Lucid Dreams: Definition, Psychology, & Research​

By Charlie Huntington, M.A., Ph.D. Candidate
During lucid dreams, you are aware that you’re dreaming and may even be able to take conscious action. Psychology research has lots of insight on lucid dreams!​
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I often wonder what separates the people who typically remember their dreams from the people who typically don’t. I fall into the latter category: Once a month at most, I might remember a few hazy details about a dream. At the same time, I know plenty of people who remember at least one dream from every night of sleep they get.

​Perhaps because of this, it is even rarer for me to remember a dream in which​
I am an active participant rather than a passive character in the drama. I have listened with envy to my friends who take action in their dreams, shaping their experiences as they go. Since these experiences are so rare for me, it was a delightful surprise to learn that psychologists and sleep scientists have poured plenty of energy into understanding the phenomenon that is called lucid dreaming. Let’s see what they can tell us about those precious moments when we know we are dreaming.
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What Are Lucid Dreams? (A Definition)​

Lucid dreams are dreams in which you are aware that you are currently dreaming (Schredl & Erlacher, 2004). When one is lucid dreaming, one may have more insight into and control over one’s dream and be able to relate the dream to one’s experiences when awake (Voss et al., 2013). Additionally, lucid dreams are often reported to feature more positive emotions than non-lucid dreams do.
 
The term “lucid dream” was first used a little over a century ago by Frederik Willem van Eeden, a Dutch psychiatrist who was particularly interested in how volitional people could be during lucid dreams. In a non-lucid dream, we are typically passive participants in the dream, experiencing the dream as ourselves but almost as if we were playing out a script that was written for us. By contrast, lucid dreams are those dreams in which we can direct our attention and control our actions, where we can act of our own volition instead of simply following a script (van Eeden, 1913).
 
More recently, researchers have expanded the definition of lucid dreaming to make it as clear as possible what it means to lucid dream (Tholey, 1981). When we are lucid dreaming, we are aware of being in a dream. We feel fully conscious of our dream experience, including having sensory awareness of what is happening. We remember who we are in real life, outside of our dreams. We are also aware that we can make our own decisions within the dream. And perhaps most importantly, we retain this awareness of how the dream went when we wake up.
 
Just how common is this lucid dreaming experience? According to one study, more than half of adults can recall having had a lucid dream at least once before (Saunders et al., 2016). At the same time, about a quarter of the adults in that study said that they experienced lucid dreaming at least once a month.
 
I include myself in the 55% of people who have had a lucid dream before. The few occasions that I have experienced one stick out in my mind. Perhaps especially because I so rarely remember my dreams at all as it is, lucid dreams are particularly memorable for me. Realizing that I am dreaming and then being able to intentionally engage with my dream world makes the experience quite different from a standard dream.

Causes of Lucid Dreams​

How do we end up having lucid dreams? One theory is that our prefrontal cortex—the part of the brain that drives our complex decision-making and logical thought—may come more online during lucid dreaming than is typical during sleep (Mota-Rolim & Araujo, 2013). The originators of this idea draw an interesting comparison to psychosis, or the loss of contact with reality. People in psychosis have their lived experience interrupted by dreamlike improbable or irrational thoughts and sensations; by contrast, people who are lucid dreaming have their dreaming interrupted by the parts of the brain that are supposed to be resting during sleep.

The proposition that our prefrontal cortices are more activated during lucid dreaming is confirmed by neuroscience research looking at brain activation during rapid eye movement (REM) sleep with versus without lucid dreaming (Gackenbach, 1991). When people are lucid dreaming, they show more prefrontal activation than when they are experiencing a non-lucid dream.

Knowing on a functional level how lucid dreams might come about, we are still left with the question of why they happen. Scientists think that there must be some additional adaptivity to becoming more conscious during one’s dreams (Gackenbach, 1991). One commonly held perspective is that dreams are a way for our brains to revisit and rehash important content from our lived experiences. In this view, becoming more conscious and having more control of ourselves during dreams might help us go deeper in reflecting on and understanding our lives.
​
Lucid dreams are also something that we can learn to promote in our lives (LaBerge, 1980), so in that sense, you yourself can be the cause of your own lucid dreams. For example, laboratory studies in which someone hears a recording saying “this is a dream” while they are sleeping are known to increase the likelihood that the person will begin to lucid dream.

Examples of Lucid Dreams

What happens in a lucid dream? Findings from an online survey suggest that the main thing people do when they lucid dream is have fun: They play around physically, such as by flying or dancing (Schädlich & Erlacher, 2012). Slightly less frequent, but still common, are dreams where people use their lucidity to change what would otherwise feel like a nightmare into a more pleasant and less frightening experience. And in a minority of cases, people very intentionally utilize lucid dreams to try to solve problems in their lives, hone their creativity, or move their bodies in certain ways.

It’s worth noting that many of these lucid dream experiences involve engaging with the physical world in ways that might be difficult or impossible when awake. This may be why some people are especially invested in learning how to increase their frequency and consistency of lucid dreaming: It provides an unparalleled opportunity to expand beyond one’s physical limitations.

Research on Lucid Dreaming

One of my favorite aspects of research on lucid dreaming is how we know that lucid dreaming is real. Researchers have asked people to demonstrate that they are lucid dreaming by engaging in specific eye movements during a lucid dream, and sure enough, research participants are able to perform these eye movements when lucid dreaming (LaBerge, 1980).

Research also tells us that children and adolescents have more lucid dreams than adults do (Voss et al., 2012). This has led some researchers to suggest that lucid dreaming might be a side effect of brain development, one that becomes less frequent as our brains mature and stabilize in adulthood.

If you would like to learn more about the research on lucid dreams, you could try watching this video:

Video: Lucid Dreaming

Are Lucid Dreams Dangerous?​

The short answer to this question is no—lucid dreams are not dangerous. They are naturally occurring phenomena, and while dreams can be upsetting at times, lucid dreams by their nature are not inherently harmful. In fact, they are often described as quite helpful, providing opportunities to have transcendent experiences, feel more embodied, problem-solve, and experience wish fulfillment (Schädlich & Erlacher, 2012). Additionally, research suggests that having frequent lucid dreams is not associated with higher rates of mental illness and that having more intense and positive lucid dreams is actually associated with fewer mental health symptoms (Aviram & Soffer-Dudek, 2018).
 
The chief potential downside to lucid dreaming is that the increased brain activation that occurs during lucid dreaming may make one’s sleep less restful. Indeed, a recent study did find that, on average, people who had lucid dreams more frequently reported poorer sleep quality in general (Schadow et al., 2018), while another found that people who intentionally try to have lucid dreams experience poorer sleep (Aviram & Soffer-Dudek, 2018). However, this association could also be present because people who lucid dream have nightmares more often as well.

Psychology of Lucid Dreams

People who lucid dream regularly seem to possess some psychological advantages. They may be better at regulating their thoughts and feelings when awake, and they may experience fewer negative feelings overall (Gruber et al., 1995). This may be because their experience manipulating their mental state in dreams translates into flexibility in waking life. Interestingly, in a study where undergraduate students were trained to lucid dream, they did not report personal growth from their lucid dreaming, but they did report greater satisfaction with their lives and less stress after lucid dreaming (Konkoly & Burke, 2019).

Lucid Dreams and Hypnosis

One way to induce lucid dreams is to suggest to people, after they have been hypnotized, that they will achieve consciousness during their dreams (Peters et al., 2023). This seems to be because people are much more suggestible when hypnotized. When somebody is hypnotized for this purpose, they are usually asked, as in other research, to demonstrate while sleeping that they are lucid dreaming. These techniques are usually effective in making people experience lucid dreams, although for some people, the lucid dreams come days or weeks after they have been hypnotized (Stumbrys et al., 2012).

Lucid Dreams and Art

Lucid dreamers also seem to be more creative in general than non-lucid dreamers and experience special opportunities to tap into their creativity when lucid dreaming (Stumbrys & Daunytė, 2018). In a truly fascinating study, lucid dreamers were asked to engage in the same creative activity twice—first while lucid dreaming, and then while awake—while control participants were asked to do the creative activity only while awake. Lucid dreamers performed better while awake on the task after they had dreamed about the activity first (Stumbrys & Daunytė, 2018).

Lucid Dreams and Nightmares

Nightmares—what we think of as unpleasant dreams that we remember upon waking—are more common among people who lucid dream than among those who don’t (de Macêdo et al., 2019). At the same time, people who lucid dream may be better equipped to deal with their nightmares than people who don’t because they have the tools to consciously and intentionally alter their dreams. Indeed, in a study of people with PTSD symptoms, training in lucid dreaming, with the goal of giving them the skills to counteract their nightmares as they happened, led to a reduction in the frequency of their nightmares (Spoormaker & Van Den Bout, 2006). While there is not enough research on this topic to definitively say that lucid dreaming is a treatment for nightmares, there is clearly the potential for people to make their dreams more positive if they can achieve lucid dreaming.

Lucid Dreams and Sleep Paralysis

Sleep paralysis is the experience of being unable to move one’s body during the period just before falling asleep or just after waking. When experiencing sleep paralysis, people may hallucinate frightening situations or have painful bodily experiences; less commonly, they may experience positive bodily sensations during sleep paralysis (Cheyne, 2003). Sleep paralysis has some elements in common with lucid dreaming, and experiencing sleep paralysis is positively associated with experiencing lucid dreaming, but they are definitely different phenomena (Denis & Poerio, 2017).

Quotes on Lucid Dreams

  • “Not all lucid dreams are useful but they all have a sense of wonder about them.
If you must sleep through a third of your life, why must you sleep through your dreams too?” — Stephen LaBerge
  • “[Lucid dreaming is] the formation of a centre for the deepening of life and world views.”  — Frederik van Eeden
  • “Capture your dreams and your life becomes full. You can, because you think you can.” — Nikita Koloff

Articles Related to Lucid Dreams

​Want to learn more? Check out these articles:

Books Related to Lucid Dreams

If you’d like to keep learning more, here are a few books that you might be interested in.

Final Thoughts on Lucid Dreams​

Unless you are especially motivated to become a more frequent and adept lucid dreamer, you can probably think of lucid dreams as a rare and memorable occasion in your dream life. They may offer you insight, entertainment, or an interesting story to tell your friends and family; the meaning you give them is ultimately up to you.​

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