It’s official! Technique to Control your Dreams has been Confirmed for the First Time

It’s official!

A technique has been used to induce lucid dreaming, and it has been verified officially for the first time! It might prove to be even more effective if it’s combined with others. After the trial, half of the participants lucidly dreamed, and this may be a record-breaking success percentage in only a week without using external intervention.

A lucid dream is a dream during which the dreamer is aware of dreaming. During lucid dreaming, the dreamer may be able to exert some degree of control over the dream characters, narrative, and environment. It has been disproven by experts for long time, but now science has confirmed.. it does exist! It has also found some methods that work.

Some of them require advance equipment, but others are far from reliable. It’s pity because as much as we enjoy the good dreams, they also have potential to heal traumas and control unhealthy behavior. Dr Denholm Aspy (scientist and expert in the field of lucid dreaming) of the University of Adelaide wondered if combining techniques would bring greater success.

A sample of 169 Australian participants completed a pretest questionnaire, provided baseline logbook data in Week 1, and practiced lucid dream induction techniques in Week 2. Results showed that the combination of reality testing, WBTB (Wake back to bed) and the MILD (Mnemonic induction of lucid dreams) technique was effective at inducing lucid dreams. Several factors that influenced the effectiveness of the MILD technique were identified, including general dream recall and the amount of time taken to fall asleep after finishing the technique.

In the journal Dreaming, Aspy reports that reality testing on its own produced no benefit, but the ones who tried the combo of reality testing and MILD, 53% had a lucid dream, while 17% had successful lucid dream every night! Isn’t that great?!

He told IFLScience that this exceeds any previous study conducted without interventions such as masks that shine lights in people’s eyes on detecting REM sleep.

Aspy concluded that the lucid dreams may be entirely accredited to MILD. His success rate exceeds that of previous studies of MILD, even those conducted by the inventor himself.

On average, 55% of the people have experienced one lucid dream or more in their lifetime. Aspy himself  became immensely into lucid dreaming after having one as a child… and changed his psychology PhD from studying non-verbal communication after having a lucid dream the night before he was to begin his doctorate.

Aspy told IFLScience that most lucid dreamers initially wake quickly, but with experience we can learn to extend them up to an hour!

Aspy is seeking volunteers for further studies and chose one-week trial period in the hope of producing an effect quickly enough to be suitable for future studies of applications like treating nighmares.

Sources used: IFL Science