de Macêdo, Tainá Carla Freitas, et al. “My Dream, My Rules: Can Lucid Dreaming Treat Nightmares?” Frontiers in Psychology, Frontiers Media S.A., 26 Nov. 2019, www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6902039/. 

          All participants of the article work in a variety of departments, such as Psychology, Philosophy, Neurobiology, and Physiology and Behavior. Each has contributed equally to the work and share authorship. The article itself was submitted to the Consciousness Research section of a journal titled Frontiers in Psychology. 

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                In this paper, de Macêdo et al. begins by stating that "nightmares are defined as repeated occurrences of extremely dysphoric and well-remembered dreams that usually involve subjective threats to survival, security, or physical integrity." These occurrences are further defined as either being recurrent or idiopathic (spontaneous) in nature. Those that suffer from recurrent nightmares may experience significant distress and impairments that affect both occupational and social functioning and it is more commonly associated and observed among those who suffer from PTSD, depression, and anxiety. Lucid dreaming (LD) is described in this article as having the potential to help those who suffer from nightmare disorder through the resignifications of the dreams. Meaning that the knowledge that they are dreaming and being able to control their dreams would reduce nightmares to normal dreams and therefore restore proper sleep hygiene (i.e. proper sleeping habits and lack of disturbances). And so, the article is a review of existing literature that examines the use of LD as a feasible aid in treating patients with nightmares by helping to minimize "frequency, intensity, and psychological distress." Unfortunately, the article also points out that there is a scarcity of studies in relation to the topic and much of the results have been inconsistent. Therefore, it is necessary that more studies be done to thoroughly investigate the potential of LD as a therapeutic intervention. 

                The introduction described the importance of labeling nightmares as recurrent (posttraumatic) and idiopathic. This is because idiopathic nightmares have unknown etiology, are unrelated to other disorders, and the content themselves are unspecific and can include "interpersonal conflict, failure, helplessness, apprehension, being chased, accident, [an] evil force, disaster, and environmental abnormality." In contrast, recurrent (posttraumatic) nightmares are specifically related to disturbances that are part of the stress reaction following exposure to trauma. These nightmares are a core feature of PTSD and have a prevalence rate of 80% of individuals reporting disturbing and suicidal dreams that are related to the trauma. There is also a brief discussion of nightmares and anxiety wherein it is mentioned that the increased frequency of negative emotions due to nightmares can increase anxiety and exacerbate anxiety disorders. And an additional relationship is discussed between nightmares and depression where there is a relationship between nightmares and suicides that can increase suicide risk. Some other keywords that are mentioned in this section are nightmare frequency and nightmare distress wherein the former refers to the number of occurrences of the nightmare and the latter refers to the negative feelings one has upon awakening after the occurrence of a nightmare. Towards the end of this section, the authors state that LD can help in resignification and there are three things that the article aims to address: 1) Is LDT effective for treating nightmares? 2) What are the mechanisms by which LDT works? 3)What are the most used procedures, and the limitations of the LDT? 

                The discussion section divides the article by labeling them using the questions: 1)What are the neurobiological and psychological mechanisms that underlie LDT? 2) How does LDT work in practice? 3)What are the main limitations of LDT? The conclusion is that LDT may be an efficient treatment for nightmares, and even if it unable to be induced, the exercises helped patients develop critical thinking over dream content. However, despite a positive outlook on its practice, limited literature, inconsistent results, and small sample sizes mean that there is a need for more research for a better estimate on the effectiveness of LDT in clinical practice. 

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