I’ve got an article in The Observer about how the science of lucid dreaming is being pushed forward by the development of ‘in-dream’ experiments.
A lucid dream is where you become aware you are dreaming and where you can potentially change elements of the dream as it happens.
The piece discusses how eye movements allow communication from within dreams to researchers in the sleep lab and how this has led to studies involving people doing experimental tasks in the dream world.
One of our most mysterious and intriguing states of consciousness is the dream. We lose consciousness when we enter the deep waters of sleep, only to regain it as we emerge into a series of uncanny private realities. These air pockets of inner experience have been difficult for psychologists to study scientifically and, as a result, researchers have mostly resorted to measuring brain activity as the sleeper lies passive. But interest has recently returned to a technique that allows real-time communication from within the dream world.
The article also touches on the ‘dream hacking’ community who borrow from the scientific literature to try an increase their chances of having a lucid dream, sometimes using psychiatric medication for which vivid dreams are considered a side-effect.
The full piece is at the link below.
Link to article in The Observer.
Mind Hacks 
garlic before bedtime works
Given the hypothesis (which I heard about in some educational documentary; therefore I’m marginally absolved from sounding stupid) that the function of dreams is to solve problems -therefore- most are experienced as bad dreams or nighmares, I imagine lucid dreams would hypothetically be more happy than regular ones.
Yikes! Why would anyone take psych meds to promote lucid dreams? I’ve been a lucid dreamer since my teen years and currently take a lot of psych meds and yes, I do a lot of lucid dreaming and it is quite fun. But along with it also comes a lot of only semi-lucid dreams which can be shattering nightmares.
And it’s not like those are the only side effects of psych meds. It’s simply not worth it, if you can’t train yourself to lucid dream without medication, just settle for daydreaming.