Lucid dreaming – a road out of Parkinson’s dysfunction?
If you are going to have a chronic disease at least find it amusing!
The last month I have been doing a lot of lucid dreaming when I am moving into wakefulness in the morning. If you don’t know about lucid dreaming it is a state where you are conscious but dreaming and can navigate through your dreams with full control and awareness that you are in the land of dreams.
The interesting thing is that I can move back and forth from lucid dreaming into full awake consciousness and back into lucid dreaming again. When I am lucid dreaming I have no Parkinson signs but as soon as I move into awakeness my tremor starts and as soon as I move back into lucid dreaming it stops again. I can consciously do this as long as I enter the plane of lucid dreams, although I don’t always lucid dream. My question is how do I bring this into my waking life??
Yesterday I had a preview of this. I woke up and was awake and fully conscious but still in bed and with my eyes closed. I had no tremor and I could move my left hand and arm completely normal (these side is normally slow, dysfunctional and shaky). This lasted for about 10 minutes – my body was normal! Then the shaking and dysfunction returned.
So is my lucid dreams trying to lead me out of my disease state? Is this because my amygdala is suppressed during dreaming so my body is not in a heightened state? If so compassion meditation practices helps regulate the amygdala. Lucid dreaming creates more dopamine production in the body than REM sleep because the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex is active. I notice after a period of lucid dreaming my symptoms are better even after awakening.
The other night I slammed my left toes into the door jam enough to really hurt but for a few hours after that my toes moved normally and I could spread them apart which I have not been able to do in three years. In a few hours the new normal function had ceased. My body was shocked into normal function for a time.
My conclusion is that my body still knows normal. My inhibition and initiation systems are abnormal but all the nerves are still connected and functional!
I went back to see Dr. Farias today and had another wonderful session with him. I have a bunch of new exercises and systems to work with. The focus being on my tongue, eyes, and lumber spine to release my neck and regulate my vagus nerve and parasympathetic system, more on that soon!
