"Dreaming is necessary even if the dream goes beyond reality." Ayrton Senna.

       What is a Lucid Dream?

Lucid dream (sane / conscious dream) is the ability to consciously observe and / or control your dreams, as the name suggests. Imagine your dreams knowing that you are dreaming and everything you have experienced feels real, it would be wonderful, right? What if we told you that anyone can do this by applying some methods? Are you excited too? The subject is a little deep, let's explain it in detail :)

 Before we get into how you can do this work, let's get a thorough understanding of the subject. Lucid dream transforms your inner dream world into an alternative reality where everything you see, hear, feel, taste and smell is as authentic as real life. Exploring this virtual world is truly a mind-blowing experience!

 When you switch to Lucidity mode, your consciousness awakens and realizes that you are in a dream, that is, consciousness and subconscious are activated at the same time. In normal dreams, awareness of your self is off. That's why you often feel blurry and distant situations in your dreams and then vaguely remember them.

 What Benefits Does the Lucid Dream Experience Provide?

We said that with Lucid dream, you can make any of your dreams come true in your dreams. Do you want to fly in the mountains, have sex with a celebrity, time travel, fly with dinosaurs or explore alien planets? No matter what you want, once you master your control of your dreams, you can experience them almost as real.

 It is stated that some psychological problems can also be overcome with lucid dreams. Let's say you have a phobia or a past trauma, you can overcome these problems by confronting them in your dream over and over again and perhaps finding a way out to comfort yourself.

 Conscious dreams encourage people to think with their imagination. Thus, the mind becomes more active and problems that previously seemed hopeless can be resolved in this way. In fact, thanks to these dreams, people can become people who look at life more positively, because the thoughts and problems that lead the person to pessimism can come to light thanks to these dreams.

 And of course creativity! You can make music in your dreams in surreal and unexpected ways, do original artistic work, and experience the pleasure of creating just like real. You can become a famous singer and give a concert, be a charming dancer or professionally play a musical instrument you have always wanted to play :)

 A completely lucid dream can be in perfect reality, concrete and visually detailed. You can also nurture your creativity with what you see in your dreams. You can experience everything that normally seems impossible in these dreams. Think about it, there are no rules, no laws and everything is limitless, you are in a place where everything you can think of is real!

 But lucid dream is not just a playground where you can make your fantasies come true.

 Dream theories state that there is a chance to interact with other parts of your soul (talking to different dream characters) as well as your inner self (talking to the fabric of the dream).

 After understanding your inner world in your dreams and embracing the universe, you can discover a strange and brand new world. You can experience inner peace and awareness.

 To summarize briefly, Lucid dream experience;

• Problem Solving
• Increasing your creativity
• Facing fears
• Increasing confidence
• Developing new skills
• Improving your sense of self
• It is said to have positive effects such as exploring your subconscious mind. 

Can Anyone Have a Lucid Dream?

Experts point out that everyone has the potential to dream consciously. However, only a small proportion of people learn to do it regularly. Everyone has many dreams that they can remember, and it is possible to live these dreams consciously. Children could learn lucid dreams intuitively. Some medications used in degenerative conditions such as Parkinson's disease can also trigger such dreams. Also, experts say, everyone has had a lucid dream at least once in their life. In order to continue this, all you have to do is realize that you are in a dream.

 Usually when we are in trouble in a dream, we find ourselves questioning whether this is my dream real, and at that time, we first try a little slap ourselves, etc. Then, to be sure, we make sure by continuing what we wouldn't normally do, like killing people, jumping from a high place. Usually when doing things like these examples are illogical or we wouldn't normally do, the mind can suddenly awaken that this is a dream.

How Can I Dream a Lucid?

There are some methods that can be done to gain this habit;

• Meditation - to focus your mind on what you desire
• Visualization - trying to dream of what you want to see in order to enter lucid dream state while awake,
• Reality checks - constantly asking yourself if I am dreaming or real in your daily life to create spontaneous awareness in dreams (you will do it in your dreams after a while),
• Dreamy plants - some herbal teas are used abroad to intensify and extend your dreams,
• Dream diary - to reinforce your dream experience when you wake up
• Mnemonic techniques - to clear the mind in dreams to realize that you are dreaming.

 You can trigger your mind during the day to be aware of events. For example; You can exercise for a few weeks by determining some situations for yourself and trying to notice them as you experience them. It's like making your mind aware of this every time you look in a mirror and write it down. Or you can constantly ask yourself whether I am dreaming or not during the day and get your brain used to question this.

Before you go to sleep, you can fall asleep by giving yourself suggestions that you will remember and control your dreams. In a method; After waking up at 4 - 5 in the morning, staying awake for 15 minutes, drawing fresh air and waking up, determining an object or situation to suggest to yourself that you will realize that you are in a dream when you notice it. Or to sleep thinking that even if you do not determine an object, you will live your dream consciously and what you want to see. People who do one or more of these methods are said to be successful within 3-21 days. Of course, it may vary according to this person, we cannot reach a definite conclusion.

However, the lucid will provide you with the motivation you need to make the dream come true once successfully :)

What is the negative sides of Lucid Dream?

You may never have thought that it could be harmful after explaining it so well. Even while reading, one gets caught up in the possibility of this fantastic world and doesn't think what harm it can bring. When we look at it, we can also think that 'we spend our sleeping time in a quality way, it is very good'. There is not much trouble with lucid dreams that you see once in a while, but if you exaggerate and specialize in this job, you may want to completely break from reality and sleep continuously and be filled with the desire to stay in that world. Although there are people who do this job consciously and who are now specialized, who do not do any harm, sometimes it can give people great difficulties. This fact should never be ignored. If we are to sort briefly;

• This situation leads to disruption of sleep patterns.
• You isolate yourself from the world.
•  Not being able to actually live the life you live there can make you be aggressive.
• You may feel tired because your brain is always busy while asleep.
•  You may become inefficient by not being able to adapt to your daily work.

If the situation in your dreams sometimes gets out of your control, this can cause psychological problems. It can lead to serious over-sleeping problems and diseases as a result of impaired metabolism.

Controlling dreams.

This is really a subject with deeper points than what it's written here. Stories and interviews of people who have mastered this experience called Lucid Dreamers are also found in some foreign sources. If this job really interests you, you can check them out too. It is a really fantastic subject and its accessibility attracts people with the thought of experiencing it at least a few times :) I leave here Juice WRLD'S song "Lucid Dreams"