Have you ever been in a dream and realized you were dreaming? This is
called a “lucid dream.” Those who’ve experienced it say you can control
what happens in the dream world. People have reported flying, walking
through walls, meeting celebrities and deceased loved ones—the
possibilities seem endless.
All of this is pretty mystical, but research has shown that lucid
dreaming can have benefits in the waking world. In this post, we
consider these benefits and how wearing an eye pillow when sleeping can
stimulate lucid dreaming.
Benefits of Lucid Dreaming
Let’s briefly go over some of the research showing how lucid dreaming
stimulates creativity, may improve physical ability, and helps to reduce
the frequency of nightmares. Then, we consider how using an eye pillow
when sleeping stimulates lucid dreaming.
A 2014
study by P.
Bourke and H. Shaw shows that “frequent lucid dreamers solve
significantly more insight problems overall than non-lucid dreamers.”
Insight problems are those that require novel ways of thinking to be
solved, which means lucid dreaming stimulates creativity.
Lucid dreaming may also improve physical ability. A 2010
study
by D. Erlacher and M. Shredl had 40 participants toss coins into coffee
cups after physically practicing the toss, practicing in a lucid dream,
or doing nothing to prepare. Both the physical practice group and the
lucid dream practice group “had statistically significant higher
improvements in contrast to the non-dreaming group.”
Finally, a 2006
study by V.I.
Spoormaker and J. Van den Bout argues that lucid dreaming “seems
effective in reducing nightmare frequency.” This is a crucial
therapeutic benefit if we are to believe research
showing that childhood nightmares and other forms of being roused
during sleep may indicate “susceptibility to psychotic experiences.”
How Your Sleep Mask Can Help You Have Lucid Dreams
Various studies by Stephen LaBerge show that lucid dreaming tends to
occur during the Rapid Eye Movement (REM) stage of sleep. Since
sleep masks block out light and aid
the conversion of serotonin into melatonin, using an eye pillow when
sleeping helps you enter the REM stage faster, and prevents light-based
interruptions in the process. This also means that once you enter the
REM stage, your eye pillow will help keep you sleeping and dreaming for
longer.
Even if your sleep is interrupted, an eye pillow may help with dream
recollection. Lucid dreaming enthusiasts say that stimulation of the
optic nerve on waking is what keeps us from remembering our dreams. So
whether you want to dream faster, longer, or more memorably, wearing an
eye pillow when sleeping can help.
Further, your sleep mask is useful for a version of the “am I
dreaming?” test to trigger lucid dreaming: if you wake up with the mask
on, you’ve truly woken up, whereas if you “wake up” and aren’t wearing a
sleep mask, you can realize you’re still dreaming. This is known as a
false awakening.
Conclusion
Wearing an eye pillow when sleeping can stimulate lucid dreaming, which
we’ve shown has health benefits. Lucid dreaming not only helps with
creativity, skill development, and nightmares—for some, it also leads to
more restful sleep. We hope this post has piqued your interest about
the benefits of lucid dreaming, and how using an eye pillow when
sleeping can help.
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