Lucid dreaming is being aware that you are dreaming while dreaming. Some therapists use techniques like lucid dreaming and dream incubation to help patients deal with nightmares or problems. Lucid dreamers can influence their dreams and change nightmares by rehearsing new dream scenarios. The article discusses how therapists guide patients to influence their dreams in order to reduce nightmares or solve problems.

1. Thematic Unit done by Mrs. Judy Flores
PART ONE
BEFORE READING
Discuss these questions:
Look at the picture what do you think is happening?
How many hours does a human being sleep?
Do you remember your dreams? Recall a nightmare you have had recently?
Guiding Your Sleep While You’re Awake (Lucid
Dreaming)
By SARAH KERSHAW
Before Reading learn about the title of this unit
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2. Thematic Unit done by Mrs. Judy Flores
Lucid dreaming means dreaming while knowing that you are dreaming. The
term was coined by Frederik van Eeden who used the word "lucid" in the sense
of mental clarity. Lucidity usually begins in the midst of a dream when the
dreamer realizes that the experience is not occurring in physical reality, but is
a dream. Often this realization is triggered by the dreamer noticing some
impossible or unlikely occurrence in the dream, such as flying or meeting the
deceased. Sometimes people become lucid without noticing any particular clue
in the dream; they just suddenly realize they are in a dream. A minority of
lucid dreams (according to the research of LaBerge and colleagues, about 10
percent) are the result of returning to REM (dreaming) sleep directly from an
awakening with unbroken reflective consciousness.
http://www.lucidity.com/LucidDreamingFAQ2.html#LD
(1)Nightmares resulting from traumatic events usually fade over time, as the haunting
images and terrifying plots become less intense. The dreams may also naturally evolve
into what some specialists call “mastery dreams,” in which the dreamer has found a way
to ease the pain or horror say, confronting a rapist or saving someone from a fire.
(2) But when that does not happen of its own accord, many therapists use behavioral
interventions to reduce nightmares or guide the waking patient toward having a mastery
dream using the conscious mind to control the wild ways of the unconscious.
(3) Some of these techniques have been in use for years. In one treatment, known as lucid
dreaming, patients are taught to become aware that they are dreaming while the dream
is in progress. In another, called in vivo desensitization, they are exposed while awake to
what may be haunting them in their sleep for example, a live snake, caged and harmless
until the fear subsides. Both techniques have been researched extensively.
(4)More recently, therapists and other experts have been using a technique called dream
incubation, first researched in the early 1990s by Deirdre Barrett, a psychologist at
Harvard Medical School.
(5) And Hollywood has just produced its own spin on lucid dreaming and the idea of
controlling dreams, with the release earlier this month of “Inception,” a thriller whose
plot swirls through the darkest layers of the dream world. As Dr. Barrett wrote in an
online review of “Inception,” for the International Association for the Study of Dreams,
“I love the idea of millions of action-film fans the world over leaving theaters asking
each other if they’re ever had a dream in which they knew they were dreaming or
whipping out their smartphones and Googling to find out if you really can learn to
influence dream content.”
(6) Using dream incubation for problem solving, Dr. Barrett, the author of “The
Committee of Sleep,” which expanded on her initial research, asks patients to write down
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3. Thematic Unit done by Mrs. Judy Flores
a problem as a brief phrase or sentence and place the note next to the bed. Then she tells
them to review the problem for a few minutes before going to bed, and once in bed,
visualize the problem as a concrete image, if possible.
(7) As they are drifting off to sleep, the patients should tell themselves they want to
dream about the problem and ideally keep a pen and paper, and perhaps a flashlight or a
pen with a lit tip, on the night table. No matter what time they wake up, they should lie
quietly before getting out of bed, note whether there is “any trace of a recalled dream and
invite more of the dream to return if possible.” They should write down everything they
remember.
(8)For reducing nightmares, she helps patients devise a mastery scenario to work with,
and they can remind themselves of it as they fall asleep, saying to themselves, “Tonight if
I have the dream of the fire, of Vietnam, I want to find a fire hose, freeze the action,
speak to the Vietnamese boy,” She said.
(9)Dr. Barry Krakow of the Maimonides Sleep Arts and Sciences center in Albuquerque
and the author of “Sound Sleep, Sound Mind,” helped develop imagery rehearsal
therapy. In a 110-page manual he gives his patients, he has them select a nightmare they
want to transform into a dream of lesser intensity.
(10) “Change the nightmare any way you wish,” the manual says. “Let new positive
images emerge in your mind’s eye to guide you in ‘painting’ your new dream.”
(11) Patients then rehearse the new dream, which could be a less haunting version of the
nightmare or a completely different dream, at least once a day for 10 or 20 minutes. He
suggests recalling a nightmare only once or twice a week and only when changing it into
a new dream.
AFTER READING
A. Comprehension check
1. What is lucid dreaming?
2. Why do you think people want to lucid dream?
3. Why are therapists using this technique?
4. How can people who practice lucid dreams change their dreams? Explain
5. Can Lucid dreamers create adventurous dreams or overcome their nightmares.
6. What is the author’s point of view? Is she against lucid dreaming or in favor? Where in
the reading does it suggest she is in favor or against lucid dreaming?
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4. Thematic Unit done by Mrs. Judy Flores
B. Vocabulary Building
Choose the definition that fits the context in which the word is used.
nightmares(1) haunting(1) evolved(1) ease(1) unconscious(2).
lucid dreaming(3) aware(3) desensitization(3) harmless(3) subside(3).
whipping(5) visualize (6). drifting(7) trace(7) devise(8) hose(8) imagery(9)
emerge(10)
1. ________________is a new technique used by patients that have some traumatic
issues.
2. When they saw me I could not speak; I had been knocked __________________the
day before and my throat was damaged.
3. The memory of my mothers' death is still__________________.
4. _______________________may be upsetting, but they are not "real" and can't harm
you.
5. Take this aspirin and the pain will ______________________within a few minutes.
6. There is a possibility that we humans _____________from some form of apes.
7. To reduce nightmares, doctors help patients _____________a mastery scenario to
work with
8. You can ___________________the pain in your leg by taking medicine.
9. When you are sleeping you are not ________________of your surroundings
Once you have worked
10. Have dreamers ever had a dream in which they knew they were dreaming or
_______________out their smartphones and Googling to find out if you really can learn
to influence dream content.
11. "This movie in effect may resensitize people who thought they were ____________to
violence.
12. In the research that the University of Philadelphia is currently doing related to dreams
in the U.S, some interesting results will ________________from the finding of this study
13. Don’t use a ___________pipe to wash your car, use a bucket with water instead.
14. A cat is not a voracious animal, they are __________________little animals.
15. I _________________myself in the future working as a doctor in a luxurious hospital
that has my name on it.
16. Some institutions that help patients with their dreams developed a
_________________rehearsal therapy.
17. Martha is constantly _____________________the logs downstream.
18. The FBI can ____________________a phone call to a location within 10 meters.
C. Reinforce vocabulary Look back at the text where the word is written Match the
words to the definition. Write the correct letter on the lines. Use a dictionary if
necessary
1. nightmares(1) a. come out
2. haunting(1) b. a plan,
3. evolve(1) c. move from one state to another
4. ease(1) d. images descriptions
5. unconscious(2). e. a comfortable and leisured state free from worries,
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5. Thematic Unit done by Mrs. Judy Flores
problems, and restrictions.
6. lucid dreaming(3) f. piece of tubing that is used to move water or liquids
7. aware(3) g. settle, to become less active or intense
8. desensitization(3) h. see in your minds eyes, image in you mind of something
9. harmless(3) i. conscious alert
10. subside(3). j. to make somebody less responsive to an overwhelming
fear
11. whipping(5) k. evidence or an indication of the former presence or
existence of something
12. visualize (6). l. unaware
13. drifting(7) m. develop, change
14. trace(7) n. a dream in which one is aware that one is dreaming
15. devise(8) o. something scary that can not be forgotten
16. hose(8) p. frightening dreams
17. imagery(9) q, not dangerous
18. emerge(10) r. beating, pounding
D. Main Idea
Look back at the reading find a sentence in the first paragraph that can give you an idea
of what the reading is about.
________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________
E. Past Present and Future tense
Read each sentence. Then write the tense in which the sentence is written (past,
present, or future) on the line. The first one has been done for you.
1. The dreams are develop into what some specialists call “mastery
dreams._____________________________
2. Many therapists use behavioral interventions to reduce nightmares.
______________________________
3. One important treatment is known as lucid dreaming.
4. Lucid dreams was an old technique used by ancient people.
_______________________________
5. She tells them to review the problem for a few minutes before going to bed.
________________________________
6. Hollywood had produced a spin on lucid dreaming.
________________________________
7. He suggests recalling a nightmare only once or twice a week and only when changing
it into a new dream.
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