Introduction to Lucid Dreaming
Even if this is your first time lucid dreaming, there are plenty of easy tricks you can use to bring your dreams to life. But first, let's do a quick review: what is a lucid dream? Lucid dreams are unconscious dream states where you become aware that you're dreaming. Normally, while you're in a dream, your conscious mind is completely asleep. You can't remember much or control anything because your consciousness is out of the loop. Your subconscious, on the other hand, is wide awake.
That's why your dreams end up looking like a confusing mess of random mental images. But during a lucid dream, your consciousness wakes up. Your mind realizes that you're dreaming while your body stays asleep. Suddenly, you can pay attention, form memories, and observe the crazy, fantastical world unfolding all around you. With a bit of practice, you can even learn how to control the stories of your dreams. Yeah, sounds pretty incredible, doesn't it? Well, the good news is lucid dreams are right at your fingertips. All you have to do is follow these simple steps.
Number One: Daytime Self-Talk
Your prep work doesn't start just a few minutes before you fall asleep; it starts right now. From this moment until the end of the day, lucid dreaming should be the first thing on your mind. You should read articles about lucid dreaming. You can tell your friends how excited you are to consciously experience your dreams. You might imagine what it'll feel like to walk inside an active dreamscape. But this isn't just for fun. Daytime self-talk plays an important role in the lucid dreaming process.
You're essentially tricking yourself into having a lucid dream. It works a lot like an affirmation. By telling yourself that you're confident and capable, your brain rises to the occasion. In other words, if you frame something as the truth, it's more likely to happen. So keep your eye on the prize throughout the day. If you spend hours talking and thinking about lucid dreaming, then your subconscious will be much more willing to cooperate.
Number Two: Validate Reality
While you're discussing and doing your research, there's another important step you need to take. Just like self-talk, you should start this one as soon as possible. The hardest part of lucid dreaming is realizing that you're asleep. That's because when you're dreaming, your subconscious doesn't notice anything wrong. You might see a train floating through the sky, but your subconscious won't think twice about it. It doesn't have the cognitive skills to make sense of your dreams. Attention and logic are all conscious responsibilities, so you need some way to trick your subconscious into waking up your conscious mind.
A habitual behavior is the perfect way to make this happen. At first, any new behavior starts out as something you consciously do. But over time, it starts to feel automatic. That habit will eventually fade out of your conscious and into your subconscious. Just think about brushing your teeth or something as simple as breathing. Now, you don't have to think through every breath you take; your body just does it for you. To lucid dream, you're going to create your own automatic behavior. But this isn't anything like brushing your teeth; it's designed for one important purpose.
Every time you perform this habit, you'll know with a hundred percent certainty whether or not you're dreaming. These habits are called reality checks because that's exactly what they do: they validate your reality. They tell you if you're awake or in a lucid dream. So what does a reality check look like? Well, everyone does them a little differently. Some people like physical reality checks. That means you're using some kind of physical action to differentiate dreams from reality. A good example is trying to stick your finger through your hand. In real life, your hand is a solid object; your finger is going to hit your skin and stop. But in dream states, most surfaces are permeable. In other words, your finger will go right through the palm of your hand. Once you see that, you'll know instantly that you're in a dream and you'll become lucid.
Reality Check Techniques
| Technique | Physical | Non-Physical |
|---|---|---|
| Finger Through Hand | ✓ | ✗ |
| Inhalation Test | ✓ | ✗ |
| Reading Text | ✗ | ✓ |
Another popular reality check is called the inhalation test. Just plug your nose and close your mouth. Now breathe in through your nose. Well, of course you can't, right? Your fingers are in the way. In a dream, you'll be able to breathe normally because the air will pass right through your fingers. If physical reality checks don't work for you, you can also try something non-physical. Reading written text works for many lucid dreamers. Normally, written text is stationary, so it's easy to follow. But dream sentences have a hard time staying still. They vibrate, they curve, and they fold in on themselves. If it feels impossible to keep track of a single line of text, then you've stepped into a lucid dream.
It really doesn't matter which reality check you choose; you're going to train yourself the same way. Keep repeating your reality check throughout the day, at least once an hour if you can. The more habitual it feels, the more likely you are to try it during a dream. And when your reality check fails, your consciousness will wake right up.
Number Three: Power Down
Now let's jump ahead. It's about an hour before you plan on going to sleep. How do you set the proper stage for a lucid dream? The goal is to ease your brain into a vivid dream state, right? Well, to make that happen, your brain needs to feel calm and relaxed. You'd think that watching a movie or playing a game before bed would help you wind down, but it does exactly the opposite. The lights from your computer screen actually suppress the production of melatonin. That's a hormone that makes you feel drowsy. Without melatonin, it will take significantly longer for your brain to enter a deep sleep. That means you're delaying your REM cycle and reducing your chances of having a lucid dream.
Luckily, there's an easy fix: minimize screen time as much as possible before bed. An hour is usually a pretty healthy buffer. That gives your brain plenty of time to produce enough melatonin. But putting away your screens isn't the only way to facilitate lucid dreams. Relaxation exercises like yoga and deep breathing help reduce stress and slow your heart rate. They also improve your mood, ensuring that you feel good before diving into a lucid dream. Meditation can also work wonders on your sleep quality. As little as 15 minutes will gently guide you into the perfect state of mind for lucid dreaming. It provides sort of a clean slate, which makes this next step a whole lot easier.
Number Four: Immerse Your Conscious Mind
As you're falling asleep, there's one more thing you need to do: try to visualize your lucid dream while you're still awake. Hey, don't worry about guessing what you're going to dream about. It doesn't matter if you're right or wrong. The point is to inspire your mind to think freely and creatively. It's like getting the engine running on a car or stretching before a football game. You need to give your brain the chance to warm up so it can perform better when you're actually unconscious.
Visualizing isn't nearly as challenging as it sounds. Even if you're not the most creative person, you can still use this trick to induce amazing lucid dreams. Just start by imagining an environment. It could be a beach or the mountains. Maybe you see yourself standing in the middle of a dense rainforest. You can pick anywhere as long as it's someplace you can recreate in detail. If you're having a hard time, choose a location that you've been before. Think back to your favorite vacations or your childhood home.
Now, once you've created your environment, start focusing on the details. If you're at the beach, how big are the waves? If you're in the rainforest, what do the trees look like? Keep developing this dream world until you fall asleep. Ideally, you'll be able to transition your daydream into an actual dream. If you can, it almost guarantees that you'll become lucid. Since you've already created your dreamscape, you know exactly what it looks like, so you're much more likely to wake up inside of it.
Number Five: Sleep Paralysis
This last step actually starts earlier in the day. If you want to wake up at nine o'clock the next morning, set an alarm for 7:00. Assuming you're getting a full eight hours, that puts you at exactly six hours of sleep. That benchmark sits right at the beginning of your final REM cycle. At 7:00 a.m., you'll wake up feeling exhausted and groggy, but you need to resist the urge to go back to sleep. Instead, you're going to let your body drift back to bed while your conscious mind stays awake.
This puts you in a strange state called sleep paralysis, which creates the perfect opportunity for a lucid dream. Your subconscious will start dreaming like it normally does, without realizing that your mind is still awake and aware. You'll begin experiencing a loosely shaped version of a dreamscape. It's almost like an out-of-body experience. You'll feel your mind drifting off into empty space as your subconscious slowly begins to piece together a lucid dream.
But don't get too excited. A lot of people ruin their first lucid dream because they can't control their enthusiasm. As you feel your mind drifting away, just stay calm. Don't rush it. Give your brain time to construct a complete dream environment, then slowly start looking around. If you can keep your cool, you'll fall deeper and deeper into a fully formed lucid dream.
