Is it possible to plan your dreams

We can strategize to dream about a particular subject, solve a problem or end a recurring nightmare. With practice we can also increase our chances of having a lucid dream, the sort of "dream within a dream" that Inception 's characters regularly slip into. The ability to influence other people's sleep worlds is still crude. But emerging technologies raise the prospect that, at the very least, we'll get an idea of what others are dreaming about in real time.

The literal definition is a narrative experience that occurs during sleep. A few people will define it as a REM rapid eye movement sleep experience but, actually, the research doesn't support that.

Some things that seem to look like dreams occasionally occur in other stages of sleep. Why do most dreams seem to occur in REM, and what's happening during that sleep phase that seems to produce dreams?

REM is generally the only time during sleep that most of the cortex is pretty much as active as it is when we're awake. During this phase, there are rhythmic bursts of activity in the brain stem. There's one school of thought that this rhythmic firing is the sole cause of dreaming and all the upper cortical activity is a simple response to that. It just doesn't look that way.

It looks like the lower brain stem activity wakes the cortex up and then the cortex does a lot of organized, meaningful thinking once it's activated. The thing that is very frustratingly not neat and clean is that every once in awhile when you wake somebody out of a non-REM period, they report something that looks pretty much like the elaborate narrative of a dream.

This is especially common in people who have big traumas and shift workers who have their sleep disrupted , so it may be that it happens mainly when something isn't operating completely properly with the regular sleep cycle. During dreams, are certain regions more active than others or does that depend on what you're dreaming about? It's sort of halfway in between the extreme version of either of those. On average, there are several areas that are more active than they would be during the waking state.

Those are parts of the visual cortex, parts of the motor cortex and certain motion-sensing areas deeper in the brain. That's probably related to why dreams are so very visual compared to other sensory modes or types of content and also why they have a lot of motion and action in them relative to our waking experience.

The parts of the brain stem that fire those bursts of activity are also active. There are other areas that are less active on average during REM sleep. Those are the prefrontal areas, which have to do with the fine points of logical reasoning and also where you might say censorship resides. That's not only for censorship of things that are socially inappropriate, what Freud would have meant by censorship of sexual and aggressive impulses, but also the impulses that say, "that's not the logical way to do things.

Given that there's higher-level thinking going on in our dreams, to what extent can we control them? That we can control our own dreams is quite true and really much more so than people seem to know or realize.

The details of how to do it are very different depending on whether you're trying to induce lucid dreams, whether you're trying to dream about particular content or whether you're trying to dream a solution to a particular personal or objective problem.

Another really common application has been influencing nightmares, especially recurring post-traumatic nightmares—either to stop them or turn them into some sort of mastery dream. So how can you problem-solve in a dream? Although any kind of problem can make a breakthrough in a dream, the two categories that really crop up a lot are things where the solution benefits from being represented visually, because the dreams are so vivid in their visual-spatial imagery, and when you're stuck because the conventional wisdom is just plain wrong.

He was thinking that in all nonchemical molecules, the atoms were lined up in some kind of straight line with degree side chains coming off it. Once he knew the atoms in benzene, he was trying to come up with arrangements of them that were straight lines with side chains and it just wasn't working.

Then he dreamt of the atoms forming as a snake, eventually reaching around with the snake's tail in its mouth. It seems exactly related to the fact that the prefrontal lobes that control censorship are, on average, much less active during dreams. If you want to problem-solve in a dream, you should first of all think of the problem before bed , and if it lends itself to an image, hold it in your mind and let it be the last thing in your mind before falling asleep.

For extra credit assemble something on your bedside table that makes an image of the problem. If it's a personal problem, it might be the person you have the conflict with. If you're an artist, it might be a blank canvas. If you're a scientist, the device you're working on that's half assembled or a mathematical proof you've been writing through versions of. Equally important, don't jump out of bed when you wake up—almost half of dream content is lost if you get distracted.

This practice could help people in their daily lives, the study author explains. Lucid dreaming is a fascinating phenomenon in which a person is aware that they are asleep and dreaming.

Those who are more adept at lucid dreaming are able to control the action and content of their dreams to varying degrees. But can people learn to lucid dream and perfect their technique?

The study author, Denholm Aspy, Ph. Aspy has been fascinated by lucid dreaming for many years, and in a comment for Medical News Today , he explained how this fascination came about.

Initially, he asked 1, volunteers to fill in a dedicated questionnaire before the start of the study. Of the volunteers in the final cohort, Over the course of the study, Aspy put to the test five different lucid dreaming induction techniques or technique combinations. These were:. However, he noted that in the case of reality testing, this might be due to the relatively short study period. Aspy also argues that lucid dreaming can have some helpful applications for well-being, which make it an interesting phenomenon to study and a potentially helpful experience to have.

This could be due to debilitating medical conditions, but also due to circumstances like self-isolation or quarantine when daily habits are disrupted, and emotional stressors are high. The researcher also observes that some people may find it easier than others to experience lucid dreams. If no sounds or images appear clearly, try reading through your target dream again in your dream journal. Walk through your target dream. Do this in the first-person point of view, from start to finish.

Imagine what it would seem like through your eyes. Try to walk through the target dream in the exact sequence you expect it in your dream. Think hard, but maintain a calm posture. Do not get tense. Just relax. Go to sleep with these images and sounds in your head. Remember to record your dreams, whatever they are, when you wake up.

Part 3. Try "reality checks" throughout the day. A reality check is when you ask yourself: "Am I awake, or am I dreaming? In dreams, text will change into different words; trees change color and shape; clocks tell time backwards instead of forwards.

In reality, text stays the same, trees stay rooted in the ground, and clocks move clockwise. Suppose a poster in your room says "Justin Bieber. If it still says "Justin Bieber," the reality check says that you're awake. If you turn away, then look at the poster and it says "Selena Gomez," the reality check will tell you that you're dreaming.

Ace your reality check. When you're having a dream and realize that you are having a dream, then you start to be able to control most of what happens in your dream.

When you make the leap and realize you're dreaming, try to calm yourself down. If you get too excited about finally being able to control your dreams, you might accidentally wake up from excitement. Try small activities at first. Again, this is about staying in control of your excitement and not accidentally waking up. Even mundane things like cooking food, climbing a ladder, or skateboarding can be fun when you realize you're in full control. Gradually build up to bigger activities. A lot of people enjoy flying, swimming deep into the ocean, and time travel.

Try moving huge objects, passing through walls, or even telekinesis. The dreams that you can have are limited only by your imagination! Include your email address to get a message when this question is answered.

Make sure you plan to get plenty of sleep. Getting too little sleep might decrease your chances of lucid dreaming. Helpful 1 Not Helpful 0. Set your alarm to 3 am, which is most likely your deep sleep time. As soon as you wake up, think really hard about what you want to dream of, look at a picture, or play a song, and just lay back down. Chances are pretty good that you're already half asleep. Helpful 0 Not Helpful 0. Another way to realize that you're dreaming is to draw a symbol on your hand.

As you fall asleep, think "When I look at my hands, I will realize I am dreaming. Eventually you will simply think "My hand! Keep a symbol on your ceiling or near your bed that you can easily look at. Stare at it for a few minutes before you go to sleep, and stare at it for a few minutes when you wake up.

This may help you remember your dreams with greater clarity. Imagine you are in the dream when you are awake. Draw a picture of your vision. It doesn't matter if you are good or bad, just draw what you think before you go to bed every night. It will help you think and fantasize about it!

If you try to concentrate as you fall asleep, you may stay awake. The point of the aforementioned activities writing target dreams down, etc. In your dream, if you have a fear of spiders, don't say, "I hope there won't be any spiders. This can be useful when you wish to conquer your fears, though.

Another way to control your dream is to look at an analog clock and try to make the second hand move backwards. It won't work when you're awake, but try the same thing in you dream; if the second hand moves backwards you will realize that you're dreaming. Think about what you want to dream of over and over and count down from a high number before you go to sleep.

Repeat this process every night. When you are awake, make a simple habit of looking down at your hands and counting your fingers. When you are dreaming, you rarely have the same amount -- or color and shape -- of fingers as you do when awake. With practice, this habit will carry over into your dreaming state and you will be able to realize if you are dreaming or not by looking at them.

Try not to dream about upcoming events competitions, tests, etc. If your dream is not good, it may just make you more nervous about those events in real life.

An app called Dream:ON may help you influence your dreams. Don't be afraid of the dream. If you are scared, remember that it is only a dream! Don't think of things you don't wish to happen.