History of Lucid Dreaming

In the fifth century, a very early example of lucid dreaming is in a letter written by St. Augustine of Hippo in 415 AD.

As early as the eighth century, Tibetan Buddhists were practicing a form of yoga supposed to maintain full waking consciousness while in the dream state. This system is extensively discussed and explained in the book Dream Yoga and the Practice of Natural Light, one of the important messages of which has been the distinction between the Dzogchen meditation of Awareness and Dream Yoga or lucid dreaming. The Dzogchen Awareness meditation has also been referred to by the terms Rigpa Awareness, Contemplation, and Presence. Awareness during the sleep and dream states is associated with the Dzogchen practice of natural light, and lucid dreams may be a byproduct. In contrast, the more relative but still important experience of lucid dreaming is referred to as Dream yoga, and lucid dreaming is the goal. The lucidity experience, according to Buddhist teachers, assists in understanding the unreality of phenomena, which otherwise, during dream or the death experience, might be overwhelming.

An early recorded lucid dreamer was the philosopher and physician Sir Thomas Browne (1605–1682). Browne was fascinated by the world of dreams and stated of his own ability to lucid dream in his Religio Medici: "... yet in one dream I can compose a whole Comedy, behold the action, apprehend the jests and laugh my self awake at the conceits thereof;" Marquis d'Hervey de Saint-Denys was probably the first person to argue that it is possible for anyone to learn to dream consciously. In 1867, he published his book Les Reves et les Moyens de Les Diriger; Observations Pratiques (Dreams and How to Guide them; Practical Observations), in which he documented more than twenty years of his own research into dreams.

The term "lucid dreaming" was coined by Dutch author and psychiatrist Frederik van Eeden in his 1913 article A Study of Dreams. This book was highly anecdotal and not embraced by the scientific community. The term itself is considered by some to be a misnomer because it means much more than just "clear or vivid" dreaming. A better term might have been "conscious dreaming". On the other hand, the term 'lucid' was used by van Eeden in its sense of 'having insight', as in the phrase 'a lucid interval' applied to someone in temporary remission from a psychosis, rather than as referring to the perceptual quality of the experience, which may or may not be clear and vivid. To that extent van Eeden's phrase may still be considered appropriate.

In the 1950s the Senoi hunter-gatherers of Malaysia were reported to make extensive use of lucid dreaming to ensure mental health, although later studies refuted these claims.

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