Do you suffer from low inner resilience? Take control of your dreams while you sleep and build resilience through sleep. Neuroscientists agree: learn to dream consciously, an important life skill also known as lucid dreaming. With just 15 seconds a day, you can learn to dream consciously and significantly increase your resilience.
Resilience through sleep
What is lucid dreaming or lucid dreaming?
Lucid dreaming is the ability to consciously observe dreams and control their course.
It transforms the inner dream world into a living alternative reality - where everything you see, hear, feel, taste and even smell seems as authentic as real life.
Lucid dreaming occurs during the altered state of consciousness when you realise you are dreaming and your brain switches to a waking mode within the dream. In normal dreams, self-consciousness is switched off. That's why you often feel hazy and distant in dreams. But in the lucid state, the conscious brain wakes up during sleep.
The earliest mention of lucid dreaming is by Aristotle from the fourth century BCE. Von Galen of Pergamon (b. 129), who is considered the founder of Western medicine, developed this concept further.
Since the 10th century, Tibetan dream yoga has trained initiates on the path to enlightenment to increase the frequency and intensity of lucid dreaming in order to better understand the illusion in physical reality.
In recent years, neuroscientists have discovered that general dreaming trains the memory, promotes creativity and can help plan for the future. Lucid dreaming, on the other hand, prevents nightmares and gives the body a more restful sleep so that one can face the day with more energy and resistance.
How to learn lucid dreaming
Neuroscientists can trigger lucid dreams in test subjects by zapping their brains with a weak current for 30 seconds. Fortunately, there is also a less dramatic and surprisingly simple method for at home:
Start with a list in the morning and write down what you dreamed.
It has long been known that having such a "dream list" increases the likelihood of lucid dreams. However, most people unfortunately do not have the time or the desire to keep a journal. A dream journal only stimulates lucid dreaming if it is kept regularly and over a longer period of time.
If you are one of those who don't have time to keep a diary, make a list of the things you usually and often dream about and compare last night's dreams, for example when you are in the shower, with this list. See if you notice anything unusual in your last dream.
Whether through diary or comparison, it is about dissolving the boundary between the awake mind and the sleeping brain in the REM phase.
Invest just 15 seconds a day thinking about your dreams and experience the psychological benefits for yourself.
What are the advantages of lucid dreaming?
Tore Nielsen, a dream and nightmare researcher at the University of Montreal, says lucid dreams have clinical implications for the treatment of conditions such as post-traumatic stress disorder and nightmares, and that they help you reflect on yourself and the past and plan ahead for the future.
People who frequently experience lucid dreams testify that they have learned to pull themselves out of nightmares because they know they are in a bad dream. They can even control the course of the nightmare and change it for the better. By being able to take control, they have a far more restful and satisfying sleep.
Even in dreams that are not nightmares, when they become aware that they are in a dream, they can do anything and fly anywhere they want. They can even consciously travel back in time in a dream and talk to themselves as a child.
