For three weeks now, Christopher Nolan’s mind-numbing thriller “Inception” has remained No. 1 at the box office, raking in a domestic total of $193.3 million. 

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Its success can undoubtedly be contributed to one major factor: it has been impossible not to engage in conversation about what really happened in the conspicuous ending. 

Everywhere from coffee shops to Twitter, people cannot stop talking about “Inception.” 

Though clearly science fiction, “Inception” contains a great deal of proven knowledge regarding dreams and the abilities of lucid dreamers. 

Matthew Edlund, director of the Center for Circadian Medicine and an expert in the field of dreaming, spoke to both the Huffington Post and the Chicago Tribune to clear up the confusion about certain aspects of the movie. 

Edlund praised Nolan for exploring many avenues of dreaming that are realistic. 

"Lots of things ring true," Edlund said. "The more unbelievable they are, generally the more true they feel. That's one of the reasons dreams have such power."

Time does in fact speed up in dreams, Edlund said, but not with the precision that the movie conveys. Most dreams only last 5 to 20 minutes, but an infinite amount of “dream time” can be explored during this “real time.”

The phenomenon of dreaming “inside” another dream is very common. Most people are said to “dream about dreaming” many times in their lives. 

But Edlund said the most realistic aspect of the movie is the “disappearance of position sense.” 

This is why most people experience flying in their dreams or are unable to recall how they traveled from one place to another within the dream. 

The movie also explores how the possibilities of REM (Rapid Eye Movement) sleep can cause people to actually dictate their dreams through a process known as “lucid dreaming.” 

Lucid dreaming is the learned process of realizing that you are, in fact, within a dream and being able to control what happens within it. The main characters in “Inception” have this skill. Scientists and researchers believe that fewer than 100,000 people in the United States actually have the ability to do this. 

But, for the most part, we are going to have to face the facts that the majority of “Inception” is merely brilliantly-crafted science fiction. 

People are not able to enter each other’s dreams, become addicted to dreams, use drugs to induce REM sleep or become unable to separate dreams from reality.

Dreams have mystified human beings for centuries. In early civilizations, humans spoke of dreams as worlds that could only be entered through dreaming. 

Recent researchers have discovered that REM sleep and dreaming are both necessities for humans and that the average person spends six years of his or her life dreaming. 

Though scientists have made progress in understanding the neurology behind dreaming, chances are the realm of possibility when it comes to dreams will never be fully discovered. 

But, for now, you can keep contemplating that ambiguous ending. 

To reach staff reporter Rebecca Buddingh, click here.