A third of all children practice a form of lucid dreaming, according to a new survey by into kid’s sleeping routines.
You never dream more vividly than when you’re a child but new research suggests that one in three of them are controlling their dreams directly, in a form of lucid dreaming.
The research has been commissioned by Lego for their toy line, which also has a TV show whose second season has just been released in its entirety and where lucid dreaming is referred to as ‘dream crafting.’
‘Lucid dreaming tends to be an innate skill that is forgotten rather than being learnt. The psychological term for lucid dreaming is hypnagogia and both children and adults naturally pass through a hypnagogic stage at least twice per night, once when falling asleep, and once when waking up,’ dream psychologist Ian Wallace tells Metro.
‘The ability to ‘dream craft’ is a concept from the Lego DREAMZzz show, whereby the characters have the ability to form and change various objects or scenarios using their creativity. Outside the fiction of the show there are four main ways to dream craft,’ reveals Wallace.
‘Three of these methods are done when the child is waking or awake and the fourth method is done when the child is actually dreaming. The first waking method is Dream Play, which involves the child playing around with an image from a dream as they wake by re-imagining it in various scenarios. This helps the child to realise that they have power over the images that they are creating in their minds.
‘Imaginal Play is the second waking method that occurs after the child is awake, where they revisit and manipulate the dream image in different contexts. This allows them to explore new connections and relationships related to the image.
‘The third waking method is Active Play which encourages the child to reconstruct and enact the dream imagery. While this doesn’t need to be a grand production, the child uses analogies and resemblances to capture the mood of the dream,’ says Wallace.
In the Lego show, the characters can create and change objects in their dreams, which mimics the ability to build models with Lego. You can do that with any Lego set but the DREAMZZzz ones come with two or more alternative designs by default, that kids can choose between when building them.
In the show, the main characters have been practicing their dream crafting in R.E.M trials by forming different items, in an attempt to challenge series villain, the Never Witch.
‘Dream crafting is used in the Lego DREAMZzz show as a way of illustrating how children can use their powers of creativity to successfully engage with challenges that may seem scary and threatening to them,’ says Wallace.
‘Rather than being frightened and feeling that they have no power to change the situation, dream crafting inspires children to use their ingenuity to create positive and healthy outcomes for everyone involved.’
According to the Lego survey, 41% of children said they are able to consciously change their dream when it’s turning into a nightmare and 38% claimed to be able to guide their dream if they didn’t like how it was turning out.
The study found that the most common things for kids to dream about, at 67%, was friends, with family members being second on 61%. After that it was school (61%), parents and guardians (58%), home (57%), pets (56%), and toys (56%).
‘The ability to lucid dream does not really change much as you get older because we naturally experience it briefly at least twice per night,’ says Wallace.
‘What does change as we get older is a degradation in sleep quality, due to a variety of factors. One of these factors is the loss of sleep quality due to parental duties and responsibilities, particularly with young children.’
The Lego DREAMZzz series started in May last year and is supported by a range of very unusual Lego sets, that have been praised for their imagination and variety even by older fans.
You can find out more about the sets on the official , while the show can be watched on and other streaming platformers.
