Training yourself to lucid dream?, page 2

Right before you go into a dream, you will sort of start to hear sounds and see images. I believe this is called hynogogic imagery. All the advice I have found on the internet was nice, but I found the best thing to do was just to relax into it and let it just happen.

There are visualization techniques and mediditations, but those actually were keeping me too awake to dream. I do sort of get meditative sometimes, but I don't get to sleep with those, I just sort of got only half asleep. But I did begin to recognize my hypnogogic imagery and the sounds that I usually hear before going into the dream. Perhaps it did help to have a transition so I could learn the stages of sleep I go through.

Just before I go into a dream, my hypnogogic imagery starts. It is as though I am looking into the blackness of my mind and then suddenly it isn't just blackness there, but dots. These dots for me seem to form grid-type lines. It sort of looks like bits of net or snake-skin. Sometimes I see a little flashing bit of color or a flashing line racing around. Anyway, when the colors start, the dream is about to start. The colors will be faded and faint then get brighter.

Some people have said theirs looks like germs or spagetti lines.

It is mostly green or red but sometimes I have seen it other colors. It is faint at first. But once I see it, I just know I am deeper in, and just sort of relax. It is a signal for me. What you need to do is have some sort of awareness of what your body will do as you fall asleep and recognize the stages. You can then begin to just think to yourself that you have gone a bit deeper in. What will mess it up is if you really think with words. It is more just like you are aware of it, without becoming too excited or even interested. Just note it, but don't get too excited about it.

About this point also the sounds start for me. I hear my heart beating, my breath, then sometimes random things that sound very clear and real. Bits of song, notes, beeps, whising sounds. Sometimes it sounds like people mummering or talking in another room.

Once I have recognized this is what my own body does before going into a dream, I can sometimes catch myself dreaming.

I of course have other triggers. I tend to dream about a house from my childhood that I know is not there anymore but burned down. The neighbors painted their house yellow, but in my dreams sometimes it is still white. So if I catch this inconistancy, I know I am dreaming. If I dream I am at collage, my old job, my old school, then it is a dream. I often dream that, and I catch it.

There are usually some inconsistancies in dreams, things that just don't really make logical sense. I am a pretty deep thinker anyway, so during the day I am always thinking about stuff. My dreams tend to be pretty weird anyway. It just doesn't make any sense. It is wonder and weird, but just too weird to be real.

My life is pretty organised, I go to work and come home. I don't really do much of anything so of course anything that deviates from my regular routine is bound to be a dream. It isn't something I normally do. Then I can at least enjoy the dream me, being more exciting and doing fun things.

I can control the dream to some extent and I am getting better at it. I am just not very creative yet. I change the dream some, but I find it harder to actually change locations.

Lately I have experimented with opening doors in my dream. Like in my dream I have found that sometimes I see an interesting place way off in the distance. If I try to physcially move there, it seems to take energy. I don't know why. It seems to exert me to move around over large areas in my dream. But if I go through a door in my dream it doesn't. So I have found I can sometimes remember to open a door and image another location is on the other side. The few times I have done it, it seems to work. I have also gotten to where I can manifest things in my dream. I imagine things in my hand and they are there. I've only just really gotten to that point recently.

I think I am getting better at it. It is just catching on that I am dreaming and then staying asleep.

Also, if you feel you are about to wake up, you need to relax and not move a muscle. That is one bit I did find from the internet that helps. I don't know why but they say if you don't open your eyes or move an even a small amount, your brain begins to wonder if you really woke up, and then it thinks you must not have, so it lets you go back to sleep quickly. You must also not really be very interested or care very much. Don't think much about it or you will wake fully. You can go back into a dream quicker this way. But usually it is hard because you'll want to roll over if you are uncomfortable. Sometimes this is what woke you up. You find you are laying on your arm funny or you got cold or something. But if you think you are comfortable enough, don't move and don't think much about it, and you should get to sleep easier.