In the early 20th century, Dutch psychiatrist and writer Frederik van Eeden continued the scientific exploration of controlled dreams. Van Eeden kept detailed dream journals to explore his experiences and actions in dreams, noting that in some dreams, he realized he was dreaming and could influence the events. He called these special controlled dreams “lucid dreams.”

In his article “A Study of Dreams,” published in The Journal of Society for Psychical Research, van Eeden coined the term “lucid dreaming,” which he used to refer to the state of being aware in a dream and the ability to control the events, actions, and plots within the dream.