Introduction
Lucid dreaming is being aware that you are dreaming. Everyone can learn it with practice, time and patience.
You gain lucidity in the dream by realising that you are dreaming. You may even have already had a moment of this, but unfortunately common response to this realisation is to wake up.
You begin dreaming REM stages of the sleep cycle. Which is when you are able to become lucid. You enter this dream stage approximately 3-5 times per night, which is the opportunity also become lucid. And there are many techniques to help you induce a lucid dream and also ways to improve the quality of them.
Lucid dreaming is not magical or mythical, it is just dreaming. Everyone dreams. You are just consciously aware of the fact you are dreaming. The body naturally has developed so you are unconscious during sleep. There may have been a reason for this but this part of evolution remains a mystery. It can cause you to have a more disturbed sleeping pattern than usual. And potentially be a little more tired than sleeping through. But apart from that, there are no negative side effects.
This Guide is designed to give you a brief overview to lucid dreaming, and hopefully will answer some of your initial questions about how to remain concious whilst you sleep.
Preparation:
Before you will be able to lucid dream you must first be able to remember your dreams. Often people who don’t develop dream recall wake up in the morning and either can’t remember their dreams or remember little for a short time. It is easy to forget your dreams when you wake and also not only defeats the object of having a lucid dream when you can’t remember you had one, but also makes it more difficult to achieve lucidity.
I wish it was as easy as being able to fall asleep in a certain way to become lucid. And although to some extend that is true. The reason it is a skill that needs to be developed, is due to the practice needed and unfortunately the preparation work involved in improving your memory of your dreams.
Dream Recall – Dream recall techiques and methods need to be implemented because….(read more)
Dream Diary – Keeping a diary of your dreams will improve your dream recall over time and should ideally be done…(read more)
I advise you to visit these sections for further reading, especially the dream diary section when starting out it will be a great way to get started.
Techniques:
So far I have covered what lucid dreams are, and the importance of being able to remember your dreams. But this will not automatically mean you have the means to become aware of your dreams
I encourage you to try some of these techniques whilst trying to improve your dream recall, and try notice any improvement as you are going along.
Techniques you should begin with are
Reality Checks – This section will reveal a technique into lucid dreaming that is a must for beginners
Levels Of Lucidity – This section will reveal what is feels like to become lucid, what the different levels of lucidity are and what levels of realism and control can be experience.
MILD – This is a method of induction described by stephen La Berge
WBTB – Used in combination with the WILD technique can be ver effective for lucid dreams.
For more information on these techniques follow the links provided above. It is a good idea to get to grips with these techniques before any of the more advanced ones, but by all means, if you think that these arent for you and want to try one of the other methods you can but will have slower development of the skills and they will take longer to learn. Hopefully by this stage you know the basics of lucid dreaming and how to induce them, what they feel like etc? and maybe you have already had one. If so, then well done!
What next?
Don’t stop here. Keep reading and learning more advanced tecniques and better ways to contol your dreams and before long you will soon find yourself having many lucid dreams a week and having the kind of contol and realism from them that you never thought possible. This is a skill like any, that once you learn, the practice of it is needed to stay good at it. It can take months to learn and develop this skill. But what a waste of time, not remembering a 3rd of it whilst you sleep is. And if anything, you will remember more of your dreams. Which can also be good fun in itself.
Summary:
Lucid dreaming is a skill, so i hope this resource helps you learn what you need to get started, but you will also realise that everyone is different, and some techniques will work better for you than others, but remember
#1 – Improve you Memory
#2 – Don’t expect it to happen without patience and time.
#3 – Don’t Give Up
My own experience of lucid dreaming
#1 It is very possible. Which is why kept an internet archive for my records.
#2 Some people suggest complete control over every aspect of a dream. I don’t.
#3 I find the WILD method of induction the easiest for and rarely just “become lucid” but it does happen from time to time. Which is what lead me to research the subject in the first place.
#4 when i become aware, the dream becomes extremely vivid and my sight becomes very clear and more detailed than real life (although more unrealistic and exaggerated).
#5 I don’t recall sounds in my dreams.
#6 For me, the dream still runs its own mind, but i am concious whilst it is happening, and i would say i steer the direction of it more than i do control it. When my dreams are in 1st person i do have more control at times over my personal actions and movement.
#7 When i stop writing down my dreams and my recall slips, I find it difficult to gain lucidity. (or maybe just remember that I was!).
So my subjective definition, i would say is more about being concious whilst I sleep, not just aware I am dreaming. Which i what i personally enjoy about trying to stay aware throughout the sleep process. And personally, if i had a choice of being able to to stay awake permanently, I would.
If you have anything you feel can contribute to help others, then please contact us and let us know.