otal immersion in the dream world and no sensory contact with the external world. Because of their absence of sensory input from the outside world, the researchers conclude that the subjects are asleep.
Research does not reveal information about lucid dreaming in children, and the studies do not generally make a distinction between the genders. More of the work as of a physiological and psychological orientation. Most of the studies concur that the lucid dreams happen during the REM stage of sleep, the heterogeneous state during which the dreamer exhibits considerable variation in physiological activity, usually distinguished by two distinct phases. In the most active phase, called the phasic phase, the muscles may twitch, and the eyes move rapidly under the eyelids. During the tonic phase, the phasic events temporarily subside. The REM period is reported to occur late in the sleep cycle (Bootzin, Kihlstrom & Schacter, 1990, p. 113).
Lucid dreams can be dream-initiated or wake-initiated. That is, within the dream one can decide to move the dream in a different way, say to remove one from a dangerous situation. Wake-initiated lucid dreams may arise when a person moves into the dream state gradually, from a state of meditation or with a specific scene or question in mind.
Psychologists and other scientists who study lucid dreams face major challenges. The most direct account of the phenomena occurring in the person's mind is his or her own subjective report. Subjective reports are difficult to verify objectively, and introspective is quite a biased process. Two strategies have been developed as an attempt to counteract these problems in dream research. Subjects are used who are skillful reporters, and the research is often limited to physiological measures. However, all do not agree on this limitation, and some would prefer to focus on a purely psychological approach. In 1981 Foulkes wrote that psychophysiologi...