These studies have shown that, like other dreams, lucid dreaming seems to happen during rapid eye movement (REM) sleep and involves activity in the prefrontal cortex. As Rajkumar Dasgupta, assistant professor of clinical medicine at the University of Southern California Keck School of Medicine in Los Angeles, told GoodRx, “At first, they pretty much had to trust you to tell when you're dreaming, but we've become more objective lately, and there have been some studies about lucid dreaming.”

Until recently, scientists' understanding of lucid dreaming was subjective. Research on lucid dreaming is still at its beginning stages. What happens in the brain when you lucid dream? But despite its long history of garnering interest, it’s still relatively unexplored. In fact, the philosopher Aristotle first mentioned the idea of conscious dreaming more than 2,000 years ago. It’s estimated that slightly more than half of the population has experienced a lucid dream. Some people even report directing their dreams while lucid dreaming, as though they are directing a movie. When a person lucid dreams, they know that the events in their dream aren’t really happening, but the experience still feels real. Lucid dreaming is when a person becomes aware that they’re dreaming while they’re dreaming. But, beyond the screen, what do we really know about the phenomenon? What is lucid dreaming? These films and many more capture an audience excited at the possibility of unlocking the mind’s deepest secrets.

It’s even made its way into pop culture - think “Inception,” “Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind,” and “A Nightmare on Elm Street.” From ancient times to the present, people have explored it through writings and research. Humans have long had a fascination with lucid dreaming.

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