So you want to be a lucid dreamer. Well that’s a good start, at least you know what you want to do; but how exactly do you go about it?
You also need to think about exactly why you want to become a lucid dreamer. What are the benefits of lucid dreaming? To help us find the benefits, let us first look at ‘normal’ sleep.
What typically happens is you lay down, you close your eyes and you wake six to eight hours later – you may or may not remember any dreams you gave had in this time. In and of itself, not terribly exciting.
This kind of sleep allows us to get the rest we need to go about our activities the following day. Have you ever wondered, though, what it would be like if you could actually take control of your dreams and dictate their events?
What if there was a way to become a full participant in your dreams? Lead them in the manner in which you alone determine consciously? That my friend is basically what a lucid dreamer does. They control all aspects of their dreams, going where they will and doing whatever they want in the confines of the dream state.
This sounds great, but how can you become a lucid dreamer? There are two ways to reach this state – one is by having a DLID, or dream initiated lucid dream. These are instances where the dreamer has taught themselves to recognize that they are having a dream and start to assert control over the direction of their dream.
The second way is having a wake-initiated lucid dream (WILD); where the dreamer goes from being awake, to being asleep with no change in consciousness. In other words, the dreamer enters their dream as if it were a door, rather than just “waking up” in a dream.
So what are the actual methods used to induce these two types of lucid dream experiences?
Dream Recall
One of the best ways to begin learning to become a lucid dreamer is by practicing dream recall. This is simply the ability to remember your dreams. When you remember your dreams and learn more about the commonalities which can be observed in your dreams, it is easier to recognize a dream and start to take control over the direction of it.
A dream journal is perhaps the best way to learn this skill. Use this to write down every detail of your dream that you can remember immediately after you wake. If you wait., it will become increasingly difficult to recall.
Mnemonic Induction of Lucid Dreams (MILD)
This is a technique that was developed by Dr. Stephen LaBerge, one of the lead scientists studying lucid dreaming. The intent here is to simply tell yourself that you will remember something, like an object for example and then in the dream, when you see this object you will realize it is a dream.
Wake-Back-to-Bed (WBTB)
This simple process has you taking no action except to set an alarm that will waken you in less time than you normally sleep. For most of us about five or six hours will do it. After the alarm awakens you do not try to fall back to sleep. For about an hour you should read, watch TV or concentrate on lucid dreaming then go back to sleep.
According to Dr, LaBerge, this method has a 60% success rate. The idea here is to wake yourself in the midst of a REM cycle so that upon returning to sleep, lucid dreaming will be easy to achieve.
Cycle Adjustment Technique
This was created by Daniel Love, and what it is, is setting your alarm to wake you up an hour and a half before your normal time. Once you’ve adjusted to waking up early, alternate your alarm to wake you up normally and early. During times you are to wake up normally, you’re body will already be ready to wake up early, and therefore, you will be likely to be awake in your dream.
Wake-initiation of Lucid Dreams (WILD)
This technique involves maintaining mental alertness even as your body shuts down for sleep. Think of it as if you are in a movies theater, with the film soon to begin; your closed eyelids are like the black screen just before the movie starts.
There are any number of ways to keep your mind alert, count, controlled breathing techniques or concentrated relaxation are all great ways to keep the mind alert. It is a bit like hypnotizing your self. This works best if you are not exhausted, try it during an afternoon nap.
Technology has moved on in recent years, and there are various devices like dreaming masks and other scientific appliances which contain such things as strobe lights to induce lucid dreams.
Listening to binaural beat frequencies through a head set is the simplest and most consistent way to create a lucid dream.
These work by synchronizing the two hemispheres of the brain and have the effect of almost instantaneously changing your brainwaves to the REM frequency needed for a lucid dream to occur.
With self affirmations and self hypnosis combined with binaural sound, being a lucid dreamer is a goal which anyone can reach.
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