The benefits of lucid dreams
Have you ever heard of the lucid dreaming ? Lucid dreams (also known as conscious dreams) are those dreams we have and in which we are aware that nothing that we are experiencing is really happening, since we know that we are asleep.
There are several levels at which an individual can experience lucid dreaming. At the lowest level the person notices that he is dreaming, but fails to recognize the meaning of what is happening. Those who manage to have a higher degree of lucidity of sleep they are fully aware of what is happening and can manage to control sleep .
Lucid dreams and real-world problem solving
The world of dreams can be, or a wonderful place or a hostile terrain to spend the night. But if you control the dream, it can become something else: it can help to perfect those cognitive skills that we use when we are awake and help solve problems in the real world. A recent study by the University of Lincoln in the United Kingdom demonstrates this.
The research was conducted by Dr. Patrick Bourke, a professor at the School of Psychology at Lincoln University, and his student Hannah Shaw. This is the first study that relates lucid dreams with "insight".
Lucid dreams, self-confidence and satisfaction with life
Other studies on lucid dreams are aimed at demonstrating the benefit that this type of sleep has on well-being and mental health in general.
According to Úrsula Voss, sleep researcher at the University of Bonn in Germany, people who experience lucid dreams tend to wake up "with a sense of euphoria, because they really feel better and feel like they have achieved something in their dreams."
According to another study conducted by Evelyn Doll of the Medical University of Vienna, the subjects of her research who had experienced lucid dreams, scored higher on issues related to self-confidence, tended to be more assertive, and showed a greater well-being In this sample, the scores of a questionnaire were compared by 27 frequent lucid dreamers and 33 people who had rarely experienced lucid dreams.
Lucid dreams to overcome Post Traumatic Stress
Following the 2008 Gaza conflict between Israeli and Palestinian forces, the Ben-Gurion University of the Negev in Israel demonstrated that lucid dreaming is effective in overcoming Post Traumatic Stress. Nirit Soffer-Dudek and his collaborators conducted the investigation with 223 women living in the area affected by the military offensive, the results indicated that the subjects who had been exposed to higher levels of violence showed the highest levels of distress, a state that was less severe in those who claimed to be able to experience lucid dreams.
Lucid dreams and imagination training
This study indicates that in the lucid dreams the same brain areas are used as in imagination training. Therefore, in addition to the benefits we have shown in the previous lines, there are other positive effects:
- Increase concentration capacity and accuracy
- Strengthens memory
- Stimulate creativity
- Helps fight stress and anxiety
To read more about mental training through the imagination , we recommend this article: "Mental Training through Imagination: Sports Psychology".
