Anyone can spontaneously undergo a dream experience in which they maintain a state of consciousness similar to that of waking and are able to deliberately control everything that happens during it .
They are called “lucid dreams”: a hybrid physiological state resulting from the maturation of the brain, which usually occurs during childhood and adolescence. However, there are those who maintain the ability to immerse themselves in this type of interactive reverie throughout their lives and others are able to achieve it through techniques such as brain stimulation. Nightmares and sleep paralysis are not a problem for “oneironauts”, used to mastering their most uninhibited thoughts.
In this sense, an investigation published in the American Journal of Psychology asked what were the most recurrent themes among those who experienced lucid dreams, either occasionally or periodically. Of the nearly 600 people surveyed, the vast majority opted for flying and having sex . The dreamers acknowledged planning their nocturnal goals during waking hours, which ranged from unviable actions in real life, such as flying, doing magic, breathing underwater, talking to animals, being other people and traveling in time, to mundane activities such as practice sex and play sports, as well as murder, steal and assault. The results also showed that lucid dreamers were prone to being active in their dreams, although at least half of the time they were unable to perform the desired actions due to not having full control of the mental process or suddenly waking up. The researchers also inquired about the moment in which the first lucid dream manifested and the frequency with which it continued to do so, concluding that the average age was 14 years and that 60 percent of those surveyed suffered them at least once. a month.
Although lucid dreams are perfectly plausible, scientific research is limited as they are purely subjective experiences . However, researchers believe that the induction of these dreams may be effective in treating psychological problems such as post-traumatic stress disorder.
