Need help with Lucid Dreaming.

I am trying to figure out exactly how I can lucid dream. Can you please give me some tips on doing it? It is something I would love to learn to do. I hope this isn't a question that has already been posted. Thanks in advance.

1. Keep a dream journal. This is, perhaps, the most important step in establishing a foundation for lucid dreams. Keep it close by your bed at night, and write in it immediately after waking, you can also keep a recording device near if repeating your dream outloud is easier to remember, it will also be much easier than writing it down. -- if a dream is remembered. This tells your brain that you are serious about remembering your dreams!
2. Learn the best time to have a lucid dream. By being aware of personal sleep schedules, a person can arrange his or her sleep pattern to help induce lucid dreams.

* Studies strongly suggest that a nap a few hours after waking in the morning is the most common time to have a lucid dream.
* Lucid dreams are largely associated with REM, which means they most commonly occur right before waking up. REM sleep is more abundant just before the final awakening. People with narcolepsy have sleep-onset REM, so if you have lucid dreams right after falling asleep, narcolepsy ought to be considered. (You may consider seeking medical advice from a sleep medicine specialist.) However, it should also be noted here that there are reports of people who recall dreams after being awakened during non-REM stages of sleep.
* Dreams usually run in 90-minute cycles during sleep, so if a person is working on dream recall, it may be helpful to attempt to wake oneself up during one of these cycles (interrupted dreams are often the ones we remember).
3. Practice mnemonic induction of lucid dreaming (MILD).

* Set your alarm clock to wake you up 4, 5 1/2, or 6 hours after falling asleep.
* When you are awakened by your alarm clock, try to remember the dream as much as possible.
* When you think you have remembered as much as you can, go back to sleep, imagining that you are in your previous dream, and becoming aware that you are dreaming. Say to yourself, "I will be aware that I'm dreaming," or something similar. Do this until you think that it has 'sunk in.' Then go to sleep.
* If random thoughts pop up when you are trying to fall asleep, repeat the imagining, self-suggestion part, and try again. And don't worry if you think it's taking a long time. The longer it takes, the more likely it will 'sink in,' and the more likely you will have a lucid dream.
4.
What time is it?
What time is it?
Establish a habit of reality checks. In a dream, these will tell you that you are sleeping, allowing you to become lucid. But in order to do a reality check in a dream, a person must first establish a habit of doing reality checks in real life. A reality check includes looking for "dream signs," or things that would not normally exist in real life. When these actions become habit, a person will begin to do them in her or his dreams, and can come to the conclusion that he/she is dreaming. Some tactics include:
* looking at a clock to see if it stays constant;
* looking at a body of text, looking away, and then looking back to see if it has changed;
* flipping a light switch;
* looking in a mirror (your image will most often appear blurry in a dream);
* pinching your nose closed and trying to breathe;
* glancing at your hands, and asking yourself, "am I dreaming?" (when dreaming, you will most often see greater or fewer than five fingers on your hand);
* jumping in the air;
* pinching or poking yourself; when dreaming, you usually do not feel any pain, and your "flesh" might be more elastic than in real life;
5. Prolong lucid dreams by spinning your body in the dream (suspected of prolonging REM), and rubbing your hands (prevents you from feeling the sensation of lying in bed).


[edit] Tips

* When recalling a dream upon waking, try not to move. Activating your muscle neurons can make it more difficult to access the parts of your brain that allow you to recall your dream.
* Lucid dreaming may be helpful for people who frequently experience nightmares, as it gives them a chance to take control of their dreams.
* Performing reality checks upon awakening can help you to detect "false awakenings" within dreams, wherein you dream that you have woken up, and thus lose lucidity.
* Do not drink any fluids for one hour prior to sleeping. The last thing you want is to wake up from successfully lucid dreaming just because you had to use the bathroom.
* Do not use a radio alarm clock. Once you hear talking, or a song, that will distract you, and may clear the dream out of your head. If you have to use a radio alarm clock, don't think about what is playing and quickly turn it off. Alternatively, change the radio setting to a non-assigned frequency so the alarm creates static (white noise).
* If you can not remember the dream you have had, and want to remember it, focus on the feelings that you felt. Trying too hard to remember the dream will only take your mind away from it. Chances are your mind will think of everything but the dream.
* If you have recurring dreams, then aspects of these dreams can act as reality checks. If you notice something happening that is part of a recurring dream, think to yourself, "this only happens in my dreams, I must be dreaming."
* If you notice something happening that is impossible in real life, such as being able to breathe underwater, this can act as a reality check to alert you to the fact that you are dreaming.
* When you wake up naturally -- that is, without an alarm -- focus your gaze on the first object you see as you open your eyes. Look at the object; focus on it. That object will most often take the vague recollection of your dream to a placemark in memory where it is easier to recall details. A doorknob, a lightbulb, a set of car keys, or a nail in the wall, for example, will quell your urge to begin your day, and will help you to settle into memories of what you had experienced while sleeping.
* Some people have found it helpful to take a low dosage of caffeine (a caffeinated tea, for instance) shortly before sleeping, claiming that this keeps them mentally aware, while the body is going to sleep. For many other people, caffeine would simply postpone or disrupt sleep.
* To end sleep Paralysis (which is not dangerous) simply try to wiggle your toes, or try swallowing. When you are in a state of sleep paralysis, the brain is sending a signal to the rest of your body to immobilize your muscles so you don't thrash around while you sleep. The larger muscles are usually more affected than the smaller ones. So trying to wiggle your toes tends to wake you up during a state of sleep paralysis.
* An interesting sensation is "flying" during a lucid dream. Aim for this experience and you will start enjoying lucid dreaming a lot more. To start "flying" try to start bouncing higher and higher after each step (while "walking" in the dream.) Also try walking on walls or the ceiling, as flying for the first time can be very intimidating if you are not totally convinced that you are dreaming.
* You can pre-determine what you want to achieve in a lucid dream while you are awake. That way when you become lucid in a dream, you already know what you want to do.
* It is a good idea to purposely wake up 1 or 2 minutes after becoming lucid, after you have experience what you want to experience. This way, you can wake up with the dream very fresh in your mind, and have excellent recall. If you do not wake up, the dream may simply fade away into the night, and could be forgotten.
* Do not get into the habit of saying "I'm obviously dreaming" or something similar in real life. This won't trigger a lucid dream in your sleep.
* If you ask people in your dream "Am I dreaming?"...the most of the time they'll say "No."

source

Hey man, great post, thanks for replying back. I'll give it a try.

Lucid dreaming can be very fun, albit strange experience.

Most times while i am dreaming, i get to a point were i realise, 'this is not real' and then from that point i can manipulate what is going on, to a point.

Its good stuff, i don't realy know any tips, but i would say, once you are 'aware' that you are dreaming, try to do things. Just make a consicese effort to do this for about a month. Sometimes you will be controling whats going on, then all hell breaks loose and you lose it again.

I also find it is eaiest, or happens most often, when after waking initialy in the moarning, going back to sleep for even an hour can produce wonerful experiences. Also, after some practice, you can even give yourself the 'wake-up' call while dreaming. I do this occasionaly, most recently when i had a dream where i went into a secert room in the back of a building, and confronted a sickly man in a bed, his skin looked like rice crispy treats crosed witht the Sick looking inbreaders from the Movie 300. After the guy said something very revolting, i said to myself, 'Enough of this' and i woke up right there.

The first few time that you realise that you are dreaming, you will most likly forget that you realised this just mere moments later, you will find yourself waking up and saying, 'DAMM IT' i was dreaming and didn't do anything, thats why you should try to do this with in a months time, its not something that you just decide to do, its something that is gradudual, something that will take some time, and a lot of failures.

Thats why you should start simple, make a effort to realise that you are dreaming, if even for a moment, once able to recognise that you are dreaming, then you should or could begin to start changing things in the dream, which is realy hard, i would suggest just trying to wake yourself up in the middle of the dream. Tell yourself, 'Enough of this' or 'what time is it' or 'OH (blank) i have to be at school in 10 mins'

I never have keep a dream journal, but i ussaly take 10-15 min when i wake up to reflect on what i dreamt, if i had one that is. I think i am going to start keeping a Dream Journal.

Hope it help, and Kick-Ass Dreaming.

Dreams, what I wished I could do in real life.

Originally posted by TKainZero
most recently when i had a dream where i went into a secert room in the back of a building, and confronted a sickly man in a bed, his skin looked like rice crispy treats crosed witht the Sick looking inbreaders from the Movie 300.

Oh Sh@t attack of the killer rice crispy treats!

reply to post by jca2005


I have never realy had a nightmare before, but this 'guy' just freaked me out, but i don't htink it was a nightmare, just some very sick guy who said some crazy things... so i woke up...

Good luck

Originally posted by TKainZero
I have never realy had a nightmare before, but this 'guy' just freaked me out, but i don't think it was a nightmare, just some very sick guy who said some crazy things... so i woke up...

Good luck

If I may ask what did he say?

[edit on 29-10-2007 by jca2005]

Astral Projection / Dreaming / Lucid Dreaming

April 30, 2003

It's my opinion that astral projection, dreaming and lucid dreaming are intertwined in the same locale. The difference between dreams, projection and lucid dreaming is what is at the controls (the conscious mind or the subconscious mind). Even if you get the vibrations and roll out of your physical body, you will end up "dreaming" very quickly if you don't know what you're doing. People say, "I failed because I fell into a dream." Well, no you didn't, you just gave up conscious control to the subconscious mind which makes the experience totally different! The subconscious mind has its own agenda and communication system.

Your conscious mind is concerned with the here and now. Your subconscious mind is concerned with processing life events, working out soul lessons, attempting to bring past and future events into your consciousness, and a bevy of other things. Subtle realm experiences, dream or otherwise, get "fantasy like" because again, a person has lost conscious control. The same exact thing happens in the astral if you don't use clarity statements. People just don't realize what the astral is like (during a conscious projection). Yes, it can be as lucid and clear as the waking state, but you can slip into the Alice in Wonderland effect (subconscious control) faster than you can shake a stick! In fact, control can be lost in less than a minute. I have rolled out of my body, gotten half way down my stairs, totally lost conscious control, and slipped into fantasy land immediately. Only through sheer will power, and constantly directing my focus towards my goal, am I able to maintain a lucid state. Published astral projection author, William Buhlman, also states that clarity statements are a must for maintaining lucidity and control.

source

I can't figure it out, I guess I'll just keep trying.

it's not going to come to you over night.. or even in a month for that matter.. it takes a long time to train the mind to recognize when you're dreaming.

i've been working on lucid dreaming since june or july and i'm still having limited success

i started seeing the biggest improvements about two months after i started my dream journal which i wrote in 2-4 times a week.

keep practicing, you'll get it

I don't know how, but I do know how to get out of one.

If things get bad, just stare at an object and open your eyes real wide. You will then start to feel your real eyes in reality.

That trick has always worked for me except in a nightmare I had last spring.

If you want to induce lucid dreaming, eat a couple tums right before you go to bed. Seriously, after doing that I had a dream that my biology teacher was sucking the hydrogen atoms out of my stomach with his mind. Eating antacid pills before bed worked for other people I know, too.

What helps with me is to get plenty of sleep and then concentrate on remembering strange things that indicate you're having a dream and that you control your own dreams. I remember lucid dreams when I slept in longer than normal say like on a Saturday morning.