How to be a Onironaut

Andrés Felipe Betancur

Colegio Espíritu Santo

Proyecto en ingles I Trimestre
A person that is tell to imagine that he can be in any place he wants and decide anything to

happen, that person will be confused and thinking the person that told him that is crazy, but the

reality is that any person can experience that, like in Matrix. First of all, each person in the world

and history, has dreamed, no matter if in that moment was remembered, is interesting to see how

intelligent and capable is our brain to create an instant of any memory or thought haved recently.

A dream has a unique characteristic, meanwhile the dream is developing, in one moment a

person can be aware that he is dreaming, but he can’t do anything to change the actions of the

dream only “spectate”. Sometimes in that precise moment the person wakes up. Through the

history and in this moment “half of the population has experienced a lucid dream” (Kee, 2016)

but what is a lucid dream?

But to understand the lucid dreams, is pertinent the knowledge of the phases of sleep. There’s a

classification of dreams; REM (not the band) or not REM, REM means by Rapid Eye

Movement that is divided in 4 phases:

1. No REM it’s when the person is beginning to sleep

2. It’s the transition between vigil and dreams

3. This phase let the body rest completely and get energy back

4. Briefly, deep dreams

(NA, 2018)

The lucid dreams happen between phase 1 and 2. Already in mind the phases of dream, a lucid is

“The levels of lucidity cover a very wide range of experiences, from having a nightmare and

waking up when we realize it, to recognizing the dream as such, remaining conscious within it and
changing its content with the power of intention.” (Iñaki Martín-Subero) (Sanchez, 2017). Just

take a time and analyze how, when, where, and what will have your lucid dream, according to the

definition already said. Now, how do the lucid dreams where discovered if each person at least

one time in a life have one of these, who will believe a person that say “when I was sleeping, I

thought I was in real life, but no, instantly I saw that I was driving a car that was flying in the space

and I could decide where to go and what happen in the trip” it’s difficult to believe that honestly,

only by the fact that he can decide what to do in the dream and feel that he was in the real life, but

how the lucid dreams were proved?

There not an exact moment where the lucid dreams where discovered, but the first place it was

mentioned was in the ancient Greece with Aristotle and Homer, saying that the dreamer can be

coincident of what is dreaming. Scientifically, the lucid dreams where prove by William Dement

and H. P. Roffwarg “the direction of eye movements recorded during paradoxical sleep sometimes

coincided with gaze orientation in sleep, as recorded in the subjects' reports. This finding provided

the key to communication from the lucid dream state, as this made it possible to agree on a specific

sequence of eye movements that the subject would send during a lucid dream and that would be

recorded by means of a polysomnography test.” (Bulkeley, 2020) . Culturally, is very used in

cultures like Tibetan Buddhism or in the practice of Yoga, each one of those with a different

propose and intention.

In this article was told what, the history, phases in a lucid dream, so here are some useful methods

and techniques to have a lucid dream; every person that want to have a lucid need to know

that is not easy, it requires practice, patience and time. An important to have these types of
 these is question the reality, I am really awake? Or I am dreaming? A useful technique is

to start the habit of cover your nose with your fingers and try to breathe, if the person can

breathe it mean you are in a dream if not is real life. Another method, is to declare before

take sleep “I’m going to remember what I dream”, these methods can be more effective if

the person set an alarm earlier he wakes up, when the alarm sounds wake up and start

sleeping again after saying “I’m going to remember what I dream”. All these methods used

together can become anyone into an onironaut (people who have lucid dreams). (NA, BBC,

2019)

Bibliografía

Bulkeley, K. (9 de Julio de 2020). psychologytoday. Obtenido de

https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/dreaming-in-the-digital-age/202007/the-
legacy-william-dement
Kee, C. (16 de 4 de 2016). BuzzFeed. Obtenido de https://www.buzzfeed.com/carolinekee/datos-
de-sueuos-lucidos-que-te-haran-cuestionar
NA. (29 de Septiembre de 2018). EnFamilia. Obtenido de https://enfamilia.aeped.es/vida-
sana/fases-
sueno#:~:text=El%20sue%C3%B1o%20se%20puede%20dividir,cuerpo%20utiliza%20p
ara%20descansar%20f%C3%ADsicamente.
NA. (27 de Abril de 2019). BBC. Obtenido de https://www.bbc.com/mundo/noticias-48017833
Sanchez, A. (2 de Febrero de 2017). La Vanguardia. Obtenido de
https://www.lavanguardia.com/vivo/psicologia/20170203/413795947470/que-son-los-
suenos-lucidos-y-como-podemos-conseguirlos.html