Chase DiMarco shares his experience with Lucid dreaming, how different strategies work for different people, and how to incorporate it into your learning schedule.
- [00:51] Defining Lucid Dreaming
- [02:48] Using Visuals Within a Dream
- [04:47] What are Memory Palaces?
- [06:58] Using Memory Places as Visual Objects During Lucid Dreaming
- [09:33] The Different Lucid Dreaming Techniques
Lucid Dreaming
Lucid dreaming is a type of dreaming where you know you are dreaming, and you can actually take control of that dream and push the outcomes whichever way you want. Since Lucid dreaming gives you the ability to tweak actions and happenings in the dream, most people tend to enjoy the dream’s artificial reality. Nevertheless, did you know that you can utilize this learnable skill and incorporate it into your studies? The world of medicine is usually full of information; thus, both medics and students need to take advantage of every opportunity to ingest new information. That’s where Lucid dreaming comes in. Lucid dreaming gives you the ability to visualize study materials while dreaming.
As earlier mentioned, we can use visuals and memory palaces to learn new educational material. However, just like most learning techniques, it takes time and a lot of trial and error to eventually get it right. Moreover, the approach may vary depending on the parts you want to remember, how much information there is, and which parts seem difficult.
Memory Palaces
Memory palaces are any location that you can visualize. Most people start with the common things around them, such as the house, the office block, the mall, the hospital et cetera. The first stations inside the memory palaces are the macro palaces, which include your room, kitchen, or office space. The final space is the micro station. This station is where you place your visual imagery and may include specific features such as windows, laptops, doors, and keys.
Using Lucid Dreaming to Study
At some point in time, Chase put in the time to learn the art of lucid dreaming, and he’s quick to admit that it did work for him to some extent. However, just like all other skills, with less and less practice, the skill left him. The thing to note here is that creating visuals might not be as easy as it seems, especially with certain medical terminology. Even though Chase does recommend Lucid dreaming, it doesn’t mean that it will be more effective than the study technique you’re currently practicing. Nonetheless, the skill is definitely a creative way to implement new study techniques. Who knows, you might find yourself tapping into a creative side you never knew you had.
Different techniques can be implemented when talking about Lucid dreaming. If you try one strategy and it doesn’t seem to work for you, don’t give up; try another strategy until you find the one that’s right for you. If nothing works, tap into your creative side and come up with your strategy. It’s possible; you just have to believe in yourself and use things you can relate to.
Sign up for a Free Coaching session with Chase DiMarco, sponsored by Prospective Doctor! You can also join the Med Mnemonist Mastermind FB Group today and learn more about study methods, memory techniques, and MORE! Also, do check out Read This Before Medical School.
FAQs
Lucid dreaming gives you the ability to visualize study materials while dreaming. As earlier mentioned, we can use visuals and memory palaces to learn new educational material. However, just like most learning techniques, it takes time and a lot of trial and error to eventually get it right.
What is the most effective lucid dreaming technique? ›
However, the overall body of research currently points to the most effective means being a more involved set of techniques, which consists of sleeping for four to six hours, waking up for an hour to do exercises focused on inducing lucid dreams, then going back to sleep.
How can I improve my prospective memory for lucid dreaming? ›
6 Tips for Improving Memory of Lucid Dreams
- Get Healthy Sleep. There are tons of reasons to prioritize sleep, one of which is that sleeping 7-9 hours will help you remember dreams. ...
- Keep a Dream Journal. ...
- Set Intentions. ...
- Exercise Your Memory. ...
- Strategically Disrupt Sleep. ...
- Try Galantamine.
Waking up in the midst of dreaming dramatically increases your ability to remember the details of the dream. Therefore, try setting an alarm clock to 4½, 6, or 7½ hours after you normally fall asleep. This should awaken you directly from a dream. Write down everything you can possibly remember about the dream.
What are you not allowed to do in a lucid dream? ›
Once you're in the lucid dream, however, you want to avoid questioning your reality too much or else you might trick yourself into thinking you are in the real world. It's good to remind yourself once in a while that you're dreaming, but don't keep asking if it's a dream.
Is it possible to study while dreaming? ›
Recent research demonstrates that learning during sleep is possible, but that sleep-learning invariably produces memory traces that are consciously inaccessible in the awake state. Thus, sleep-learning can likely exert implicit, but not explicit, influences on awake behavior.
How rare is lucid dreaming? ›
Generally, lucid dreaming is quite rare. Only one half of the general population know the phenomenon from personal experience, approximately 20% have lucid dreams on a monthly basis, and only a minority of approximately 1% have lucid dreams several times a week.
Is lucid dreaming safe? ›
However, there are some clear situations when lucid dreaming is best avoided. In particular, people with certain mental health conditions, such as schizophrenia, psychosis or bipolar disorder, or manic phase, should avoid inducing lucid dreams as it might exacerbate those conditions, says Aspy.
What triggers lucid dreams? ›
What causes lucid dreams? Lucid dreams occur thanks to activity in the prefrontal cortex of the brain; that's the part responsible for self-awareness and reflection. Think of it as a blurred line between your conscious waking self and your unconscious sleeping self.
What is the first step to lucid dreaming? ›
Keep a record of your dreams: Every morning, write down everything you remember about your dreams in a journal. You can also use a voice-recording device to log your dream memories. Detailed records will allow you to recognize dreams more easily once you fall asleep, which in turn can help trigger lucid dreams.
Some research has suggested that lucid dreaming and certain personality traits may be connected in some way. One study found that lucid dreamers tend to have a greater internal locus of control. They also score higher on measures of a need for cognition and creativity.
Can you do math while lucid dreaming? ›
They not only recognised the questions and processed the information, but also responded in the way they'd been taught. But the 20% only included people who experienced lucid dreams. If you're wondering about the sort of maths problems some of the lucid dreamers were able to solve, here's an example: eight minus six.
Can you revise in a lucid dream? ›
Lucid dreamers acknowledge that you can't learn new information — like words you've never heard — in a dream. But you could, for example, make a conscious decision to revise vocabulary, practice verbs or have a conversation with an imaginary person in their language.
Why is studying lucid dreaming significant? ›
During regular dreams, however, self-determination was significantly reduced. Mutz and Javadi also note that by further studying lucid dreaming, scientists could learn more about different types of consciousness, which are less easy to separate and study at other times.
Is lucid dreaming related to IQ? ›
Are Lucid Dreamers Smarter than the Rest of Us? Well, yes and no. While there is no concrete evidence demonstrating differences in intelligence quotient (IQ) between lucid dreamers and non-lucid dreamers, the former group has proven to be more insightful and better at problem-solving in real-life situations.
