02/26/2026
𝑾𝒉𝒆𝒏 𝑫𝒓𝒆𝒂𝒎𝒔 𝑭𝒆𝒆𝒍 𝑹𝒆𝒂𝒍: 𝑼𝒏𝒅𝒆𝒓𝒔𝒕𝒂𝒏𝒅𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝑹𝒆𝒂𝒍𝒊𝒔𝒕𝒊𝒄, 𝑳𝒖𝒄𝒊𝒅, 𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝑷𝒓𝒆𝒎𝒐𝒏𝒊𝒕𝒐𝒓𝒚 𝑫𝒓𝒆𝒂𝒎𝒔
We all dream. Even when we don’t remember them, we do. There are many theories as to why we dream. These theories range from dreams having no meaning or purpose at all, to working through our day or issues, to premonitions/messages. It is my opinion that dreams are both our subconscious working through things and one way it sends us messages. Our subconscious uses people, places, situations, and symbols that we are familiar with to accomplish this. That is why dreams, and their meanings, are so personal. While you can purchase books about, or look up online, basic dream interpretations, they may not be entirely accurate for you. Our own feelings and beliefs about the world around us and the things in it can be very different for every culture, and individual. An example of this would be a dream that takes place on the ocean. For some people this may be a place of calm and peacefulness, while for others the ocean may cause feelings of anxiety or fear. Your feelings/beliefs about something in general, as well as how they made you feel in the dream are important to its interpretation. I talked briefly about dream interpretations in a previous post called Dare to Dream. That said, the focus of this post will be on types of dreams, specifically realistic vs lucid dreams, with a bit about premonitions near the end.
As mentioned above, some dreams are said to be about our subconscious working things out or sending our conscious mind messages. While our regular nightly dreams can fall into this category, so too can realistic or lucid dreams.
Regardless of the reason for the dream, some feel so real we feel that we are really there, and that things are really happening. Even when something seemingly unreal or bizarre is happening, we can just accept that it’s real anyway. Realistic dreams are immersive, in the dream you are a passive participant (not in control), and when you wake up it can feel like it actually happened, which can be rather disorienting for a few minutes. When studies have been done, little activity was detected in the prefrontal cortex of the brain (which is associated with logic and self-reflection). I often have this kind of dream, and have since I was a child. Sometimes they do become lucid.
During lucid dreams, however, more activity (than in realistic dreams) has been recorded in the prefrontal cortex. During a lucid dream the dreamer not only becomes aware that they are dreaming, but can then begin to control aspects of their dream and its narrative. It can still feel very real, like a realistic dream, but you are no longer just a passive participant. Lucid dreaming, while a fascinating field of study (I find), is difficult to actually study. Sometimes, once the dreamer becomes lucid, they will exit the dream rather quickly. Sometimes, frequent and practiced lucid dreamers in normal life, find difficulty becoming lucid in dreams once they are being studied. That said, some studies that have been conducted show that actions taken within lucid dreams have some waking world results. For example, performing exercise while lucid dreaming does raise heart rate, and actions practiced while dreaming lucidly have increased skill levels with that action while participants were awake. It has even been used, with limited success thus far, in therapies for things like PTSD. However, results are fairly split between whether lucid dreaming provides real improvement in a person’s mental health, or can be detrimental. They do believe, however, that studying lucid dreaming, when compared to regular/realistic dreaming, can improve our understanding of human consciousness. Which is fascinating in and of itself.
If you would like to learn more about lucid dreaming and how to do it there are plenty of instructional videos online. Llewellyn has even published an entire book called Llewellyn’s Complete Book of Lucid Dreaming by Clare R Johnson (which was an interesting read). You can begin your dream journey with journaling your dreams immediately upon waking. If you wait too long you can forget important details. Journaling also allows you to keep track of the types and themes of dreams/their messages so you can see patterns, and, if you journal about your day/life, what was happening before and after you had the dreams. This would be a good way to help determine if your dreams have a premonitory aspect as well.
A little side note on premonitions. This is not a skill that I personally have, however, I have known people that have premonitory dreams. This can seem, as any gift can, like a blessing or a curse, depending on the content. I have been told that often, especially when unpracticed, these dreams can be mere fragments, or jumbled pieces, and can make no sense to the dreamer until whatever it was happened. I understand how this could be really frustrating, and even scary. I would recommend, if you have such dreams (or think you do), you should try to find others who are more practiced with this skill to help guide you on how to develop it. I do believe that we have the skills we do for a reason, and to not develop or understand them can make them even more frightening or unruly. Our gifts (and our guides) can be persistent that way. Books are fantastic, but there is nothing quite like real world experience. Trust your instincts.
So, have you ever had a realistic or a lucid dream? Is this common practice for you? Do you remember your dreams? Do you want to? I would love to know your experiences.
𝐂𝐡𝐞𝐜𝐤 𝐨𝐮𝐭 𝐦𝐨𝐫𝐞 𝐟𝐫𝐨𝐦 𝐒𝐡𝐚𝐝𝐨𝐰 𝐌𝐚𝐯𝐞𝐧
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