{"id":58151,"date":"2022-01-28T15:04:00","date_gmt":"2022-01-28T07:04:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.mindvalley.com\/?p=58151"},"modified":"2025-06-11T16:31:15","modified_gmt":"2025-06-11T15:31:15","slug":"lucid-dreaming-and-sleep-paralysis","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.mindvalley.com\/blog\/lucid-dreaming-and-sleep-paralysis\/","title":{"rendered":"Spider-Man\u2019s Tom Holland on lucid dreaming and sleep paralysis"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Tom Holland is everywhere nowadays\u2014and deservedly so. With the massively huge success of \u201cSpider-Man: No Way Home<\/em>\u201d (amassing $1.69 billion and counting), the name \u201cTom Holland\u201d is now synonymous with superstardom.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But there\u2019s a web of stress and anxiety that goes hand-in-hand with all the glitz and glamor. (With great power comes great responsibility, after all.) That kind of trauma can seriously cause nighttime afflictions for anyone\u2014even a superhero.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In an interview with GQ<\/a>, Tom explains that he\u2019s got a trick for dealing with it\u2014lucid dreaming.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That\u2019s right. Your friendly neighborhood Spider-Man uses lucid dreaming (or cognitive dreaming, as Tom refers to it). Jon Watts, director of the more recent Spider-Man<\/em> movies, turned Tom on to it. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

And it\u2019s shown to be a useful practice to help him with his nightmares, sleepwalking, sleep undressing, and even sleep paralysis.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Tom Holland\u2019s experience with sleep paralysis<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

In the GQ interview, Tom describes his experience with sleep paralysis\u2014his bedroom is filled with paparazzi, incessantly clicking away and filling the room with bursts of white flashes. And where\u2019s Tom in all this madness? He\u2019s panicking\u2026 and frozen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sleep paralysis is a type of parasomnia\u2014abnormal behaviors during sleep. And according to lucid dreaming teacher Charlie Morley, parasomnias can also include nightmares, sleepwalking, and, in Tom\u2019s case, sleep undressing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

How does lucid dreaming<\/a> fit into all this?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cOften, people who have [parasomnias] naturally gravitate towards lucid dreaming as a self-defense mechanism,<\/em>\u201d explains Charlie, adding that it\u2019s <\/em>a way to free themselves from the nighttime afflictions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Charlie himself has taught lucid dreaming to hundreds of people suffering from PTSD, from war veterans to child abuse victims. And in a recent study that he\u2019s part of looks at the effects of lucid dreaming on those with PTSD. The results show the incredible power this practice has in healing pain and illness as well as overcoming fears and emotional trauma.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And when people allow themselves to be immersed in lucidity during their sleep, it helps transform the stress and trauma that cause parasomnias into deep and restorative sleep<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Doing reality checks<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Now here\u2019s the tricky thing about lucid dreaming: the line between reality and dream can be blurred. It\u2019s much like in the movie<\/a> Inception<\/em> where Mal Cobb still believed she was dreaming and committed suicide in an attempt to \u201cwake up.\u201d That\u2019s why reality checks are incredibly important.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIf you\u2019re in a dream and you read something, say, a stop sign, and you turn around, when you look back at the stop sign, it will have changed,<\/em>\u201d says Tom in the GQ interview.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He suggests setting an alarm for every hour of the day. And when it goes off, read something nearby, like the title of a book or words on a bag of snacks. Then, turn away and look back to see if it has changed or not. If it did, it\u2019s a dream. If it didn\u2019t, it\u2019s reality.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWhat happens is when you do it for a long time, you start to do that in your sleep,<\/em>\u201d Tom continues. \u201cSometimes, if I\u2019m having a really bad dream, I\u2019ll look at a sign and go, \u2018<\/em>Oh, I\u2019m dreaming.\u2019 And then you have free rein to do whatever you want.<\/em>\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Charlie points out the reality checks Tom mentions are \u201cexactly the reality checks that we teach in the Mindvalley course<\/em>.\u201d That course is aptly called Experience Lucid Dreaming<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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A post shared by Tom Holland (@tomholland2013)<\/a><\/p><\/div><\/blockquote>