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Great guide, Ancient; thank you. There's a fair bit of scientific research going on in this area. A piece that might be helpful (as opposed to just informative) is, summarised as:AM
I
DREAMING?
I figured we could use some general information on lucid dreaming. This should cover all the basic questions, and might provide an insight or two to the more experienced. A few resources are posted at the end. Feel free to discuss your techniques, ask questions, and provide further helpful resources on the topic of sleep, dreams, and lucidity. And always remember - question everything, especially what you think is real.
FAQ
What is lucid dreaming?
- Lucid dreaming is being aware that you are in a dream. With lucidity you have the power to control your dreams down to the smallest detail. This is a scientifically proven state of consciousness that we often experience as children, but most of us forget the ability as we grow older. Brain activity is in the gamma frequency when lucid in a dream, which is actually more active than normal waking life.
I don't dream at all, how can I start dreaming?
- You dream every night. However, you probably don't remember them. The first thing you need to do is improve your dream recall.
How do I improve dream recall?
- Start a dream journal! This is the single most important thing you can do when learning to lucid dream. After all, if you cannot remember the experience, it might as well not have happened. Your dreams are freshest when you first wake up. Before you even move, try your hardest to remember what you dreamed about. If you remember anything at all, write it down. If you don't recall anything, try again later in the day. Don't be discouraged if at first all you have are fragments - write them down anyway as best you can. Keep a scrap of paper beside your bed and scribble down keywords when you wake up in the night. This will make it far easier for the rest of the memories to come flooding back when you wake up in the morning.
How do I lucid dream?
-There are three main methods to becoming lucid in a dream:
1. DILD- Dream Induced Lucid Dream. This method involves reality checks, or noticing something strange in a dream and realizing that you are actually asleep. It is a spontaneous, erratic method that will not consistently produce reliable results.
2. MILD- Mnemonic Induced Lucid Dream. Using this method you will plant the idea of lucid dreaming in your subconscious through the use of a phrase or mantra. You want to set the intention to have a lucid dream. It essentially creates DILD's, increasing the reliability enough that it becomes its own method.
3. WILD- Wake Induced Lucid Dream. This is the most difficult of the three to learn and master, but will create the most vivid lucid dreams when successful. It relies on you being able to retain mental awareness while your body falls asleep in order to jump straight into a lucid dream.
TECHNIQUES
RC- Reality Checks
Are you dreaming right now? No? How do you know for sure? Try pushing your hand through your computer monitor. Try to levitate on your chair. If you were unsuccessful, good. You are awake, and reading about lucid dreaming. The goal of RC's is to program them as part of your daily routine in the hopes that it will become second nature to you, and you will perform them in a dream. If you tried the above in a dream, your hand would have gone right through the computer, and you would have hovered over your seat. To a mind trained in reality checks, this would be a clear sign of the dream-state. Every time you wake up in the morning, perform a reality check. This will eliminate false awakenings - dreams of waking up. Ever pour your morning coffee and think "I did this already...didn't I?" You probably dreamed about it. There are a multitude of possible ways to RC, but here are a few of the most common:
- Technology often will not work in dreams - light switches, phones, etc.
- Look at your hands. In dreams they will often be blurry or distorted.
- Check the time. Your clock might seem surreal, or display improper symbols. It may change to random numbers as you watch.
- Try to remember what you did the previous day, or even earlier that same day. It is usually not possible to remember recent events while dreaming.
- Do something that is impossible in the waking world. Levitate, or push your hand through a solid object.
- Pinch your nose tightly and try to breathe in through it.
DILD- Dream Induced Lucid Dream
These types of lucid dreams require no effort from the dreamer. It relies solely on you spontaneously becoming lucid in a dream, usually through habitual reality checks.
MILD- Mnemonic Induced Lucid Dream
This is essentially a method of increasing the chance of a DILD by training your mind to recognize the dream state. During the day, perform reality checks. As you do so, think about lucid dreams. Remind yourself of your desire to have a LD. As you fall asleep, affirm your intentions even more. Tell yourself that the next dream you have will be lucid. This also works well with improving dream recall, as you can tell yourself you will remember your next dream. Planting these ideas in your subconscious is as surprisingly effective method for getting results.
WILD- Wake Induced Lucid Dream
The most difficult of all techniques, but also the most intense, is a Wake Induced Lucid Dream. It takes a lot of practice and great concentration to fall asleep without slipping into unconsciousness. It requires that you allow your body to fall asleep, but keep your mind focused and awake. If done properly, you will slip straight into the dream state, already lucid and ready to explore. This is not recommended for beginners, as it is exceedingly difficult. Those already well practiced in meditative or trance states may have success, however. Astral projection skeptics often say this is what occurs during a projection.
CAT- Cycle Adjustment Technique
This method for becoming lucid requires re-programming your internal clock to create a time in which your chances of lucid dreaming are dramatically increased. If followed regularly, it is one of the most effective methods in inducing regular lucid dreams.
Step 1 - For one week, set your alarm to wake you up 90 minutes before your normal time.
Step 2- Every day thereafter, alternate the time you set your alarm from normal-early-normal, etc. On the days you sleep until your normal time, your mind will already by geared for waking, and so your chances of 'waking up' in a dream are increased.
When you go to bed, set the intention to awake at the earlier time and do lots of reality checks. Even if you know you are waking up at the later time, prepare as if you had an early start.
On normal days, your body will expect you to get up early. So your mind will already be stimulated and more likely to become conscious while you are still dreaming. This dramatically improves your chances of having many lucid dreams in a week - hopefully every other day.
WBTB- Wake Back to Bed
This technique works well for those with a rigid school or work schedule, as it doesn't require you to change your sleeping patterns a great deal, and can be done at any time.
Step 1 - Set your alarm to wake you up after you have had 6 hours of sleep.
Step 2- Wake your mind up. Walk around a little bit, read about lucid dreaming, whatever you choose to do. However, do not have coffee or breakfast, as this will tell your body that you're ready to start your day.
Step 3- Go back to bed. As you fall back asleep, think about your next lucid dream.
This method allows you to take full advantage of the time during the morning where your body has rested up and is ready to start dreaming more - the perfect state for becoming lucid.
ADA- All Day Awareness
This is basically a mindfulness meditation on steroids. While it is extremely mentally taxing, it can provide a massive boost to both your dream recall and chances of becoming lucid. From the moment you wake up until the moment you fall asleep, pay attention to every sensory input you have. What is in your field of vision right now? See the whole thing, both your focus and your peripherals. What details were you missing a moment ago that you are now aware of? What scents are in the air? Are they lingering or moving? Where did they come from? Feel the air move on your skin. Feel your clothing rub with each minute movement you make. What sounds fill your environment? Are they constant or changing? Can you pick out noises that were otherwise in the background hum? What flavors are dancing on your tongue, even when you are not eating? Can you taste any of the scents that you just noticed? Are any of the things you just noticed illusions created by your expectations, or are they actually there? Did you dream any of them or is this real?
Keep this up as long as you can. Try to make it second nature. At first you may only be able to hold focus for a few seconds, maybe a handful of minutes. Every time you notice you've lost track, start again. See if you can get an hour or two in a row without being distracted. Learn to keep this up even as you walk, talk, and go about your normal life.
Meditation
Meditation is a powerful tool in your quest for lucidity. It trains your mind to become more aware of altered states of wakefulness, and will increase the frequency with which you become lucid. For beginners at meditation, perform the following exercise daily:
Find a quiet place where you will not be disturbed. Sit or lay down comfortably, and close your eyes. Breath deeply, and relax. With each breath in, pay attention to how the air feels as it travels through your nose and into your lungs. With each exhale, feel the rush out of your lungs. Let any thoughts and worries you have float by you, and focus on your breath. Do this for 5-15 minutes, until you feel relaxed. If you are enjoying it and want to continue for longer, do so. Once you become used to this form of relaxation, add a mantra to your meditation. Once you have reached a peaceful state of mind, repeat your intention to lucid dream, much like in the MILD method. When you are ready to stop meditation, take a few deep breaths and count down from 5. Open your eyes, and go about your normal routine.
Brainwave Entrainment
This can be another powerful tool for inducing lucid dreams. It aims to program your mind's frequency to match an external stimulus. There are two main methods of doing this: binaural beats and isochronic tones.
Binaural beats only work using stereo headphones. They produce two tones just slightly different in pitch in either ear. For example, your left ear hears a tone of 76hz, and your right ear a tone of 80hz. Your brain takes the two, and accounts for the slight difference by making you hear a tone of 4hz. The tones will seem to cancel each other out, and you will hear a pulse at 4hz.
Isochronic tones are not stereo-specific. They can be listened to using speakers, and are generally considered to be more effective. Rather than making your brain work to create a specific frequency, they pulse at a given rate. When listened to, they begin working within seconds, and your brain follows their pattern.
SLEEP SCIENCE
Sleep Cycles
We sleep in roughly 90 minute cycles, repeating throughout the night, and wake up briefly after each. There are five distinct phases of a sleep cycle. The first four are part of Non-REM, and the last stage REM sleep. REM stands for rapid eye movement, as your eyes actually do move during REM sleep. If you struggle waking up alert in the morning, try setting your alarm for 90 minute intervals after your falling asleep time. This will align your wake-up time with your natural cycle. As you pass through cycles in the night, you spend less and less time in Non-REM sleep, and more time in REM, meaning the morning hours are more likely to have long, vivid dreams.
Non-REM Stage 1
- Eyes move slowly, your muscles begin to relax. You are easily woken up during this stage. It is essentially the moment while you are laying in bed falling asleep. Most of the time we think we are still awake in this state, but your body is in fact shutting down already.
Non-REM Stage 2
- Fully asleep. Eyes stop moving, and your heart rate decreases. Your body temperature goes down.
Non-REM Stage 3
- Tough to wake up. If you are woken up, you will feel extremely groggy and often disoriented. Deep sleep.
Non-REM Stage 4
- This is the deepest stage of sleep where most of your physical rest and healing occurs. Brain waves are very slow, and blood is focused on muscles to restore your physical energy.
REM
- Anywhere from 70-90 minutes after falling asleep you enter REM sleep. Your eyes dart back and forth rapidly, your breathing becomes shallower, and your heart rate increases. Sleep paralysis takes hold of your body to prevent you from physically acting out your dreams.
Sleep Paralysis
I've heard far too many times how frightening this can be, with people struggling to get out of it. Sleep paralysis is a benign symptom of sleeping that happens to everyone every night. It is in place so that you don't begin physically acting out your dreams and injure yourself. It is not to be confused with hypnagogia. If you find it frightening, do not fight it. Lay still and enjoy the relaxation. It will fade quickly. If in distress, control your breathing and try to wiggle a toe or finger. Once you have achieved even a slight movement your body will snap out of it very quickly.
Hypnagogia
Hypnagogia occurs at the brink between waking and sleep. It consists of visual and auditory hallucinations that become more intense the closer you are to being asleep. They can range from patterns on the back of your eyelids to actually hearing and feeling someone in the room with you. It can be scary at times, but such experiences are usually rare.
Circadian Rhythm
This is your bodies natural sleep pattern. It comes from the latin circa, meaning round, and diem, meaning day, and is a 24 hour cycle that influences your energy and activity levels, and is influenced by the sun and daylight. The level of melatonin in your body, a chemical that is required for sleep, is one of the indicators of what stage of this cycle you are at. This natural rhythm is what causes us to be naturally inclined to sleep during the night and be active during the day. Those living near the equator have a nice even cycle year round. Further away where daylight hours stretch or shrink with the seasons this gets thrown out of whack and can cause issues with insomnia.
BEGINNERS GUIDE
Step 1 - Improve dream recall
Improve your dream recall so you can remember at least one dream every night, or at least five every week. Write them down in your dream journal as soon as you wake up. If you don't remember any then, remind yourself during the day to remember your dreams. Soon something during your daily routine will trigger a memory of one. This gets easier the more you do it, and with some dedication in the beginning will take no effort at all.
Step 2 - Reality checks
Do reality checks. As soon as you wake up, and throughout the day, check a watch to see if time seems normal, look in a mirror, or try passing your hand through something solid. To ensure that your RC has been successful, ask yourself if you are dreaming, and try to fly, or do some other mental activity that would normally be impossible. A physical + mental reality check is far more effective than either one on their own. Try to set some triggers for yourself to remember to do this during the day. Do it every time you have a cup of coffee or a cigarette, go to the bathroom, see a particular color, etc.
Step 3 - Program your subconscious
Set the intention to lucid dream. Before you go to bed, and every time you perform a reality check, repeat some form of the following phrase to yourself, either aloud or in your head: The next dream is a lucid dream. I will lucid dream tonight.
Step 4 - Experiment with techniques
Try the CAT or WBTB methods to increase your chances of lucid dreaming. Try binaural beats or isochronic tones. Try natural sleep or dream herbs, or eat specific foods before bed. Cheese often triggers sleepwalking in those with chronic conditions, and has been shown to cause a higher frequency of dreams involving celebrities.
With these steps, you should be well on your way to your first lucid dream. Try to get at least 7-8 hours of sleep every night, and go to bed and wake up at consistent times.
DREAM CONTROL
So you've achieved lucidity, but are struggling to make things happen. This is normal for the inexperienced. You will soon learn that this world is your own personal playground. There don't seem to be any rules, and the normal laws of physics only apply if you want them to.
Maintaining Lucidity
First of all, make sure you are grounded in your new reality. If you feel lucidity slipping away, or are becoming more aware of your body laying in bed and fear waking up, get back in touch with your surroundings by engaging the senses. Rub your hands together vigorously and notice the sensation of friction. Feel a wall or the ground. Pay close attention to the details in objects around you.
Moving Locations
If you believe it, it will happen. However, we are so used to the constraints of our physical world that this belief can be difficult to attain. Let's say you become lucid in a nightmare and wish to alter your experience, but just willing a change of location yields no result. Try making it easier on your conditioned mind to create something new. You could, for example, open a door into a totally new area. If there are no doors, spin around 180 degrees and expect one to be behind you. Shout out loud in your dream world to 'Show me ______ location!'. Use a magic wand to create your reality. Pull a teleportation device out of your pocket and hit the big red button. Take any shortcuts you need to make this easier.
Creating Items
If you have trouble with spontaneously creating things, try adding a step in between to let your subconscious do the work. Have a drone drop a package with your desire to you. Pull something out of a pocket or a box, or 'find' it lying on the ground near you. Maybe your environment has soft, putty-like qualities and you can scoop up a handful to mold into your intended shape. This can also be a useful way to change the shape of your body.
DREAM GOALS
Here are some ideas to get you started so you can make the most of your lucidity:
- Play! Fly around, explore the world. Invent anything you can think of.
- Perform a magickal ritual or spell.
- Have sex with whomever or whatever you like. Nobody is around to judge you.
- Meditate. See if you can dissolve the dream world around you and exist in the nothingness (this is apparently the goal of Tibetan dream yoga).
- Ask to see your spirit guide/animal/totem, etc.
- Practice an instrument or sport. Your brain actually forms new physical connections as if your body were performing this in real life and can create muscle memory.
- Drink a magic potion and see what happens.
- Attempt a specific, provable divination.
- Do something dangerous. Your physical body will come to no harm.
- Tell your dream world to show you something amazing, and just let it unfold in front of you.
- Passively watch your dream without attempting to control it. Go with the flow, just do it lucidly.
- Work through fears or traumas by exposing yourself to them in a totally controlled environment. Re-live past experiences, and alter their course if you like.
Further Reading
This site offers all the information on lucid dreaming, and sleep and dreams in general, that you could possibly want. It contains hours of excellent reading. Since 2010-11 it's become a little noisy, with many redundant articles, but contains a wealth of information nonetheless and a couple good courses for those who lack the discipline to set an outline themselves.
A lucid dreaming forum, with some very knowledgeable users, a few well-written guides under the 'Wiki' section, and some interesting monthly/yearly dream challenges.
Information on dreams and sleep cycles.
Brainwave entrainment and lucid dreaming.
Another site devoted entirely to lucid dreaming. Some experiments and science stuff on lucid dreams.
Research from the University of Adelaide has found that taking vitamin B6 could help people to recall their dreams.
The study included 100 participants from around Australia taking high-dose vitamin B6 supplements before going to bed for five consecutive days.
"Our results show that taking vitamin B6 improved people's ability to recall dreams compared to a placebo," says research author Dr Denholm Aspy, from the University's School of Psychology.
"Vitamin B6 did not affect the vividness, bizarreness or colour of their dreams, and did not affect other aspects of their sleep patterns.
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I recall a lot of dream episodes from last night, more than usual (zero or one). The last one, I felt I was coming awake but the episode persisted. I could consciously look around and try to communicate (no response though). After a few seconds of this I woke up.
Am I fooling myself by thinking I've dipped a toe into the pond of lucid dreaming?
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