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

清醒的夢境具有廣泛的吸引力，但許多人根本做不到。那么，研究表明什么是最好的技術呢？

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.

我在十幾歲的時候第一次聽說清醒夢境，并在很短的時間內為之著迷。在夢中有意識，甚至能夠指導和調整夢境的想法具有明顯的吸引力。有沒有想過飛？穿墻而過？見到一個名人？至少在理論上，任何事情都有可能在清醒的夢中實現。

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.

清醒的夢是指當你還在睡夢中的時候，你意識到你在做夢。當然，在這個定義中，在夢中可能發生的事情有很大的范圍--從短暫的、被動的意識到你在夢中，到完全控制夢境并能夠引導它。

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.)

在睡眠實驗室的研究中，如果人們能夠在快速眼動睡眠中用眼球運動發出信號，那么 "通常我們同意他們是在做清醒的夢"，伊利諾伊州西北大學的心理學博士研究員卡倫-康科利說。(快速眼動期是發生常規夢境的睡眠階段）。
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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.

這是一種非常獨特的意識狀態，具有獨特的特性--卡倫-康科利
雖然有些人自發地體驗到清醒夢境，但對其他人來說，只有在外部刺激（如進行對話、觀看視頻或閱讀有關清醒夢境的文章）后才會發生，或者有時是在經過大量努力試圖實現清醒夢境之后。

"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."

"有的人可以在幾天內學會[做它]，而其他人需要三個月，"德國曼海姆中央心理健康研究所睡眠實驗室的研究員邁克爾-施雷德爾說。"比如說我，在得到清晰的夢境之前訓練了將近三個月。因此，這是一個非常、非常強烈的人與人之間的差異。"
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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.

研究發現，做清醒夢的主要動機只是為了獲得樂趣或實現愿望--無論是通過飛行還是做愛。但是許多人也利用清醒夢來幫助管理噩夢或惡夢，解決問題，探索創造性的想法或見解，或練習技能。

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.

一些研究發現，在清醒夢中練習簡單運動技能的參與者--如敲擊手指--與對照組相比，他們在清醒時的能力明顯提高。一項研究發現，在清醒夢境中緊握雙手的人顯示出與清醒狀態下相同的運動皮層區域的激活。甚至有人認為，清醒夢可以用來治療嚴重的心理疾病，如臨床抑郁癥和創傷后應激障礙。

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，澳大利亞阿德萊德大學的心理學客座研究員丹霍姆-阿斯皮指出，對于患有某些精神健康狀況的人來說，一些用于清醒夢境的技術可能不是一個好主意，比如精神分裂癥的表現，在這種情況下，人們很難區分幻想和現實。

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世紀初第一次聽說清醒夢境后，我開始寫夢境日記，很快就做了第一個清醒夢境。那是一件很平凡的事情。我走在學校附近的街道上，碰到了一個朋友，我停下來和他聊天。

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.

出于某種原因，這次談話有一種不真實的感覺，促使我意識到我是在夢中。我高興地對我的朋友喊出這個事實，然后立即跳到空中開始飛行，那個同學在我身后疑惑地揮手。不久之后，我就失去了這個夢。

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).

這些年來，我又做了幾次清醒的夢，往往是由皈依或有關清醒夢境的媒體促使的（特別是在看了電影《醒著的生活》之后，這是一部朦朧的、數字旋轉的電影，講述一個男人意識到自己被困在夢中）。

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.

這使我在經歷清醒夢境時處于人群的平均水平。在1998年對1000名奧地利人的夢境行為的調查中，26%的人表示有時會做清醒的夢。2011年對900名德國成年人的調查發現，其中一半的人報告曾經做過清醒的夢，而且在女性和年輕人中更常見。2016年的一項元分析（一項拉攏和評估其他多項研究的研究）也有類似的結果。

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.

大多數清醒的夢者都是自然和自發地做這些夢，而不是有意為之。立陶宛維爾紐斯大學心理學助理教授塔達斯-斯坦布賴斯說，大多數情況下，自然的清醒夢開始于青春期，有時是作為應對頻繁噩夢的一種機制。
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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.

但無論你是自發開始還是刻意開始，清醒夢的數量和對夢境的控制水平往往是相似的，斯坦布賴斯補充說，盡管自然清醒夢者往往比那些自我訓練的人的清醒夢略長。
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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.

由于經常做清醒夢的人很少，研究人員會發現促使清醒夢的成功率很高，因此很難進行研究--特別是在實驗室環境中。這就是為什么目前研究的一大重點只是為了找到哪些技術最有效。"斯塔姆布賴斯說："現在，我們沒有一種單一的技術可以可靠地誘發清醒的夢境，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，他補充說，有一些簡單的方法可以促進清醒夢境的形成。例如，夢境記憶力好的人更有可能記得曾經做過清醒的夢。阿斯皮說，可以通過寫夢境日記、在手機上錄制關于夢境的語音記錄，或者在你第一次醒來后簡單地在腦海中回放你的夢境10分鐘來提高夢境記憶力。所有這些都有助于你更加熟悉你的夢境環境，從而了解你的夢的共同屬性。

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.

現實測試是另一種常用的技術。在這里，你每天問自己幾次你是否在做夢，希望你在做夢時也能這樣做，引發清醒。"斯塔姆布賴斯說："一般來說，當我們做夢時，我們不加批判地接受我們夢中發生的事情。

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.

出現這種情況是因為負責我們大部分自我意識和批判性思維的前額皮層的一部分在快速眼動睡眠期間被輕微停用。根據一項研究，在做清醒夢時，大腦的前額區域可能會被稍微激活。

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，目前的整體研究表明，最有效的手段是一套更復雜的技術，其中包括睡四到六個小時，醒來一個小時做專注于誘發清醒夢境的練習，然后再繼續睡覺。

"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."

"我們的想法是，一旦你的睡眠時間還剩下大約兩個小時，就去做，這是因為大多數夢境都是在夜晚結束前集中發生的，"阿斯比說。"大多數人大約有50%的夢是在睡眠的最后兩個小時。"
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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".

康科利認為這是人們可以在家里做的最有效的技術。她承認，主要的注意事項是，"在凌晨4點醒來并不那么有趣或可持續"。
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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年發表的一項對350名國際參與者的研究中，考察了五種不同的誘導清醒夢境的方法，阿斯皮認定這種技術的一個具體變體，即 "記憶性誘導清醒夢境"技術，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.

這包括在五小時左右的睡眠后醒來，通過重復 "下次我做夢時，我會記得我在做夢 "這句話來設定做一個清晰的夢的意圖，然后繼續睡覺。阿斯皮說，那些有良好夢境回憶的人和那些在完成誘導技術后5或10分鐘內入睡的人成功率最高。2022年的一項研究回顧同樣得出結論，米爾德是誘發清醒夢境的最有效方法。
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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.

施雷德爾和共同作者索菲-戴克和安雅-庫內爾在2020年的一項研究中對家庭環境中的Mild技術進行了研究，結果顯示18%的參與者在使用這種技術的夜晚做了清醒的夢。此外，在研究中從未做過清醒夢的10名參與者中，有5人在5周的研究期間第一次做了清醒夢。
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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，有許多潛在的技術還沒有做很多研究。他在研究中發現的另一個有希望的技術，即 "感官啟動的清醒夢 "技術，以前沒有被科學地調查過。這包括在五小時后醒來，然后在視覺、聽覺和身體感覺之間反復轉移注意力，再返回睡眠。