What is Lucid Dreaming and How Do You Lucid Dream?

In my last blog I wrote about the purpose of dreaming, today I want to look at ‘lucid dreaming’, which is effectively about controlling and directing your dreams. I have a friend who is learning how to lucid dream and he’s asked me to write this blog. I am not a lucid dreamer – however I am trying to keep an open mind! The word lucid means ‘expressed clearly or easy to understand’, but a lucid dream is not just a clear dream. To lucid dream you need to know that you are dreaming while you are in the dream. The ultimate aim for lucid dreamers is to control their dreams – even choose what they dream about. People get into lucid dreaming because they want to do things in their dreams they could never do in real life. They want to fly, walk on water or fly to the stars.

American psychologist Ernest Hartmann believes that our normal dreams are shaped by our dominant emotion and their purpose is to help us understand our life experiences. But is it possible to override our emotions and choose what we dream? Lucid dreamers say yes. Lucid dreamers argue that being able to shape your dreams is a good thing because you can prepare yourself for new life challenges in lucid dreams. You can focus on conquering your fears or excelling at work. In lucid dreams you can practice the piano, rehearse a big presentation at work or tell someone special you love them! Golfer Jack Nicklaus improved his score after changing the grip on his golf club while lucid dreaming. Other lucid dreamers include Hollywood director James Cameron. The Avatar director uses lucid dreaming to find inspiration for movie scenes. “I’ve realised that what I was trying to do was create dream imagery, create a lucid dream state while you're watching the film,” Cameron told Hollywood Today. Surrealist painter, Salvador Dali, also believed in lucid dreaming. He used dream incubation techniques to pre-program his dreams, and produced many dream-inspired works. But how do you lucid dream? I’m going to look at two suggested techniques – one is a fast-track way to lucid dreaming, the other takes more time.

How to lucid dream tonight

My friend who has an interest in lucid dreaming directed me to this website, ‘Howtolucid.com’. It has the article ‘How to easily lucid dream tonight: beginners, best practices, common problems’. It is a long article, but in a nutshell the author explains that most people dream during the REM (rapid eye movement) sleep. This takes place a couple of hours before you wake naturally. To have a better chance of controlling your dreams the author suggests that you wake two hours before your normal get-up time and then go straight back to sleep. Lucid dreamers refer to this as the ‘Wake Back to Bed’ Technique, but before you try it you need to do some preparation.

The author advises us to spend the day reading and learning about lucid dreaming. We often dream about our day so by immersing ourselves in lucid dreaming literature we are prompting our brain and letting it know that this is what we are planning to do. You are in a way inviting your dreams in. The author also suggests making sure your room is dark and clean, and there are no distractions. There should be no phone or computer screens in the room and no light seeping in from outside.

Choose an alarm clock that is not too loud. Some gentle music would be ideal. You only want to be just woken from your sleep; you do not want to be wide awake. When the alarm rings or chimes, try not to open your eyes. It should be in easy-reach for you to turn off.

Next comes the most important part of the exercise. Let your body go back to sleep, but hopefully your mind will stay awake. ‘Howtolucid’ warns that this could be scary because you will enter sleep paralysis – your body will be unable to move, but your mind is awake and you are self-aware.

Relax and allow yourself to drift into what may seem like hallucinations. Some people see colours, shapes, flashes of scenery. The experts say you should at first guide these visions rather than trying to control them. Try to stay relaxed. Eventually you will be able to identify where you are. This means you are having your first lucid dream.

My friend, who is experimenting with lucid dreaming, is at the hallucination stage and sees colours and shapes.

A long-term approach to lucid dreaming

My friend has directed me to a second website. On the site is a long-term program to teach you how to lucid dream: https://blog.mindvalley.com/how-to-lucid-dream/

This website has a number of steps. First write down your dreams. Have a dream journal (paper and pencil) beside your bed and record everything that happens in your dreams. Alternatively you might want to keep an audio diary. Record details of your dreams onto your phone.

If you never remember your dreams, start setting an alarm an hour before your wake-up time. At this time you should be in REM sleep, meaning you are most likely to be dreaming. This technique works best if you keep regular bedtimes. If you don’t remember any of your dreams after waking an hour or two early then set alarms throughout the night – at 2am, 3.20am, 5am. Most people enter into a new dream every 90 minutes, but the timing varies from individual to individual.

Reality checks are vital

The how-to-lucid-dream website also says it’s essential to perform reality checks throughout the day:

It sounds silly, but to know you’re asleep, you must first realize that you are awake. Successful lucid dreamers perform reality checks throughout the day to confirm that they are indeed awake. Those same reality checks performed during sleep let them know that they are dreaming. However, you can’t just perform a reality check at will while dreaming; it takes practice and training. To do this, you’ll need to form the habit of reality checking every day.

These reality checks are supposed to help induce ‘lucid dreams’. It is important to keep the reality checks consistent. Practise them one to two times a day. It takes a few seconds but will improve your ability to lucid dream.

The reality checks include:

1. Read something: text and numbers change in dreams. If you try to read the page of a book in a dream, the text will usually alter on the second or third reading.
2. The laws of physics do not apply in dreams so see if you can push your hand through a wall or jump off the ground and fly.
3. You could also will an object to move in your dream. This won’t happen when you are awake.
4. Do your reality checks in bed, perhaps after you’ve woken yourself with an alarm in the night. The website says many first-time lucid dreamers experience ‘false awakening’. They think they are awake but are in a dream. To prevent this do a reality-check before you fall off to sleep and as soon as you wake up.

According to the website dream-journaling, reality checks and waking up in the night will eventually lead you to lucid dreaming.

Lucid dreamers swear by lucid dreaming. They say dreams are powerful and when you dream you enter exciting and mysterious worlds. Lucid dreaming allows you to experience that in real time. Lucid dreams feel like real life. Lucid dreaming lets you have a full experience of everything in your dream world.

If you are a lucid dreamer or know someone who lucid dreams, I would love to hear about your or their experiences. How has lucid dreaming enriched your life? Post a comment below. I’m also told that the 2010 science-fiction film, Inception, gives you a great insight into the life of a lucid dreamer.