Humans have done everything from splitting the atom and photographing a black hole, yet our understanding of why we dream remains something of a mystery.
Perhaps one of the most perplexing dreaming habits is ‘lucid dreaming’ – the ability to control exactly what happens.
Depicted in films such as ‘Inception’, lucid dreaming could provide a useful link between the real world and the dream world.
MailOnline readers have shared their own experiences of lucid dreaming, with one saying it’s like ‘being the director of your own 3D film’.
From turning bullets into flowers to Peter Andre making a moussaka, here are some of the most weird and wonderful lucid dreams.
Lucid dreams let more have more enjoyable ‘trips’ or psychedelic adventures when they go to sleep (depicted here by an AI)
Rachel Alexander, CEO and founder of AI firm Omina Technologies in Antwerp, Belgium, said she taught herself to start having lucid dreams as a teenager with help from a psychologist.
‘When I was about 16 I started having nightmares that someone would chase me and try to kill me and I would wake up in a cold sweat,’ she told MailOnline.
‘The psychologist explained to me how I could become lucid in my dreams and so I started doing it and it really worked.
‘When someone was chasing me and trying to kill me in my dreams I would become lucid and turn the bullets into flowers, or turn on my assailant and give him or her a hug.
‘I was able to turn nightmares into happy dreams and I slept better, and eventually after a few years I stopped needing this trick anymore.’
According to Tore Nielsen, a professor of psychiatry at the University of Montreal, being chased is a common dream scenario, but it may prime us for certain situations ever happening real life.
‘By simulating a threatening situation, the dream of being chased provides a space for a person to practice perceiving and escaping predators in their sleep,’ Professor Nielsen said.
The idea of controlling your dreams might sound like the plot of the latest science fiction blockbuster. But this mysterious gift is a reality for around 20 per cent of people, who are able to go on exciting trips in impossible worlds (file photo)
Depicted in films such as ‘Inception’ starring Leonardo DiCaprio (pictured), lucid dreaming could provide a useful link between the real world and the dream world
Other sources suggest being chased in a dream is related to anxiety in life, or avoiding acknowledging the cause of that anxiety.
But instead of fleeing, legendary Swiss psychiatrist Carl Jung suggested we ‘should by no means resist when this element faces them’.
Mrs Alexander said that her school psychologist had been unable to identify the source of her troubling chase nightmares – although she forgot to tell her about one traumatic incident.
‘When I was 13 I got lost in Puerta Vallarta [Mexico] and a guy pulled a gun on me,’ she told MailOnline.
‘I am GenX, born in 1972 – it didn’t even occur to me that this might be considered a traumatic experience!’ she told MailOnline.
Mrs Alexander said she hasn’t had a lucid dream in more than 30 years’ and ‘I can’t seem to make it happen anymore’.
Lucid dreaming helps people banish nightmares or generally have more enjoyable ‘trips’ when they go to sleep (file photo)
Meanwhile, when she read about lucid dreaming, Lisa Frankel, based in Henderson, Nevada, had thought ‘everyone was able’ to control their dreams.
‘I can pop out if they’re too scary and be back in bed and I can fly in dreams if I want sometimes,’ she told MailOnline.
According to classic dream analysis, flying suggests the sleeper has a desire for more freedom in their waking life, or new opportunities.
It’s estimated that 50 per cent of people have experienced a lucid dream in their lives, while 20 per cent have one at least once a month and 1 per cent enjoy them more than once a week.
Kiri Pryde, based in Wrexham, Wales, said she has lucid dreams most nights and can control them ‘if I don’t like where it’s going’.
‘My dreams are a land I travel to at will and can change their course in one waking moment,’ she told MailOnline.
Lucid dreaming contrasts with a normal dream, where the dreamer is an observer with no control and has no idea that they are dreaming (artist’s depiction)
‘I am well aware that I am dreaming and will actively go back into a dream if I wake and I was enjoying it.
‘A particularly memorable one was Peter Andre making me a moussaka.’
Meanwhile, an anonymous lucid dreamer in Santa Clara, California, said they experienced ‘floating in space surrounded by galaxies’.
‘Was amazing until I decided to meet God,’ they said. ‘A humming started and got louder and louder as I approached the Deity.
‘Realizing that this was “the End” I struggled to wake myself.’
Another person in Glasgow called lucid dreaming ‘magical’ as you can fly, lift heavy objects like feathers and ‘jump across cities and planets into space’.
Other more unusual lucid dreams included walking with Salma Hayek on a tropical beach and racing cars on tracks in Europe.
Lucid dreaming is fairly rare, as most people experience a normal dream where they’re asleep.
Studies have shown that 50 per cent of people have experienced a lucid dream in their lives, while only 20 per cent have one at least once a month and fewer still (around 1 per cent) enjoy them more than once a week.
Research also suggests lucid dreamers have a bigger prefrontal cortex – a part of the brain linked to logic and reasoning – suggesting they’re better at determining a scenario is false when they’re asleep.
