In addition to lucid dreams, there are five main types of dreams - normal dreams, daydreams, false awakenings, nightmares and psychic dreams. Consider the features of each of these hypnotic states and how each can take you into the phenomenal world that is lucid dreaming.
1. Normal Dreams
While the term "normal dreams" may seem like a contradiction, it simply refers to your usual types of dreams when you don't know that you are dreaming. A typical dream is when you could be having coffee with the President and not think anything is out of place; you accept your dream as reality.
Every single night individuals have a normal dream. These dreams come from your REM sleep and are necessary to your survival. Without these dreams you could die. When you get the eight-hour standard of sleep you will dream for about 100 minutes, with longer and more vivid dreams happening just a few minutes before you wake up.
Interpreting Dreams
The subconscious mind sends up important messages through our normal jeans. These dreams come from your thoughts and experiences during the day and occasionally memories from a long time ago. During these dreams, you mind can release repressed fears, anxieties and desires through a coded language known as conceptual imagery that comes from the subconscious brain.
Spontaneous Lucidity
These normal dreams are also the main gateway to lucid dreams. When you have a normal dream, it is easy to become spontaneously lucid. All you need is for you to consciously realize that you are dreaming. This turns on your conscious brain and the sensory system so that your dream looks, feels, sounds, smells and even tastes like it's happening in reality.
Even the most bizarre experiences can feel very real, such as shape shifting or at least to the point of what your body expects the sensation to feel like. When you forget that you are dreaming your lucid dream will return to a normal dream and you will lose all conscious control and awareness of the dream again.
2. Daydreams
Scientific studies have found that for an amazing 70-120 minutes per day people will daydream. At this time, you are semi-awake, but not asleep. However, you also aren't completely in tune with reality at this time either. Often this form of lucidity starts with a compelling thought, memory or fantasy regarding the future and your imagination soon gets away from you. As the daydream continues, you become more immersed in your private fantasyland.
Daydreaming is actually an important part of dream research. As with other forms of dreams, you enter a hypnotic trance and your subconscious thoughts are allowed to rise to the surface. During daydreams, the right or creative side of your brain become dominant and you lose your awareness of reality. Often your deeper worries or concerns will come to the surface at this time, usually by acting themselves out through the daydream. This can increase your negativity, so when you start fantasizing about bad situation you should try to change it into a positive outcome.
Rehearsing the Future
A lot successful people will use their daydreams as a way to visualize their success in the future. For athletes they will often imagine winning their next big game. Business leaders use daydreams to mentally rehearse for an important speech. These individuals see a positive outcome and can help make their daydream a reality. You can even consider an event in the past and reenact it to provide a different outcome. This kind of daydreaming is very healthy for individuals since you are temporarily able to get away from the difficulties of reality and release your frustrations without having to do anything physical.
Setting a Lucid Dream Intention
You can also use daydreams in order to start your next lucid dream. To do this make a mental list of three things that you want to accomplish in your conscious dream and visualize how to get there. Say you want to learn the piano, fly to the moon and meet aliens. First, picture the concert hall (where you are most likely to find a piano), then imagine what it is like to fly up and go through the roof into the night sky. Picture yourself landing on the moon and finding a group of aliens that are super-intelligent and sitting in a crater. You will have an interesting conversation with the aliens, gaining a lot of insights that come directly from your unconscious mind.
When you become lucid next time, you will instinctively remember your daydream and start to perform it in the vivid detail of the reality of a lucid dream. When you don't do this preparation, you are likely to just move around and examine the dreamscape. While this is fun, it is better to have some goals in mind to get the most out of your lucid dreams.
3. False Awakenings
Have you even seen the movie Groundhog Day? This is a bit like a false awakening. You wake up normally and go about your daily routine and get half way to work before you realize that you are still dreaming. This is a very weird place to be. False awakenings are a vivid form of dreams. They often start in your bedroom with you waking up and somehow your brain follows every detail of the room as it should be in reality. Unless you are like a lucid dreamer and question your reality upon waking, you often won't realize the difference.
How to Shake a False Awakening
In order to come out of a false awakening you typically need something obvious and shocking. Maybe you see yourself 20 years older in the bathroom mirror. Alternatively, maybe you realize there are no other cars on the road with you. Sometimes even when you do a reality check it won't be enough to bring you out of your false awakening. It can take a lot to get your conscious brain to wake up. Sometimes you need to have a specific event happen in order to trigger your conscious brain and to come out of a false awakening.
Multiple False Awakenings
Some individuals report several false awakenings in quick succession. These individuals are stuck in what seems like a never-ending cycle and are tired of getting ready for work several times in a day. If you have this happen to you often, it is a good idea to start the habit of doing reality checks when you wake up and give yourself a chance. After recognizing a false awakening two things can happen: you can get shocked into waking up or you can have a lucid dream.
The most important thing to remember is that false awakenings aren't harmful even though they may be frustrating. They can be very vivid, but they are often not nightmarish in content. At most, false awakenings provide you with a fascinating subject to talk about the next day.
4. Nightmares
Within the western world and culture, nightmares are considered normal dreams that have a scary twist. Often you don't know you are dreaming during a nightmare so the subconscious takes everything as if it is really happening. Sometimes nightmares can be vivid enough that the sensory system becomes triggered and you can actually feel pain. This can be a very unnerving experience.
A dream analysis suggests that when you are chased by a monster or other dark character in a nightmare this is a representation of your evolutionary fear of being hunted. Children are much more vulnerable to nightmares than adults are and therefore report this type of dream most often. Studies have proven that most nightmares are the result of sickness, stress, trauma and drugs or alcohol.
How to Stop Nightmares
The best way to deal with nightmares and these recurring types of dreams is with lucidity. Question your reality and you will be better able to recognize a nightmare when it happens, especially if you plant a monster as your dream symbol. When you think of this symbol during your waking life then do a quick reality check. Then when the same symbol appears in your dream, your reality test will change to lucidity. Then you simply need to find the courage to confront the monster in your lucid dream state and take care of it once and for all.
5. Psychic Dreams
Psychic dreams can come in the form of daydreams, normal dreams, lucid dreams and even nightmares if they are something that is predicting a disaster. Many dreams foretell the future in some way. Often the rational exception is that our subconscious mind is bringing together small pieces of information and making an intuitive decision regarding the future. However, we could also be tuning into a receptive state and receive message coming from somewhere else.
Some individuals believe that psychic dreams or any form of dream requires our spirit to leave our body and we go on to explore alternate versions of reality. These individuals believe your psychic dreams are a result of viewing the future in one of these different realities.
Finding Experiential Evidence
While a lot of people report having psychic dreams, it is difficult to define the difference between coincidental events and genuine prophetic dreams. Since psychic dreams are very random in nature, it is difficult to gain clear results in a laboratory experiment. However, you can still gather your own experiential evidence. Next time you are in a lucid state, ask your dream to show the future. If nothing, happen then try again. You may be surprised by what happens. When you wake up be sure to record the details and see if your lucid dream comes true.
Lucid Dreams
Lucid dreams are the best type and are likely the reason you are reading this article. Many lucid dreams spontaneously take shape from normal dreams. All you need to do is teach yourself to question the reality around you and you will experience lucid dreams more often.
You can also enter a lucid dream state by walking your brain from a conscious state directly into a dream state. Tibetan Buddhists have used this technique for nearly 1,000 years and is now known as Wake Induced Lucid Dreams. This technique requires a two-step process of meditation and inducing sleep paralysis. Soon you can enter your own lucid dream world.
What Defines a Lucid Dream?
A lucid dream is essentially any dream in which you know that you are dreaming and/or can control and direct your awareness. This is the simply definition and the complete truth. You don't need to have 100% control with lucid dreams. Often times you can only control your movements or simply follow the action that is taking place around you. You can also be in a lucid state and completely aware of your dream, but unable to take any control; just a silent observer in the beautiful dream world. It is easy to see why many individuals use lucid dreams as a way to fulfill desires that they can't achieve in reality. However, once you look past this novelty feature you will see that lucid dreams provide you with a brilliant insight into the subconscious mind.