Face your fears, turn your nightmares into success stories, improve your sporting abilities…. fulfil sex fantasies that are better left out of the 'real world'.

There are many reasons why we should learn how to access the rich landscape of our dreams - and even better, learn how to "Lucid Dream".

This was the premise behind this Catalyst Club spoken word evening, an introduction to the history of, newest research into and explanation of techniques for inducing conscious dreaming.

Sarah Janes and Luciana Haill, researchers and enthusiastic exponents of lucid dreaming for some years, presented an informative lecture on what makes us dream, the concept of alternative reality, and encouraged the audience to harness the power of dreaming for use in everyday life.

We spend a third of our lives dreaming, Janes reminded us, so why not learn how to master this dream space? "A fantastic dream life can have a hugely beneficial effect on our waking life," she urged, and they finished the talk with a "dream machine" flickering while we listened to a guided meditation.

I went to sleep that night with my notebook by my bed and, for the first time in years, remembered all my dreams. This event has sparked a newfound interest in my dreamlife that has been dormant for years, and I suspect others felt the same.