For most people, when going to sleep at night it is a mystery what will happen. Sometimes you have an amazingly fun and vivid dream, other times it is a terrifying nightmare, and still other times you have no recollection of what you dreamed about at all.

Some people, however, have the ability to consciously interact with their dreams, no matter how weird they get. This is known as lucid dreaming and is a highly desirable skill for many people to have.

A new study published in Consciousness and Cognition offers evidence that people can learn how to lucid dream and develop the ability to engage in it at will. The method is called targeted lucidity reactivation (TLR) and it can be used to enter into a lucid dream state for a variety of purposes.

It is often described as entering into a virtual reality world, and it can be used to overcome nightmares, practice various skills, or just have fun.

According to another study, lucid dreaming is somewhat rare. About 50% of people say that they have never had one, and only 20% of people report having them on a regular basis.

For this new study, 19 participants qualified and were given an app for their smartphone that used a type of the TLR method, including sensory cues to help someone enter into a lucid state while dreaming.

After the first night of using the app, 17% of people reported experiencing lucid dreams compared to just 5% of the control group.

Karen Konkoly is a post-doctoral psychology fellow at Northwestern and released a statement on this study, saying:

“This is a dramatic increase, because even one lucid dream a week is considered quite a lot for most lucid dreamers. The goal of this line of research was to find out how many lucid dreams we could evoke with just a smartphone, and to set a baseline of ease and access for people.”

Beyond just being interesting, helping people to be able to experience lucid dreams may provide other benefits. According to Konkoly:

“Some studies have shown the day after people have a lucid dream, they frequently report feeling happier and less stressed.”

Further research is certainly needed, and hopefully, the app will be released to the general public to help gather more data. It is likely that this would be a very popular option.

I would love to be able to lucid dream.

If you think that’s impressive, check out this story about a “goldmine” of lithium that was found in the U.S. that could completely change the EV battery game.