Did you know that lucid dreaming is a common practice among young children? In fact, in a study by Bonn University, they found that young children were quite likely to have lucid dreams, but that the rate of lucid dreaming dropped at around age 16.
If we could lucid dream as children, what's to stop us from relearning that ability today and harnessing the power of lucid dreams to become more emotionally healthy.
In this post, we are going to explore the exciting world of lucid dreams, its prevalence among kids, and how we can re-harness the power of lucid dreaming as adults. Keep reading to learn more!
The Lucid Dreaming Survey
In this survey conducted at Bonn University, psychology professors were trying to figure out how common lucid dreams were for children between the ages of 6 and 19. They conducted a survey of over 790 kids to learn how often they lucid dreamed (and if they did at all).
Surprisingly enough, they were able to determine that many young children with high intelligence frequently experienced lucid dreams, but that as their brains developed (around age 16) they often lost this ability. In the end, over half of the students could at least remember having a lucid dream in their past!
So, What is Lucid Dreaming?
Lucid dreaming is, in essence, the ability to recognize you are dreaming while you are in the dream state. Once you are able to recognize that you are in a dream, you can gain greater control over your dream and make conscious decisions with in your dream.
The power of the lucid dreaming ability is immeasurable, but people have been known to use lucid dreaming for things from emotional growth and recovery to practicing skills while they sleep.
The Difference Between Adults and Children for Lucid Dreaming
The main difference for lucid dreaming in adults and children is that younger children are more likely to remember their dreams. So to harness the power of lucid dreaming, one of the main things we need to do is learn to remember the dreams we are currently having.
Remembering your dreams helps you to recognize patterns within your dreams, which makes it much simpler to recognize you are in a dream.
One of the best things you can do to remember your dreams to is to keep a dream journal. Each night before you sleep, put a journal or pen near your bed so you can easily access it when you wake in the night. Then, as soon as you wake up from a dream, write everything you can remember.
If you'd like, you can organize your journal by type of dream, symbol, or other helpful fact. This will make tracking patterns much simpler and help you accomplish your lucid dreaming goals.
Dream Leaf for Lucid Dreaming
Make sure to keep reading on Dream Leaf for more interesting news on lucid dreaming, and let us know how your lucid dreaming journey is coming!