Back in high school, Brenda Giguere would ice skate with her friends every week at a local shopping center. But she quickly got bored going in circles, while watching her more adventurous friends switch from skating backward to forward."I got really fed up with myself about being such a chicken, but I seemed doomed to skate in circles forever," she recalled. One night as she was falling asleep, she realized that she could probably practice those backward moves in her sleep. She had been conscious before when she dreamed, although she didn't know at the time what that type of dream was called. "Before long I was dreaming I was skating, and I got very excited. I knew it was a dream, so I knew it couldn't hurt me at all. ... It was so realistic. I got the very convincing sensation of skating backward -- the movement of my legs, the cool air, the feeling of propelling myself this way. Suddenly, it made sense to me as a set of logical, fluid, sequential body movements."

And the next time she was out with her friends, she skated backward without hesitation.

Giguere, now 50 and a freelance makeup artist and wardrobe stylist in San Diego, later learned she'd experienced what's called a lucid dream.

Lucid dreaming occurs when the dreamer knows that she is dreaming. It's among the most controversial areas of dream research, partly because of misperceptions over how much individuals can influence dreams -- or more importantly, whether they should.

Yet proponents say lucidity is an important step in understanding dreams and creates a vital bridge between people's sleeping and waking states.

Beyond the practical application of rehearsing a speech or learning a skill, advocates say, lucid dreams can take the horror out of nightmares, inspire new ideas, promote self-healing of physical ailments and unravel mysteries of the psyche that can improve people's overall well-being.


View: Full Article | Source: Post Gazette