From Dreams Obscure
Though the Dutch psychiatrist Frederik Van Eeden is credited as having coined the term "lucid dream" in 1913 to describe those dreams in which the dreamer is conscious and able to somewhat control events within the dreamscape, earlier accounts give examples of this phenomena as far back as 415 AD. Letters written by Saint Augustine describe dreams of a former Roman physician, Gennadius. Gennadius began having dreams in which a youth would appear as a guide to help relieve his fears about the existence of life after death. In the first dream of the guide, Gennadius entered a city full of the sounds of exquisite music. The following night, the guide appeared to Gennadius once more, and Gennadius told the youth he recognized him from the dream in the previous night. The guide asked him where his body was currently situated, and Gennadius replied that he was asleep in bed. The youth's reply was such:
"Asleep and lying on your bed, these eyes of your body are now unemployed and doing nothing, and yet you have eyes with which you behold me, and enjoy this vision, so, after your death, while your bodily eyes shall be wholly inactive, there shall be in you a life by which you shall still live, and a faculty of perception by which you shall still perceive. Beware, therefore, after this of harboring doubts as to whether the life of a man shall continue after death" (M. Kelsey, Dreams: The Dark Speech of the Spirit, New York: Doubleday, 1968, 264-265).
The French professor Hervey de Saint-Denys became entranced with lucid dreams (though he did not call them such, since he was before the coined term's time) after experiencing one on his 207th night of recording his dreams. After fifteen months of consciously working on improving the ability, he was able to exercise control over some part of his dream almost every single night.
Lucid dreamers are often awed by the sensory enhancement of lucid dreams. Gennadius was confronted with "sounds of a melody so exquisitely sweet as to surpass anything he had ever heard." A sixteen-year old student named Hugh Calloway, under the pen name Oliver Fox, described the quality of his first lucid dream:
"Instantly, the vividness of life increased a hundred-fold. Never had sea and sky and trees shone with such glamorous beauty; even the commonplace houses seemed alive and mystically beautiful. Never had I felt so absolutely well, so clear-brained, so inexpressibly free! The sensation was exquisite beyond words; but it lasted only a few minutes and I awoke" (O. Fox, Astral Projection, New Hyde Park, NY: University Books, 1962, 32-33).
Though many people recounted their experiences with lucid dreams, scientists did not believe that one could be conscious while still retaining a sleep state. Proof of some sort had to be gathered before they would retire their skepticism.
Lucid-dreamer Alan Worsley devised a system to do so in 1975. Utilizing a sleep lab at England's Hull University, he had an assistant attach REM monitoring equipment to him before sleeping. To signal when he had a lucid dream, Worsley was supposed to move his eyes side to side a specified number of times at the onset of a lucid dream. He did reach lucidity, and gave the aforementioned signal. The EEG confirmed that, though Worsley was fully asleep, he gave the signal as he had been instructed. However, the findings were delayed so that Worsley could obtain more substantial evidence.
Two years later, Stephen LaBerge of Stanford University conducted practically the same experiment, unaware of Worsley's previous venture. He gathered several lucid dreamers, including himself; the signal was the same as previous, using specific eye movement to relate a lucid dream. They, too, were successful.
A student of the University of Virginia Medical School, Joe Dane was curious as to whether hypnosis would allow dreamers to better connect with lucidity. He gathered thirty highly hypnotizable female subjects, using fifteen as controls and fifteen as the hypnotic subjects. All subjects, including the control subjects, were given strong verbal encouragement to increase chances of lucidity. The non-control group was hypnotized and were told to select a symbol which they could recognize in the dream to spawn lucidity. As in previous experiments, eye signals would be given during the lucid phase to alert researchers that the subject had indeed reached a lucid state. The signal had to be repeated by the subject about every thirty seconds, or the researchers would wake the participant for a dream report.
In the first night alone, fourteen of the fifteen hypnotized subjects and seven of the fifteen in the control group had lucid dreams. However, the lucid dreams of the hypnotized group tended to be more intense and longer than those of the control group. It should be noted that all thirty subjects were highly hypnotizable, and all were female; women have been found to have a greater inclination towards lucid dreams. I am not aware of any other studies done with male participants or mixed groups, nor of less hypnotizable subjects.
Surveys taken by Jayne Gackenbach report that:
"About 58% of the population have experienced a lucid dream at least once in their lifetime, while about 21% report it with some frequency (one or more a month). Additionally, 13% of dreams recalled on the morning after and recorded in dream diaries are likely to be lucid" ("An Estimate of Lucid Dreaming Incidence," Lucidity10, nos. 1-2 1991: 7).
Studies on children ages ten to twelve give interesting results on the frequency of lucid dreams among this age group. Among the ten year olds, 63% said they had monthly lucid dreams, while only 58% of the eleven year olds reported this, and only 36% of the twelve year old age group reported monthly lucid dreams ("A Validation of Lucid Dreaming in School Age Children," Lucidity 10, nos. 1-2 1991; 250-254). This may in part be due to a lack of enforcement on our culture towards such subjects.
It's a common notion that full control of a dream arrives with lucidity. This is not necessarily true. You may have some influence over the dream, and you may be able to control certain events, but the dreamscape itself is usually rather fixed. I'm a fairly frequent lucid dreamer, and I can attest to this personally: usually I can control other characters to some extent, and I can give myself any power I want, including the ability to fly. However, I can almost never "pop" myself out of the whole scene and into another one. The unconscious mind still retains control over many elements of the dream.
Other than the freedom and excitement you feel when you are able to control
elements of your dream, you may be able to discover therapeutic uses as well.
People have used lucidity to cure recurring nightmares. For example, if you are
constantly pursued by an unsettling dream character, you can use lucidity to
defeat the menace. Gestalt theorists prefer that dreamers confront dream
characters instead of attacking or running from them; the dream character may
represent some aspect of the dreamer's own personality, and by confronting the
unpleasant character, may be able to come to terms with this aspect.
There are other uses for lucid dreams: You can use it to confront phobias.
Afraid of heights? Use lucid dreams to practice flying higher and higher until
you overcome some of this fear. You can also try seeing things from other
character's perspectives to gain a broader view. Lucid dreams can give you a
sense of empowerment that carries on through waking life.
There are a few methods I've used to induce lucid dreams that have worked fairly well. In one technique, you choose a symbol to clue you in and spur lucidity. If you have a common element in your dreams, try using it and see how well it works. I fly a lot in dreams, so I could use this as a way to gain lucidity. During waking hours, focus on associating your chosen symbol with the lucid experience. Tell yourself repeatedly that when you fly in a dream, or whichever symbol you've chosen, you will become lucid. See yourself doing so. If you do it enough, the association will stick next time you dream of your symbol, and you should be able to become lucid.
Another technique deals with a more physical means of attaining lucidity. If you have a watch, set it to go off every 90 minutes. (This is the time between REM cycles, so it's a good interval to have.) Do this for several days, at least, and every time your watch goes off, ask yourself whether or not you're dreaming. If you keep your watch nearby at night, it may go off and trigger a lucid dream. If you don't have a timer or this would be too inconvenient for you, try constantly looking at your watch during the day and asking yourself this question.
One more method: Before going to sleep, tell yourself over and over until you drift off, "I am having a lucid dream." The suggestion will often carry over in your dreams if you repeat it enough, and you'll find yourself becoming lucid. This one has worked a lot for me in the past, though once or twice it's woven itself deceptively in my dreams. After using it one night, I dreamed a young girl had asked me how to have lucid dreams, and I told her, "Just repeat to yourself over and over, 'I am having a lucid dream'." Not once did it cross my mind that I was dreaming!