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How to experience a lucid dream

Lucid dreaming means dreaming while you know you are dreaming. The term was coined by Frederik van Eeden, who used the word “lucid” in the sense of mental clarity. With practice, almost anyone can experience lucid dreaming.

Lucidity is not the same as dream control. It is possible to be lucid and have little control over sleep. However, becoming lucid in a dream is likely to increase your ability to deliberately influence events within the dream. With practice, you can extend the amount of control you have over dream events. Many lucid dreamers choose to do something that only allows them the extraordinary freedom of the dream state, such as flying.

Some people have objections to lucid dreaming. They say it is not natural and could be harmful to the psyche. In my opinion, this is not true at all. Perhaps if all of our dreams were lucid and controlled, there might be some harm, but with our lucid dreams scattered among many “normal” dreams, we have plenty of time for non-lucid dreams.

While we are in a dream, our mind accepts what we see and feel as reality. We often find ourselves in very unusual circumstances compared to our waking life. You could live in a different house or drive a different car. The sky can be green and the river yellow. In most cases we accept these things as true. Why doesn’t the mind “think” ‘Hey! I don’t have this vehicle ‘or’ This is not where I live! ‘or even’ Hey! I know the sky isn’t supposed to be that color!

This is what I call inconsistencies. Things in our dreams that are not “normal”. We must ask ourselves, and many have, why our mind so readily accepts whatever we experience within our dreams as real. We know there are no monsters. We know the right colors for things. We know our home and our daily life. While we dream, we often forget about these things and believe what we see in the dream.

Just knowing this and thinking about it can help you on your way to a lucid dreaming experience. Inconsistency is one of the triggers for lucid dreams. A trigger is what inspires or initiates lucidity.

Here’s an example of this from one of my own lucid dreams:

He was driving a blue Ford Bronco down a dirt road. I think it was a late 70s model. There was a child in the passenger seat. I was giving him a ride because his motorcycle had run out of gas. The bike was in the back. Suddenly it hit me. I didn’t have a blue Bronco! In the dream, I hit the brakes and raised my hands. “I don’t own a Ford bronco!” I said, “I’m dreaming!” from that moment on he was lucid.

A recurring dream or nightmare can also be used as a trigger. If you have a recurring dream, make a conscious effort to realize that you are dreaming the next time you find yourself in that situation. If the dream involves a certain person or place, try to think while sleeping, “The next time I see that house, I will know that I am dreaming.” Since the dream is a recurring one, it won’t be long before you see that house, person, etc. This may take several attempts. Don’t be discouraged if it doesn’t work the first time.

Another technique that works for many people is asking “Am I dreaming?” and leave notes for you. Several times a day, ask yourself the question out loud. Also write the question on a note and put it on the refrigerator. Put the same message in other places where you will see them throughout the day. Many people will find themselves asking that question or seeing the question written on a note while they are actually dreaming. This will trigger a lucid dream.

My first lucid dream, which is the first one I had when trying to achieve lucidity, was triggered by a flying dream.

Try to go to sleep in the same place and at about the same time as much as possible. It is best to sleep quietly, as music or other sounds can affect your dreams. If you choose to listen to music while going to sleep, choose soft, relaxing music, preferably without voices. Use the same music every time. Before going to sleep, focus on a trigger. My first time I said, “tonight I will fly”, out loud several times and concentrated on it. The second night I had a flying dream but did not become lucid. The fourth night I had another flying dream and at that moment I became lucid. Then I could fly wherever I wanted!

Which trigger or combination of triggers you use is up to you. If you have a common sleep theme, this is a great trigger. Just focus on the next time you see or experience that you will be dreaming. Think about it as often as you can while you are awake.

Lucid dreamers often comment on themselves in dreams. You can say out loud, “This is a dream! I know I am dreaming.”

Make a list of questions you have about dreams. Read the list frequently, review it several times, and focus on it before bed.

Can you read text in a dream? Can you add numbers in a dream? These were some of the questions that I had on my list at some point. He had read in a dream book that it was not possible to read text or calculate numbers in a dream, but he did not believe it. I finally found myself lucid in an office. I walked over to a calendar on the wall and read the text that describes a New England country house. I turned to another man who was there and said, “See? You can read text in a dream!” I went back to the calendar to read again and found that the words had completely changed. That amazed me and I mentioned it to the other man. Then I went over to a desk and found a calculator. I added and subtracted numbers and got the correct answers. Yes, you can read text and do math in a dream. I proved it to myself beyond any doubt and with more confidence than I could ever have by reading something about dreams.

Keep a dream journal

Keeping a dream journal is one of the most effective tools for achieving lucid dreams. Try to write down your dreams as soon as you can after waking up. Don’t just write a narrative of what happened in the dream. Record your thoughts and felt emotions. This will help you later as you develop your dream research. Make sure to write down all the main items such as people, places, animals, etc.

Keeping a dream journal will also go a long way toward understanding your non-lucid dreams. As you continue to journal and reread your previous entries, you will begin to see parallels to your dreams and your life. Gradually you will be able to recognize what the symbols in your dreams really tell you.

Once lucid in a dream, people can often choose their actions and exert some deliberate control over the content of the dream. This ability has been used in the laboratory to study lucid dreaming and the psychophysiology of dreams. For example, the proof that lucid dreaming occurs in REM sleep was achieved by having subjects give a different preset signal with deliberate eye movements to mark points in time when they realized they were dreaming. The dreamers’ reports of the eye movements they had made in dreams corresponded exactly to their physical eye movements recorded by means of electrooculograms on a polygraph record. Reports of experiments performed using eye movement signaling in lucid dreams can be found in the literature (Dane, 1984; Fenwick et al., 1984; Hearne, 1978; LaBerge, Nagel, Dement & Zarcone, 1981; Ogilvie, Hunt, Kushniruk , & Newman, 1983).

What are the benefits of lucid dreaming?

The Scientific Study of Dreams and REM Sleep

A variety of psychological and recreational applications.

Lucid dreaming can be a powerful tool to overcome nightmares

In therapy, lucid dreaming appears to show promise for providing personal insight, assisting with integration, and as a safe environment to experiment with new behaviors (LaBerge & Rheingold, 1990).

Many laypeople are drawn to lucid dreaming because they offer an outlet for fantasy, an opportunity for adventure unfettered by the laws of physics or society, and risk-free. As such, lucid dreaming is for many a source of creative and inspiring recreation. Anecdotes indicate that lucid dreaming is helpful for artistic creativity, problem solving, and practice of waking life skills (LaBerge & Rheingold, 1990).

Dreams contain the most vivid mental images that most people can achieve. Lucid dreaming is probably the best method to achieve benefits such as improving physical performance, learning, remembering, and facilitating healing.

REFERENCES

Dane, J. (1984). An empirical evaluation of two techniques for inducing lucid dreams. Unpublished doctoral thesis, Georgia State Univ.

Fenwick, P., Schatzman, M., Worsley, A., Adams, J., Stone, S. and Baker, A. (1984). Lucid dreams: correspondence between real events and dreams in a subject during REM sleep. Biological Psychol, 18, 243-252.

Hearne, KMT (1978). Lucid Dreaming: An Electrophysiological and Psychological Study. Unpublished doctoral thesis, U of Liverpool.

LaBerge, S., Nagel, L., Dement, W. and Zarcone, V. (1981). Lucid dreaming verified by volitional communication during REM sleep. Motor and Perceptual Skills, 52, 727-732.

Ogilvie, R., Hunt, H., Kushniruk, A. and Newman, J. (1983). Lucid Dreams and the Arousal Continuum. Sleep Research, 12, 182.

LaBerge, S. and Rheingold, H. (1990). Exploring the world of lucid

dreaming. New York: Ballantine.

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