Lucid dreams are dreams in which a person realizes that he is dreaming but can be an active participant in the scenes taking place in the subconscious. Almost all people have dreams but forget them almost completely after waking up. On the stage of an ordinary dream, a person appears as a playing spectator, who, unlike an actor or director, cannot influence the plot or the actions of a character. In the lucid dreams, the dreamer acts as a screenwriter, controlling the plot, scenery, and behavior. Lucid sleep provides even more excellent opportunities to handle the situation than reality itself since it is possible to influence external circumstances — both on other characters and the laws of physics. There are various studies regarding lucid dreaming that have common as well as differing opinions about lucid dreaming.
The authors of various scientific papers have their own opinions about lucid dreams. The article by Vallat & Ruby (2019) indicates that people are increasingly prone to provoking lucid dreams, and various techniques help them in this. All these techniques can lead to negative consequences with normal sleep. The use of such a technique as external stimulation during sleep for mindfulness leads to the fact that sleep ceases to be profound, and its duration is shortened. Conducting research in the laboratory, scientists have discovered that lucid dreaming is a state in which a person is between sleep and wakefulness (Vallat & Ruby, 2019). In addition, the abuse of lucid dreams leads to disruption of the brain in reality. This article is informative as it demonstrates that lucid dreaming has not only advantages but also disadvantages that have a significant impact on human health, as well as their sleep.
Although there is an opinion that lucid dreams are harmful to human health and sleep disorders, they can still contribute to the manifestation of creativity. The authors of the second article, Stumbrys & Daunyte (2018), claim that dreams themselves are a product of creativity, and there are cases in history when famous creative people had masterpiece thoughts in a dream. Some creators specifically practice lucid dreaming to see their next masterpiece in a dream and then repeat it in reality. People who can see lucid dreams can also control the duration of their sleep, that is, see what they need and wake up when they see fit. Nevertheless, the authors highlight the central question of whether lucid dreaming can be fully used to increase creativity and solve problems (Stumbrys & Daunyte, 2018). This article contains interesting information about how creativity works in people with conscious and unconscious dream science, but still, this information cannot be wholly reliable and used for more profound analysis.
Dreams are the diligent work of the brain, although often, during rest, people do not want to experience negative situations or things that would upset them in reality. Wade et al. (2020) argue that what people see in dreams is nothing serious, and the interpretations that people have picked up are nothing more than ordinary fiction. Often, what people see in dreams is nothing symbolic and iconic. This article is relatively short, but it contains information that some people will consider the most correct since dreams are not something more than just the work of the brain.
All three works describe dreams, as well as the role they play in people’s lives. Each of the sources recognizes that people see dreams and see specific pictures that may mean something, and some do not. In addition, the similarity of two articles out of three lies in the fact that certain conclusions are drawn based on research. All three articles set a specific topic for subsequent analysis that needs to be studied to understand the nature of lucid and unconscious dreaming more deeply.
These three papers provide detailed information about dreams, but the source authored by Wade et al. does not contain any experiments. That is, this source does not offer any evidence base as in the other two sources. Moreover, the difference between these three sources is that they all insist on different opinions regarding lucid dreaming. One source says that lucid dreams are harmful to health, another source describes creativity that is born of dreams, and a third source believes that dreams are nothing more than visions during rest.
In conclusion, dreams are an integral part of every person’s life. Dreams are often unconscious, but sometimes people practice lucid dreaming. There are different opinions about how significant it is that people dream. In addition, various studies argue about whether lucid dreaming can be harmful to health or not. Moreover, it is still unknown whether lucid dreams can bring any practical benefit to people. Still, some, for example, people of creative professions believe that lucid dreams help them to be more creative and then, in reality, they can create with great success. There are several dangers that lucid dreaming can bring, such as problems with the work of the brain and other physical difficulties.
References
Stumbrys, T., & Daunytė, V. (2019). Visiting the land of dream muses: The relationship between lucid dreaming and creativity. International Journal of Dream Research, 11(2), 207-212. doi: 10.11588/ijodr.2018.2.48667
Vallat, R., & Ruby, M. (2019). Is it a good idea to cultivate lucid dreaming? Frontiers in Psychology, 10(2585), 1-4. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2019.02585
Wade, C., Tavris, C., Sommers, S., & Shin, L. (2020). Psychology. Pearson.