The stuff that dreams are made of

For my passion project, my plan is to address what exactly is happening in the brain during a dream, how dreams can reflect and affect waking behavior, and how lucid dreaming provides a complete paradigm shift.

Although I have never quite achieved a fully lucid dream, I know people who have and the concept has always fascinated me. Who wouldn’t want to be able to mold their own dreams into whatever they want them to be?

The overall question I plan on answering by the end of the project: What are dreams, how do they affect your conscious state of mind, and how can you use lucid dreaming to control this?

Sub questions I will need to answer in order to answer the overall question:

What is going on in the brain during a dream?

How do events that happen while you're awake affect your dreams?

In turn, how do your dreams affect how you behave when you're awake?

What is lucid dreaming?

What are the benefits of lucid dreaming?

Are there any possible risks?

How does one start lucid dreaming?

My plan of research: Proquest and other library databases, Dr. Van Eeden, Dr. LaBerge, Chris Brenk (A friend who claims to lucid dream all the time), Google searches