Pre-lucid dream

A pre-lucid dream or near-lucid dream is one in which the dreamer considers the question, "Am I asleep and dreaming?" The dreamer may or may not come to the correct conclusion. Such experiences are liable to occur to people who are deliberately cultivating lucid dreams, but may also occur spontaneously to those with no prior intention to achieve lucidity in dreams.

The term "pre-lucid dream" was first introduced by Celia Green in her book Lucid Dreams (1968).

It is generally preferred to use the term "near-lucid" dream on the following grounds:

However, the term "pre-lucid dream" seems to imply that a lucid dream will follow, which is not necessarily true. The term "near-lucid" helps convey the often humorous "so close, yet so far away" aspect of such dreams.

Vickers describes a number of aspects and variants of pre-lucid or near-lucid dreams:

The question of "Am I awake or dreaming?" has been posed by existentialist philosophers in the form "Is life just a dream?"

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