Lucid dreaming holds a widespread appeal, but many people simply can''t do it. So what do studies show are the best techniques?

清醒的梦境具有广泛的吸引力，但许多人根本做不到。那么，研究表明什么是最好的技术呢？

first heard about lucid dreaming as a teenager, and for a short while became fascinated with it. The idea of being conscious in your dreams, and even being able to direct and adapt them, holds an obvious appeal. Ever wanted to fly? Walk through walls? Meet a famous person? Anything could be possible in a lucid dream – in theory at least.

我在十几岁的时候第一次听说清醒梦境，并在很短的时间内为之着迷。在梦中有意识，甚至能够指导和调整梦境的想法具有明显的吸引力。有没有想过飞？穿墙而过？见到一个名人？至少在理论上，任何事情都有可能在清醒的梦中实现。

Lucid dreaming simply means a dream where you're aware that you're dreaming, while you are still asleep. There is of course a huge spectrum of what can occur in the dream within this definition – from a fleeting, passive awareness you are in a dream to taking full control of the dream and being able to direct it.

清醒的梦是指当你还在睡梦中的时候，你意识到你在做梦。当然，在这个定义中，在梦中可能发生的事情有很大的范围--从短暂的、被动的意识到你在梦中，到完全控制梦境并能够引导它。

In research at sleep laboratories, if people are capable of signalling with eye movements while clearly in rapid eye movement (REM) sleep, then "generally we agree that they were lucid dreaming", says Karen Konkoly, a PhD researcher in psychology at Northwestern University in Illinois. (REM is the phase of sleep where regular dreaming occurs.)

在睡眠实验室的研究中，如果人们能够在快速眼动睡眠中用眼球运动发出信号，那么 "通常我们同意他们是在做清醒的梦"，伊利诺伊州西北大学的心理学博士研究员卡伦-康科利说。(快速眼动期是发生常规梦境的睡眠阶段）。
原创翻译：龙腾网 http://www.ltaaa.cn 转载请注明出处


It's a very unique state of consciousness with unique properties – Karen Konkoly
While some people experience lucid dreaming spontaneously, for others it only occurs after an external stimulus (such as having a conversation, watching a video or reading an article about lucid dreaming), or sometimes after a lot of hard work trying to achieve one.

这是一种非常独特的意识状态，具有独特的特性--卡伦-康科利
虽然有些人自发地体验到清醒梦境，但对其他人来说，只有在外部刺激（如进行对话、观看视频或阅读有关清醒梦境的文章）后才会发生，或者有时是在经过大量努力试图实现清醒梦境之后。

"There are people who can learn [to do it] within days and other people need three months," says Michael Schredl, a researcher at the sleep laboratory in the Central Institute of Mental Health in Mannheim, Germany. "I, for example, trained almost three months before getting lucid dreams. So it's a very, very strong variation between persons."

"有的人可以在几天内学会[做它]，而其他人需要三个月，"德国曼海姆中央心理健康研究所睡眠实验室的研究员迈克尔-施雷德尔说。"比如说我，在得到清晰的梦境之前训练了将近三个月。因此，这是一个非常、非常强烈的人与人之间的差异。"
原创翻译：龙腾网 http://www.ltaaa.cn 转载请注明出处


Studies have found that the main motivation for lucid dreaming is simply to have fun or fulfil wishes – whether that be by flying or having sex. But many people also use lucid dreaming to help manage nightmares or bad dreams, solve problems, explore creative ideas or insights, or practise skills.

研究发现，做清醒梦的主要动机只是为了获得乐趣或实现愿望--无论是通过飞行还是做爱。但是许多人也利用清醒梦来帮助管理噩梦或恶梦，解决问题，探索创造性的想法或见解，或练习技能。

Some research has found that participants who practise simple motor skills in their lucid dreams – such as finger-tapping – significantly improve in their ability during waking life compared with control groups. One study found that people who clenched their hands during lucid dreams showed activation in the same motor cortex areas as in the waking state. It has even been suggested that lucid dreaming could be used to treat serious psychological disorders such as clinical depression and PTSD.

一些研究发现，在清醒梦中练习简单运动技能的参与者--如敲击手指--与对照组相比，他们在清醒时的能力明显提高。一项研究发现，在清醒梦境中紧握双手的人显示出与清醒状态下相同的运动皮层区域的激活。甚至有人认为，清醒梦可以用来治疗严重的心理疾病，如临床抑郁症和创伤后应激障碍。

However some of the techniques used to lucid dream may not be a good idea for people with certain mental health conditions, such as presentations of schizophrenia where people are struggling to tell the difference between fantasy and reality, notes Denholm Aspy, a visiting research fellow in psychology at the University of Adelaide in Australia.

然而，澳大利亚阿德莱德大学的心理学客座研究员丹霍姆-阿斯皮指出，对于患有某些精神健康状况的人来说，一些用于清醒梦境的技术可能不是一个好主意，比如精神分裂症的表现，在这种情况下，人们很难区分幻想和现实。

After first hearing about lucid dreaming in the early 2000s, I started to keep a dream diary and soon had my first lucid dream. It was a pretty mundane affair. I was walking down a street near my school and bumped into a friend who I stopped to chat to.

在21世纪初第一次听说清醒梦境后，我开始写梦境日记，很快就做了第一个清醒梦境。那是一件很平凡的事情。我走在学校附近的街道上，碰到了一个朋友，我停下来和他聊天。

For some reason, this conversation had a sheen of unreality to it, triggering the realisation I was in a dream. I proceeded to shout that fact gleefully at my friend then immediately jumped into the air to begin flying, the classmate waving after me in bemusement. Shortly after I lost the dream.

出于某种原因，这次谈话有一种不真实的感觉，促使我意识到我是在梦中。我高兴地对我的朋友喊出这个事实，然后立即跳到空中开始飞行，那个同学在我身后疑惑地挥手。不久之后，我就失去了这个梦。

Over the years I've had a handful more lucid dreams, often prompted by conversions or media about lucid dreaming (in particular after watching the film Waking Life, a hazy, digitally rotoscoped film about a man who realises he is trapped in a dream).

这些年来，我又做了几次清醒的梦，往往是由皈依或有关清醒梦境的媒体促使的（特别是在看了电影《醒着的生活》之后，这是一部朦胧的、数字旋转的电影，讲述一个男人意识到自己被困在梦中）。

It puts me somewhere in the average of the population when it comes to experiencing lucid dreaming. In a 1998 survey of the dream behaviour of 1,000 Austrians, 26% reported sometimes having lucid dreams. A 2011 survey of 900 German adults found half of them reported ever having had a lucid dream, and it was more common among women and younger people. A 2016 meta-analysis (a study pulling together and assessing multiple other studies) had similar results.

这使我在经历清醒梦境时处于人群的平均水平。在1998年对1000名奥地利人的梦境行为的调查中，26%的人表示有时会做清醒的梦。2011年对900名德国成年人的调查发现，其中一半的人报告曾经做过清醒的梦，而且在女性和年轻人中更常见。2016年的一项元分析（一项拉拢和评估其他多项研究的研究）也有类似的结果。

Most lucid dreamers have these dreams naturally and spontaneously, rather than intentionally. Most often, natural lucid dreams begin in adolescence, sometimes as a coping mechanism for frequent nightmares, says Tadas Stumbrys, assistant professor in psychology at Vilnius University in Lithuania.

大多数清醒的梦者都是自然和自发地做这些梦，而不是有意为之。立陶宛维尔纽斯大学心理学助理教授塔达斯-斯坦布赖斯说，大多数情况下，自然的清醒梦开始于青春期，有时是作为应对频繁噩梦的一种机制。
原创翻译：龙腾网 http://www.ltaaa.cn 转载请注明出处


But whether you begin spontaneously or deliberately, the number of lucid dreams and level of control over your dreams tends to be similar, adds Stumbrys, though natural lucid dreamers tend to have slightly longer lucid dreams than those who have self-trained.

但无论你是自发开始还是刻意开始，清醒梦的数量和对梦境的控制水平往往是相似的，斯坦布赖斯补充说，尽管自然清醒梦者往往比那些自我训练的人的清醒梦略长。
原创翻译：龙腾网 http://www.ltaaa.cn 转载请注明出处


Since people who have lucid dreams frequently are rare, researchers can find it hard to achieve high success rates in prompting lucid dreams, making it hard to study – especially in lab settings. This is why a large focus of research currently is simply to find which techniques work best. "Right now, we don't have a single technique which can induce lucid dreams reliably and with a high success rate," says Stumbrys.

由于经常做清醒梦的人很少，研究人员会发现促使清醒梦的成功率很高，因此很难进行研究--特别是在实验室环境中。这就是为什么目前研究的一大重点只是为了找到哪些技术最有效。"斯塔姆布赖斯说："现在，我们没有一种单一的技术可以可靠地诱发清醒的梦境，而且成功率高。

Nevertheless, there are some easy ways that lucid dreaming can be facilitated, he adds. People with good dream recall, for example, are more likely to remember having had lucid dreams. Dream recall can be improved by keeping a dream journal, recording a voice note on your phone about your dreams, or simply replaying your dreams in your mind for 10 minutes after you first wake up, says Aspy. All help you to become more familiar with your dream environments, and thus learn about the common attributes of your dreams.

然而，他补充说，有一些简单的方法可以促进清醒梦境的形成。例如，梦境记忆力好的人更有可能记得曾经做过清醒的梦。阿斯皮说，可以通过写梦境日记、在手机上录制关于梦境的语音记录，或者在你第一次醒来后简单地在脑海中回放你的梦境10分钟来提高梦境记忆力。所有这些都有助于你更加熟悉你的梦境环境，从而了解你的梦的共同属性。

Reality testing is another commonly used technique. Here, you ask yourself several times a day whether you are dreaming or not, in the hopes you will also do it while dreaming, triggering lucidity. "Generally, when we dream, we accept what is happening in our dreams quite uncritically," says Stumbrys.

现实测试是另一种常用的技术。在这里，你每天问自己几次你是否在做梦，希望你在做梦时也能这样做，引发清醒。"斯塔姆布赖斯说："一般来说，当我们做梦时，我们不加批判地接受我们梦中发生的事情。

This occurs since part of the prefrontal cortex, responsible for much of our self-awareness and critical thinking, is slightly deactivated during REM sleep. According to one study, frontal areas of the brain may be slightly more activated during lucid dreaming.

出现这种情况是因为负责我们大部分自我意识和批判性思维的前额皮层的一部分在快速眼动睡眠期间被轻微停用。根据一项研究，在做清醒梦时，大脑的前额区域可能会被稍微激活。

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.

然而，目前的整体研究表明，最有效的手段是一套更复杂的技术，其中包括睡四到六个小时，醒来一个小时做专注于诱发清醒梦境的练习，然后再继续睡觉。

"The idea is to do it once you've got about two hours left of your sleeping, and that's because most dreams happen clustered near the end of the night," says Aspy. "Most people have about 50% of our dreams in the last two hours of sleep."

"我们的想法是，一旦你的睡眠时间还剩下大约两个小时，就去做，这是因为大多数梦境都是在夜晚结束前集中发生的，"阿斯比说。"大多数人大约有50%的梦是在睡眠的最后两个小时。"
原创翻译：龙腾网 http://www.ltaaa.cn 转载请注明出处


Konkoly believes this is the most effective technique people can do at home. The main caveat, she admits, is that "waking up at 4am is not that fun or sustainable".

康科利认为这是人们可以在家里做的最有效的技术。她承认，主要的注意事项是，"在凌晨4点醒来并不那么有趣或可持续"。
原创翻译：龙腾网 http://www.ltaaa.cn 转载请注明出处


In a study of 350 international participants published in 2020 examining five different methods for inducing lucid dreams, Aspy identified a specific variation of this technique, the "mnemonic induction of lucid dreams" (Mild) technique, as the most effective.

在2020年发表的一项对350名国际参与者的研究中，考察了五种不同的诱导清醒梦境的方法，阿斯皮认定这种技术的一个具体变体，即 "记忆性诱导清醒梦境"技术，是最有效的。

This involves waking up after five or so hours of sleep and setting an intention to have a lucid dream by repeating the phrase "next time I’m dreaming, I will remember I’m dreaming" before going back to sleep. People with good dream recall and those who fell asleep within five or 10 minutes of completing the induction techniques had the highest success rates, says Aspy. A 2022 review of the research likewise concluded that Mild was the most effective way to induce lucid dreams.

这包括在五小时左右的睡眠后醒来，通过重复 "下次我做梦时，我会记得我在做梦 "这句话来设定做一个清晰的梦的意图，然后继续睡觉。阿斯皮说，那些有良好梦境回忆的人和那些在完成诱导技术后5或10分钟内入睡的人成功率最高。2022年的一项研究回顾同样得出结论，米尔德是诱发清醒梦境的最有效方法。
原创翻译：龙腾网 http://www.ltaaa.cn 转载请注明出处


A 2020 study by Schredl and co-authors Sophie Dyck and Anja Kühnel looking at the Mild technique in the home setting showed 18% of participants had a lucid dream on nights they used this technique. Additionally, out of the 10 participants in the study who had never had a lucid dream, five experienced their first during the five-week study period.

施雷德尔和共同作者索菲-戴克和安雅-库内尔在2020年的一项研究中对家庭环境中的Mild技术进行了研究，结果显示18%的参与者在使用这种技术的夜晚做了清醒的梦。此外，在研究中从未做过清醒梦的10名参与者中，有5人在5周的研究期间第一次做了清醒梦。
原创翻译：龙腾网 http://www.ltaaa.cn 转载请注明出处


But Aspy notes that there are many potential techniques which have not yet had much research done on them. Another promising technique he identified in his study, the "senses initiated lucid dream" technique, had not previously been scientifically investigated. This involves waking after five hours then repeatedly shifting one's attention between visual, auditory and physical sensations before returning to sleep.

但阿斯皮指出，有许多潜在的技术还没有做很多研究。他在研究中发现的另一个有希望的技术，即 "感官启动的清醒梦 "技术，以前没有被科学地调查过。这包括在五小时后醒来，然后在视觉、听觉和身体感觉之间反复转移注意力，再返回睡眠。