to get to them, but the Devil. Also, dreams had a place in medicine in Asian cultures as well, as there were books created to interpret dreams to see their relation to future health. However, it is the consensus of most scientists today that these things are nothing more than pseudoscience, and that dreams have no real-life meaning.
While reading this, my perception of dream interpretation shifted from believing that dream interpretation was only something that was conducted in ancient cultures and within unorthodox groups. However, actively attempting to find meaning in dreams is a much more mainstream practice extending to Christianity. Also, I was interested in the duality of how people viewed dreams, whether it be signs from God or messages from the Devil. This played a role in my art, as I had painted religious symbolism and iconography to represent the more positive and spiritual aspects of dream interpretation. The dark hooded figures, on the other hand, represent the more sinister aspect of lucid dreams such as messages from Satan.
Aserokin. “The History and Meaning of Dreams in Ancient Cultures.” The Sleep Blog, 22 Oct. 2014, blog.snoozester.com/history-and-meaning-of-dreams-in-ancient-cultures/.
This article takes a look at how humans viewed dreams to provide insight into the cultures and religious influences of the times. The first recorded book of dreams was discovered in Mesopotamia and was a written guide of how to interpret the symbols within your dreams. People would also visit priests due to their belief that dreams were visions sent from the gods. The dream priests would listen to the dreams, and use the information to tell of coming events. The ancient Egyptians treated dreams in a very similar way as Mesopotamians and held in very high regard the message they sent. While this was much like how the ancient Greeks viewed dreams, this time period marked the beginning in the change in view from dreams being something holy to mere indicators of mental health and a manifestation of our own thoughts and feelings. Nevertheless, in ancient Rome, the dreams of rulers played a large roll in important decision making and the ratification of some laws. However, it is important to note that many did still believe that dreams are just based on our lives and experiences, not on the future or any messages from the gods. Overall this article demonstrates through historical facts how far we have come in regards to dreams, but also how we never really stopped trying to seek meaning in the meaningless.
While this article was very interesting as it showed me how the conflict between scientific thinkers and religious fanatics extended to dreams, it did not provide any insight into my project that I did not already gain from previous research.
“How to Have Lucid Dreams.” Psychology Today, Sussex Publishers, www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/dream-factory/201710/how-have-lucid-dreams.
While most people don't even remember most of their dreams, with practice and determination, everyone can experience a lucid dream. This article discusses the steps to take to make sure that is possible. One thing that is proven to be effective for many people is assessing your reality throughout the day. The article says some ways to do this by jumping in the air or re-reading words to make sure you are awake. If you this do often enough, it will become a habit. Then, if you enter a lucid dream, it will be second nature to check your reality to find out that you really are in a dream. Once you know you are in a dream, controlling it will be easy. Another way to attempt to induce a lucid dream is by using a technique called “Wake Back To Bed” which is where you wake up two hours earlier than normal, stay awake for about 30 minutes, then go back to bed. The reasoning behind this is that if you enter REM (or a dream state) quickly after being more alert you will have a lucid dream. Lastly, the article mentions how just telling yourself multiple times before you fall asleep that you will have a lucid dream will actually influence your brain to do so.
This article influenced my project greatly as the first week or two of my project I attempted to conduct these very techniques myself. I would try my best to remind myself throughout the day to do daily reality checks. These mostly looking at my hands and reading the clock. However, it was very hard to remember and I failed to create a habit out of it. I also tried to wake up in the middle of the night, but I was always too tired and fell right back asleep. This provided insight into the fact that unfortunately, I did not have enough dedication to alter my daily life to the degree that I could lucid dream.
Moe, Ivan. “A Beginners Guide to Lucid Dreaming.” YouTube, YouTube, 1 Apr. 2014, www.youtube.com/watch?v=grf4PJ4-QUI.
This video provides an in-depth guide about how to have a lucid dream. The narrator discusses how beneficial lucid dreaming can be, as it can be used to help figure out solutions provide insight into your subconscious thoughts. Lucid dreaming is then explained in the video as entering a dream state while your mind is conscious. This allows you to have almost total control over the events of your dream. This takes place during the REM cycle while you are asleep, which is when your body is paralyzed and your brain becomes active enough to dream. That is when it becomes possible to have a lucid dream. The best ways to have lucid dreams is to keep a daily dream journal. This way, you can become conscious and aware of your dreams. Another common technique is to conduct reality checks often throughout the day. This way, it will become such second nature that you will check your reality in dreams and realize that you are in one. Also, another easy way to induce lucid dreams is by telling yourself that you will have one repeatedly before bed to the point where your brain actually believes it.
This video gave me the motivation to keep on writing in my dream journal, as I was greatly impressed and shocked by all of the uses of lucid dreams. This video greatly influenced my project, as it helped me figure out that my language arts portion of the project should be an annotated bibliography. Even though it did not help me to achieve a lucid dream, it did provide a look into my emotions at the time and my dreams related to my daily life that I find very interesting and will continue into the foreseeable future.
“The Dead Simple WBTB Lucid Dreaming Tutorial (Wake Back To Bed).” HowToLucid.com, 18 Sept. 2017, howtolucid.com/wake-back-bed-lucid-dream-technique/.
This article is about a technique used to induce lucid dreams where you wake up in the middle of the night. The premise is that you go to bed normal time, then wake up around three hours before you normally do. This is because you enter your longest stage of REM in the last hour or two of sleep. This way, you enter REM with your mind awake. The trick is staying awake for around 30 minutes, and thinking about lucid dreams and visualizing what you would do in one. Once you fall asleep, your body will enter the dream state but your brain will remain conscious of allowing you to control your dreams.
This article is just more research into a subject I previously mentioned, which is the Wake Back to Bed Technique. This did not help me lucid dream, but it provided insight into what causes lucid dreams, which is basically keeping your mind awake while your body is asleep.
“Lucid Dreaming May Help Us Unravel the Mysteries of Consciousness.” Neuroscience News, Neuroscience News, 7 Jan. 2016, neurosciencenews.com/consciousness-lucid-dreaming-3363/.
This article is based on the more scientific aspects as lucid dreaming. For example, compared to normal dreams, lucid dreams are shown to increase activity in the prefrontal cortex. This means a higher level of cognitive ability, such as the ability to make voluntary decisions and awareness. To further demonstrate this theory, in an independent study, electrical stimulation has been proven to increase the lucidity of dreams. This may provide insight into the idea of what makes someone conscious, as we can compare the difference in brain activity between lucid and non-lucid dreamers.
Throughout my research into the science of lucid dreaming, I was provided with interesting facts about how and when lucid dreaming takes place. However, any article I have read has failed to go into detail about why someone lucid dreams. This would be beneficial to my project, as knowing why a person can lucid dream might help me to do so myself. Nevertheless, most of the articles I have read mention how sparse the research is in this specific field. I hope it will improve to the point that anyone will be able to lucid dream.
Above is my art portion for my project. I wanted to represent my understanding of what Lucid Dreaming is and what it means to me. To make the painting look more "trippy" I used both acrylic and water color. Unlike most other paintings I do, I turned away from more realistic styles and towards surrealism to make it look more like a dream. Also, the person in the picture has braces on to show how when we are awake reality handicaps us, but when we lucid dream, we can do anything. The infinite possibilities really show the true capacity of the mind we take for granted. The mind is so complex, even scientists after all these years still do not understand how we lucid dream. I reason this by painting a maze as a metaphor for the brain. I also incorporate iconography and religious symbolism to represent how much of a role dreams play in religion (See bibliography). I also am sure to include my more negative views of lucid dreaming, including the dark figures to represent my fear of the dark figures many people see during sleep paralysis which can be induced by lucid dreaming.
For my language arts portion of this project, I decided to do a dream journal where I would write down every dream I remembered when I woke up. This journal served multiple purposes, ranging from a method for reasoning my dreams to a way to induce lucid dreaming. The logic behind that is the more you attempt to remember your dreams, the more likely it is that you will realize when you are in them. In addition to this, to assist with my interpretation of my personal dreams, I annotated my thoughts and how I believed the dreams had meaning or provided insight into my life. For example, my nightmares often included me getting disciplined my a teacher, parent, a policeman, or just an older stranger. I believe I had these dreams whenever in my daily life, I feared getting in trouble by an authority figure. Below I have written my techniques I employed in attempt to lucid dream (backed up my my research above) and an example of what my dream journal looked like. Despite the fact that I never lucid dreamed, I learned many things along the way and was able to more clearly remember my dreams.