during states of wakefulness. they also found that lucid dreamers can only control limited aspects of their dream at once. mutz and javadi also have stated that by studying lucid dreaming further, scientists could learn more about various types of consciousness, which happen to be less easy to separate and research at other times. suggested applications treating nightmares it has been suggested that those who suffer from nightmares could benefit from the ability to be aware they are indeed dreaming. a pilot study performed in 2006 showed that lucid dreaming therapy treatment was successful in reducing nightmare frequency. this treatment consisted of exposure to the idea, mastery of the technique, and lucidity exercises. it was not clear what aspects of the treatment were responsible for the success of overcoming nightmares, though the treatment as a whole was said to be successful. australian psychologist milan colic has explored the application of principles from narrative therapy to clients' lucid dreams, to reduce the impact not only of nightmares during sleep but also depression, self-mutilation, and other problems in waking life. colic found that therapeutic conversations could reduce the distressing content of dreams, while understandings about life—and even characters—from lucid dreams could be applied to their lives with marked therapeutic benefits. psychotherapists have applied lucid dreaming as a part of therapy. studies have shown that, by inducing a lucid dream, recurrent nightmares can be alleviated. it is unclear whether this alleviation is due to lucidity or the ability to alter the dream itself. a 2006 study performed by victor spoormaker and van den bout evaluated the validity of lucid dreaming treatment (ldt) in chronic nightmare sufferers. ldt is composed of exposure, mastery and lucidity exercises. results of lucid dreaming treatment revealed that the nightmare frequency of the treatment groups had decreased. in another study, spoormaker, van den bout, and meijer (2003) investigated lucid dreaming treatment for nightmares by testing eight subjects who received a one-hour individual session, which consisted of lucid dreaming exercises. the results of the study revealed that the nightmare frequency had decreased and the sleep quality had slightly increased. holzinger, klösch, and saletu managed a psychotherapy study under the working name of ‘cognition during dreaming—a therapeutic intervention in nightmares’, which included 40 subjects, men and women, 18–50 years old, whose life quality was significantly altered by nightmares. the test subjects were administered gestalt group therapy and 24 of them were also taught to enter the state of lucid dreaming by holzinger. this was purposefully taught in order to change the course of their nightmares. the subjects then reported the diminishment of their nightmare prevalence from 2–3 times a week to 2–3 times per month. creativity in her book the committee of sleep, deirdre barrett describes how some experienced lucid dreamers have learned to remember specific practical goals such as artists looking for inspiration seeking a show of their own work once they become lucid or computer programmers looking for a screen with their desired code. however, most of these dreamers had many experiences of failing to recall waking objectives before gaining this level of control. exploring the world of lucid dreaming by stephen laberge and howard rheingold (1990) discusses creativity within dreams and lucid dreams, including testimonials from a number of people who claim they have used the practice of lucid dreaming to help them solve a number of creative issues, from an aspiring parent thinking of potential baby names to a surgeon practicing surgical techniques. the authors discuss how creativity in dreams could stem from "conscious access to the contents of our unconscious minds"; access to "tacit knowledge"—the things we know but can't explain, or things we know but are unaware that we know. the dreams behind the music book by craig webb (2016) details lucid dreams of a number of musical artists, including how they are able not just to hear, but also compose, mix, arrange, practice, and perform music while conscious within their dreams. risks though lucid dreaming can be beneficial to a number of aspects of life, some risks have been suggested. those who have never had a lucid dream may not understand what is happening when they experience it for the first time. this could cause those individuals to feel a variety of different emotions as they are going through a completely new psychological experience. feelings of stress, worry, or confusion could arise. on the other hand, the feeling of empowerment could also come up as they realize that they are now in control of their dreams. individuals who experience lucid dreams regularly could begin to feel isolated from others due to the fact that they have different experiences when it comes to dreaming. someone struggling with certain mental illnesses could find it hard to be able to tell the difference between reality and the actual dream (psychosis). a very small percentage of people may experience sleep paralysis, which is something that can sometimes be confused with lucid dreaming. although from the outside, both of these seem to be quite similar, there are a few distinct differences that can help differentiate them. a person usually experiences sleep paralysis when they partially wake up in rem atonia, a state in which said person is partially paralyzed and cannot move their limbs. when in sleep paralysis, people may also experience hallucinations. although said hallucinations cannot cause physical damage, they may still be frightening. there are three common types of hallucinations: an intruder in the same room, a crushing feeling on one's chest or back, and a feeling of flying or levitating. about 7.6% of the general population have experienced sleep paralysis at least once. exiting sleep paralysis to a waking state can be achieved by intently focusing on a part of the body, such as a finger, and wiggling it, continuing the action of moving to then the hand, the arm, and so on, until the person is fully awake. long-term risks with lucid dreaming have not been extensively studied, although many people have been lucid dreaming for many years without any adverse effects.