Living The Dream

A new sleep technique promises to make you more positive and productive.

- Daisy Buchanan

With the exception of the movie Inception, there’s nothing more boring than someone else’s dream. So, I’ll be concise when I tell you about this one. I was three years old when I dreamt I was in a fire station, wearing yellow gumboots and a coat over my PJs. I remember saying to a fireman, “I know this is a dream because I don’t know any firemen, I don’t have any yellow boots and if this were real life I wouldn’t be wearing pyjamas.” To test my theory, I climbed up a pole with ease and slid back down. I didn’t know it then, but I was having a lucid dream: a state in which you’re aware the dream is happening and you can control your actions. And research suggests it could serve a function beyond boring your partner/friends/colleagues to tears.

Staying Woke

This intersection between sleep and waking consciousness makes the state a sleep scientist’s wet dream. In a 2014 study, University of Lincoln researchers in the UK found that lucid dreamers showed greater insight in waking life, with better-than-average problem-solving abilities. More recently, a Journal of Sports Sciences article explored the potential for lucid dreaming to improve focus and performance in athletes. But it’s the use of this technique for managing mental health that’s piqued my interest. Anecdotally, it’s purported to help ease feelings of stress and anxiety, and it’s even been trialled as an intervention for PTSD to curtail recurrent nightmares. Since I struggle with an anxiety disorder, I want to know if I can replicate the lucid experience I had as a child, and if doing so could help me now.