Or you could read Ursala K LeGuin; The Lathe of Heaven
Ok I found a study;
Dreamed Movement Elicits Activation in the Sensorimotor Cortex.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22036177
Abstract
Since the discovery of the close association between rapid eye movement (REM) sleep and dreaming, much effort has been devoted to link physiological signatures of REM sleep to the contents of associated dreams [1-4]. Due to the impossibility of experimentally controlling spontaneous dream activity, however, a direct demonstration of dream contents by neuroimaging methods is lacking. By combining brain imaging with polysomnography and exploiting the state of "lucid dreaming," we show here that a predefined motor task performed during dreaming elicits neuronal activation in the sensorimotor cortex. In lucid dreams, the subject is aware of the dreaming state and capable of performing predefined actions while all standard polysomnographic criteria of REM sleep are fulfilled [5, 6]. Using eye signals as temporal markers, neural activity measured by functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) and near-infrared spectroscopy (NIRS) was related to dreamed hand movements during lucid REM sleep. Though preliminary, we provide first evidence that specific contents of REM-associated dreaming can be visualized by neuroimaging.
Lucid dreaming as a learnable skill: A case studyhttp://psycnet.apa.org/psycinfo/1982-00442-001
During a 3-yr study, the author recorded a total of 389 lucid dreams and developed a mnemonic technique for the voluntary induction of lucid dreams (MILD). Without using any induction procedure, the S reported less than 1 lucid dream/month. Using autosuggestion resulted in a range of 1–23 lucid dreams/month, with at most 2/night. MILD yielded 18–26 lucid dreams/month, with up to 4/night. (11 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)
The benefits of lucid dreaming are far-reaching
http://www.world-of-lucid-dreaming.com/benefits-of-lucid-dreaming.html
e new skills.
That's not to mention the enormous fun that comes from playing within your own virtual reality dream world and how it relates to your own subconscious mind. Soon you will see it is all interconnected - conscious and unconscious - enabling you to use this playground for profound personal growth and insights.
And then there is the obvious benefit: pure wish fulfillment. Act out your greatest fantasies in full color. You don't need inspiration for that, do you...?
Improve Your Problem Solving Skills
Scientists understand the benefits of lucid dreaming; some have used it to enhance their problem solving skills in extraordinarily creative ways.
Take Friedrich Kekule's discovery of the structure of the benzene molecule; Otto Loewi's experiment on nerve impulses; and Elias Howe's invention of the sewing machine. These dream-inspired inventions highlight the stunning power of the dreaming subconscious mind.
Improve Your Creativity
Conscious dreaming is an exceptionally powerful way to improve your creativity. Painters like Salvador Dali, William Blake and Paul Klee created famous artwork inspired by dreams.
Even musical composers - like Mozart, Beethoven and Wagner - pointed to dreams as the source of their inspiration. In fact, some of the most beautiful music I ever heard took place in my lucid dreams. They reveal our most creative side because of the free-flow of ideas arising from the subconscious mind.
To improve your creativity in lucid dreams, you can follow two avenues. First, make an announcement in your dream: "show me something amazing!" Your subconscious will respond in unpredictable but often deeply inspiring ways.
Alternatively, set a lucid dream intention. If you are a painter, take a trip to your own lucid dreaming art gallery and see what you find. If you are a musician, play the piano with Chopin and create a complex new arrangement. By encouraging your conscious dream to show you these things, the response will come as if automatically, straight from the dreaming subconscious.
Face Your Fears
Remember I said the benefits of lucid dreaming are far-reaching? This one may push you to your logical limits.
Conscious dreaming allows you to face your fears in a controlled setting. If you are afraid of heights, why not jump out of an airplane?
In the alternate reality of lucid dreams, you can slow down time for a controlled fall, and float gently to the ground. Once you have done this at 10,000 feet you will be surprised how you feel about heights in the waking world.
How does it work? One explanation is that dealing with a worst case scenario in a positive way creates new neural patterns in your subconscious mind. Reinforcing that belief with more experiences that seem real can dissolve the fear altogether. From skydiving to snakes, you can face your fears and reprogram your subconscious reactions, knowing that absolutely no harm can come to you.
Alternatively, why not ask that spider what he represents? He may give you an astonishing response that finally allows you to rationalize your fear.
Improve Your Confidence
Do you lack confidence in the waking world? If so, you can use conscious dreaming to release your inhibitions and be totally free in a realistic dream world.
If you want to improve your public speaking abilities, you can rehearse the event in a lucid dream. Having practiced your speech in a realistic environment, you will find you have more confidence when it comes to making the speech in real life. Remember - practice makes perfect.
Lucid dreams are a playground for experimentation. You can try out any concept imaginable - from business, to sports, to relationships - anything you like. By rehearsing a situation or simply toying with different outcomes, you can improve your confidence in any number of waking scenarios.
Practice New Skills
By the same token, you can practice new skills in lucid dreams. In Exploring The World of Lucid Dreaming by Dr Stephen LaBerge, there is a testimony from a surgeon. Before going to sleep, he would review his surgical cases for the next day. Then he would practice them in precise detail in lucid dreams. He has a solid reputation as a surgeon because of this, being able to refine and polish his techniques and perform procedures much faster than the average surgeon.
By now, you can see how the benefits of lucid dreaming are limitless. Take a look at this website for martial arts training in lucid dreams. It features images and descriptions of its virtual training rooms, so you can go there next time you are lucid. It also explains how the precision muscle movements you make during dream training is ingrained in your brain - just as if you had been training in the real world.
Explore Alternate Realities
The lucid dream world is made up of many alternate realities. Every time you "wake up" in a new dream scene, you will find strange goings on and new landscapes to explore. They are all completely tangible and life-like.
Just like in science fiction, you can teleport to parallel worlds, explore different timelines, visit alien planets and travel to other dimensions. This is a thrilling proposition that enables you to explore the nature of the physical universe, as your vast subconscious mind sees it. You can even induce an out of body experience (OBE) in a lucid dream and explore the so-called astral realm.
Final Thoughts
As you can see, there are many great benefits of lucid dreaming. I'm most thankful for lucid dreaming because it showed me something very special about the nature of the human mind. I realized that we are fully capable of creating a vivid virtual reality, complete with all five senses, inside our heads. If you think lucid dreaming is anything like normal dreams, or daydreams, think again...
I love the sheer freedom created by lucidity; how it enables me to fly high like a bird without fear of falling - or run through solid objects. I can visit anyone and do anything I want. And beyond the novelty of wish fulfillment, it provides me with a direct channel to my subconscious mind, enabling me to heal past fears and anxieties and regard myself in a whole new light. It's mind-blowing stuff.
Like anything worth doing, learning to wake up in dreams is not necessarily easy. But with practice and patience, anyone can do it. In fact, just by discovering the concept you have already planted the seed to have lucid dreams tonight...
http://www.science20.com/news_articles/neuroimaging_step_toward_reading_your_dreams-84048
'Lucid' dreamers are people who claim they are aware that they are dreaming and can deliberately control their actions in dreams. When people dream that they are performing a particular action, a portion of the brain involved in the planning and execution of movement lights up with activity.
This learned skill presents an opportunity for researchers who are studying the neural underpinnings of our dreams and their findings in Current Biology, made by scanning the brains of lucid dreamers while they slept, give us a glimpse into non-waking consciousness and perhaps create a waypoint toward true "dream reading."
The researchers instructed participants to make a series of left and right hand movements separated by a series of eye movements upon entering a lucid dream state while their brains were scanned. Those eye movements served as a signal to the researchers of what was happening in the dream.
Those studies show for the first time that neural activity observed in the brain's sensorimotor cortex can be related to dreamed hand movements.
The discovery suggests that lucid dreaming in combination with neuroimaging and polysomnography (a more common form of sleep monitoring) may allow the transfer of more sophisticated "brain reading" tasks to the dreaming state, the researchers say. In other words, it might eventually be possible to predict dreamed content by analyzing patterns of brain activity.
"The main obstacle in studying specific dream content is that spontaneous dream activity cannot be experimentally controlled, as subjects typically cannot perform predecided mental actions during sleep," study coauthor Michael Czisch explained. "Employing the skill of lucid dreaming can help to overcome these obstacles."
Martin Dresler of the Max Planck Institute of Psychiatry, says it will also be interesting to investigate brain activity at the moment a dreamer becomes lucid. "The lucid dreamer gains insight into a very complex state: sleeping, dreaming, but being consciously aware of the dream state. This may inform us about concepts of consciousness."
This is a cool idea. I'll try it.
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