What if I told you that there is a way for all your fantasies to come true? You can have that sports car you've always wanted, kiss your beloved crush, travel the world in one night… Ready? Welcome to the amazing world of lucid dreams.
As? It tells me?
Most of you have had a lucid dream in your life. This happens every time you were immersed in a dream, but you recognized that it wasn't real and you were able to program what you wanted to happen. While there are tons of tips and tricks to make this happen on purpose, let's cover the ones we found most useful so you can ride dinosaurs at bedtime:
1. Keep a dream journal. As soon as you wake up, write down everything you dreamed of — at least everything you remember. By writing this down, your brain recognizes certain patterns that only occur in dreams (as most of them are often forgotten). That way, if they become visible on paper, you can access them more easily.
2. Think about exactly what you want to dream about before bed. Let's say you just fell asleep watching the movie 2012 and you immediately end up dreaming about the end of the world, the apocalypse, saying goodbye to your parents and the arrival of tidal waves. This often happens, so it makes sense.
3. The best times to have a lucid dream are right when you are about to wake up or shortly afterward. Studies have revealed that many people have lucid dreams after taking a quick nap, after the first time they wake up in the morning.
So you can do that, or if you're the lazy type, use something like the NovaDreamer, a device that detects when you're in REM sleep, and makes a sound that's not supposed to be loud enough to wake you up, but works kind of like warning sign to tell you “Hey, this is all a dream”.
Obviously, the big difference between a dream and real life is that in an absurd scene like a terrorist attack, if someone arrives and starts shooting, you will panic, but you will think “what do I have to do to survive?”, already in a dream you would simply act, as old parents would say, according to the pace of the carriage.
During a dream, your mind normally loses the ability to analyze whatever is happening, because dreaming doesn't involve the most critical parts of your brain. You're all worried that you're at work in your underwear, but you don't even care that your boss is a dragon who has the voice of your high school gym teacher.
But if you change your mental state, then the critical part of your brain starts working even in dreamland. So if you learn to better manage your dreams while you sleep, the next step will be world domination along with Pink and the Brain.
You can reset your sleep cycle without using an alarm clock
When summer vacation is finally over, chances are you won't be able to readjust (after all, those video game hours that went beyond day and night finally reveal their consequences). The fact is, you know the mamata is running out and you need to get used to waking up at 6 or 7 am again if you don't want to look like a zombie the first week. Of course, you can do this little by little, setting your alarm clock earlier and earlier, gradually providing a healthy adaptation to your body. Or you can use some codes on your body and reset your sleep cycle.
As? It tells me!
Simple! Just go without food for 16 hours. You may know that the main way our bodies regulate our biological clock (and circadian rhythm) is by using light. So when your brain starts to detect light, it starts to behave as it should during the day (more energy, strength, bowel movements, etc.), and when your brain realizes that it's dark after a long period of light, it understands. it's bedtime and releases hormones (like melatonin) that make you sleepy. What you may not know is that scientists have recently discovered a second clock, and it does not depend on light!
Imagine that you are a predator looking for food, but all the animals you could eat are nowhere to be found. You spend all day looking for food and nothing. After 16 hours, your brain starts going crazy, and then it doesn't give a damn about sunlight and sleep cycles—it just wants you to find something to eat (quickly, preferably). So, staying up late at night, you manage to find prey and desperately devour it. Your brain (through your food clock) makes a note of this occasion and declares that this is your new biological morning.
It makes sense—your brain is under the impression that if you want to survive, you can only hunt at night. So he decides that you should sleep during the day (and conserve energy for the hunt), and bye!, your sleep cycle has restarted. Congratulations! You just cheated evolution!
Written by Amanda Magliaro of Team Me Without Borders
