by Hannah Bredar

Lucid dreaming is the ability to control ones’ dreams and to be able to see yourself from outside of your body according to World of Lucid Dreaming. When someone is in a lucid dream, they have control over everything in her or his dreams, from who is in the dream to what exactly they are  doing. Lucid dreams range from complex and in depth dreams to simple dreams about one’s life.

Lucid dreaming sometimes happens on its own, but certain people train themselves to lucid dream. Sophomore Meghan McCalla has controlled her dreams before and says that she would lay down for 30 to 45 minutes with her eyes closed so she was not actually sleeping but she began to think about her thoughts. McCalla says doing this every night and practicing her thoughts helped her to eventually be able to lucid dream. When she finally did lucid dream, it started with looking at her hands and feet but then she started trying harder things like looking around where she was and what time it was in her dream.

McCalla says that it took her around a week to have her first lucid dream but says that it is interesting to do it.

“It feels like I become tiny and start walking around in my head and exploring my thoughts like it’s another world,” McCalla said.

Lucid dreaming has been documented in various cultures. According to World of Lucid Dreaming, both the French and Tibetan Buddhist monks have documented evidence of lucid dreams. Lucid dreaming takes time to master, it took McCalla a lot of practice to even have one lucid dream, and she hopes to have more complex lucid dreams in the future.

According to psychologist Jayne Gackenbach from Grant MacEwan University, people who like to play video games are more likely than people who do not play games to be able to lucid dream. Because video gamers are used to having all control over their game universe, lucid dreaming comes easier to them because it is like controlling your own video game in their mind. Gackenbach also said that it is easier for gamers to turn a nightmare into a calm, blissful dream in seconds.

Lucid dreaming can be practiced in many different ways. Some of these ways are starting a dream journal and trying to interpret your dreams when they are happening. According to McCalla, practice makes perfect so the more you practice lucid dreaming the better you will be at it.