Lucid dreaming – in which people are aware that they are in a dream and can therefore manipulate it, and the premise for Hollywood blockbuster Inception – is real and becoming more common, experts believe. The most recent research suggests that about eight out of ten people will have a lucid dream in their lives. Professor Mark Blagrove, a psychologist who runs a sleep laboratory at the University of Swansea, said that according to studies the number of people in Western societies who experienced a lucid dream had increased by between 10 and 40 per cent since the 1980s.