A lucid dream is the realization that you are dreaming. This awareness can appear in the form of the ability to recognize facts or open understanding of something very important. A lucid dream usually occurs when a person is in a normal dreaming state and suddenly realizes that he is dreaming. This is a conscious dream initiated by a dream. A conscious dream that begins with a waking state occurs when a person immediately enters a dreaming state from a waking state without having experienced a loss of consciousness. Either way, lucid dreams usually feel strange and more emotional than regular dreams. And most importantly, at least you have the ability to control the “dreaming self” and the surroundings in the dream.
Step
Method 1 of 3: Using the “Practice Realizing Dreams” Technique
Step 1. Keep a dream journal
When going to bed, put a journal at your bedside and immediately record your dreams when you wake up. Also note the emotions and sensations you experienced in the dream. This method can help you remember things that are very important in your dreams so that you can dream consciously. Also, you can't control your dreams if when you wake up in the morning, you've forgotten what happened in the dream.
- Alternatively, prepare a recording device at the bedside.
- Before writing, try to pause for a few minutes to concentrate and recall the dream you just had so you can remember more of it.
Step 2. Do multiple reality checks
Ask yourself the question “Am I dreaming” every few hours throughout the day and do one of the following reality-checking techniques. After enough practice, this habit will appear in your dreams as a clue to the reality that you are dreaming.
- Cover your nose and mouth and test to see if you can still breathe.
- Look at your hands and feet. In a dream, its shape can change if you pay close attention.
- Read the script or look at the clock, look away, then look again. When dreaming, the script or clock will look dim, strange, or the time will change every time you look.
- Try pushing your index finger through your palm. Push your index finger hard, questioning whether you were dreaming either before or after. In a dream, your index finger will be able to penetrate the palm. Meanwhile, questioning whether you are dreaming repeatedly will increase your chances of realizing that this is not normal.
Step 3. Repeat "I'll realize I'm dreaming" over and over again until you fall asleep
Every night before falling asleep, say to yourself "I'll know when I'm dreaming" or something else with the same meaning until you lose consciousness. This technique is called “Mnemonic Induction to Lucid Dreaming (MILD). Mnemonic induction means induction using memory aids or in this case, using the memorization of words to turn the awareness that arises during dreaming into an automatic habit.
Some people combine this method with reality checking by staring at their hands for a few minutes before falling asleep
Step 4. Learn how to recognize the signs that you are dreaming
Read a journal regularly and look for recurring “dream signs.” This sign can be a recurring situation or event that appears in a dream. Get to know this sign well so you can recognize it when you dream. This way, you will know that you are dreaming.
Perhaps you have already recognized some of the signs in a dream. Events that usually appear in dreams include losing teeth, being chased by something big, or being in a public place naked
Step 5. Try going back to sleep after waking up from the dream
When you wake up and remember a dream, write it in a journal, then close your eyes and focus on the dream. Imagine you are in a dream, watch for any dream signs or do a reality check, and realize that this is a dream. Hold on to these thoughts until you fall asleep again so that you can enter into lucid dreaming.
Be aware that lucid dreams usually occur while a person is deep asleep, often because of recognizing strange events and realizing that he or she is dreaming. This is an alternative trigger that successfully triggers about 25% of lucid dreams
Step 6. Use a light alarm
Purchase a light alarm, not a sound alarm, or a lamp made specifically to induce lucid dreaming. Set this light to come on after you've been asleep for 4, 5 hours, or after 6-7 hours. Research has shown that using a light as a guide is the most effective way to make a person aware that he is dreaming when experiencing rapid eye movement (REM). However, sound, touch, or stimulation in other ways can also provide the same benefits.
You don't need to be fully awake (unless you use the "Wake Up and then Sleep Again" technique, which will be explained later). Place this light alarm away from your bed and/or cover it with a cloth to dim the light
Method 2 of 3: Using the “Wake Up then Sleep Again” Technique
Step 1. Know when lucid dreams occur most often
Conscious dreams and dreams that are generally vividly remembered almost always occur when a person is asleep in a REM state characterized by rapid eye movements. The first phase of REM usually occurs after you've been asleep for 90 minutes and the next phase about 90 minutes later. This method allows you to wake up in the REM phase, then go back to sleep and continue dreaming while realizing that you are dreaming.
It's impossible to accurately measure the length of the REM phase unless you're in a sleep pattern research lab or someone is willing to watch your eyelids all night long. To make it easier, do the following method continuously until one day you realize you are in the REM phase
Step 2. Get used to sleep with a longer REM phase
There are many ways to extend the duration of REM sleep, as described in the article “How to Experience Longer REM Sleep.” In order to experience REM regularly, make it a habit to go to bed at the same time every night and sleep long enough so that your body is more refreshed when you wake up in the morning.
This method is a bit difficult to combine with the following steps because you have to interrupt your sleep in the middle of the night. If you can't sleep anymore, try another method or only use this method once or twice a week
Step 3. Get up in the middle of the night
Set an alarm to sound after you've been asleep for 4½, 6, or 7 hours (choose one). While it's hard to predict, you're more likely to experience REM sleep after 4½ hours of sleep. REM will last longer after you sleep 6-7 hours so that it is easier to dream lucid or lucid dreaming.
Step 4. Don't go back to sleep right away
Write down your dreams if you dream, eat a snack, or take a short walk to keep your conscious mind active and awake while there are still many sleep-inducing hormones in your body.
A study shows that lucid dreaming is easier if you stay awake for 30-60 minutes before falling asleep again
Step 5. Concentrate on the dream, then go back to sleep
Close your eyes and sleep again. If you still remember the dream before you woke up, imagine again that you are continuing the dream until you fall asleep. Although it takes time, this method can give you the opportunity to experience lucid dreams.
Step 6. Try another way of concentrating
If your mind keeps wandering as you try to remember your dream or even completely forgets it, focus on the movement of your fingers. Make small movements according to a certain pattern, for example "index finger up, middle finger down, middle finger up, index finger down". Repeat this rhythmic movement until you fall asleep.
Method 3 of 3: Using Other Methods
Step 1. Try meditating
Before going to bed, try meditating in a quiet, dark place. Meditation results will be better if you take a course, but to begin with, just watch your breath or imagine a ladder going up or down. This method aims to make you stop thinking to enter into a calm and comfortable state so that you can dream consciously.
- Keep in mind that lucid dreams induced by wakefulness are rare and more difficult than waking dreams after falling asleep.
- There are many online meditation guide videos specially designed to help you dream lucidly.
Step 2. Continue lucid dreaming if it starts to disappear
One of the common experiences for people who are having lucid dreaming for the first time is waking up feeling excited to be able to dream lucidly! Usually, you'll get an advance warning if your dream is "unstable" or begins to evoke sensations from real life. Here are some ways to help prolong lucid dreaming:
- Twist your body in a dream or drop it backwards. Some people find it helpful in this way, although the cause is not yet certain.
- Rub your palms together in a dream to divert the sensations that arise from your real body.
- Continue what you are doing (before the dream turns unstable) while confirming that you are still in the dream. This method is less effective than the two methods above.
Step 3. Listen to binaural beats
If you hear a sound with a different frequency in each ear, your brain will interpret the wave pattern of these two overlapping sounds as a beat, even if there is no knock in this sound. This method will change the electrical activity in the brain. However, until now scientists have not been able to determine whether this method can actually stimulate lucid dreaming. Many websites provide binaural beat recordings which are very easy to use if you can sleep with earphones on. Many people who want to dream consciously try to listen to sounds with a beat that resembles the theta brain waves during REM. There are also those who listen to sound with gamma and alpha waves or some other, more progressive way.
Binaural beats can be combined with soft music or stand alone
Step 4. Try playing a video game
Conscious dreams are more common among gamers. Although this remains to be studied further, playing games a few hours a week makes it easier for you to dream lucidly. The type of game doesn't really matter.
Step 5. Take galantamine
Galantamine is a drug from the snowdrop plant that is very effective at inducing lucid dreaming. For best results, take 4-8 mg of galantamine in the middle of the night. If taken before bedtime, this drug can interfere with sleep and cause unpleasant dreams. Because it can cause negative side effects, galantamine is recommended only as a supplement for certain conditions.
- Consult your doctor first if you have any health problems. Galantamine can worsen asthma and heart disease.
- This drug also increases the chance of paralysis during sleep. Although not dangerous, this condition is quite scary because when you wake up, you can't move your body for several minutes.
Step 6. Take an occasional B vitamin supplement
Supplements of vitamin B5 or vitamin B6 can increase the clarity, strangeness, and intensity of emotions during dreams that will lead you to lucid dreaming. However, you must take this supplement at a dose of 100 mg for results. This dose is higher than the recommended daily dose. If consumed long enough regularly, B vitamins can cause damage to peripheral nerves. Use this supplement specifically only for lucid dreaming and you should be prepared to take it at your own risk.
- Ask your doctor first if you want to take any medication or if you have circulatory, stomach, digestive or heart problems.
- This drug can wake you up at night so it is less useful for people who have trouble sleeping.
Tips
- There are skills that must be learned in order for you to be able to dream lucidly. People who are able to have regular lucid dreaming usually experience this only once or twice a month. You have to be patient and continue to practice the techniques described so that the chances of lucid dreaming are getting bigger and more frequent.
- If you "feel awake" while dreaming, make it a habit to do a reality check (such as reading a book) as soon as you wake up. Otherwise, this feeling of being awake can turn a lucid dream into a regular dream.
- When dreaming lucidly, wake up after a few minutes of dreaming to make it easier to remember.
- Don't drink anything an hour before bed so you don't wake up when you have a lucid dream just because you have to go to the bathroom.
- If you dream about unpleasant things, "close your eyes" while dreaming, then open them wide again. Do it over and over again until you wake up.
- If it feels like you're losing control, scream until you can control the dream again or what you want actually happens.
Warning
- A lucid dream can cause paralysis during sleep. In this condition, you cannot move the muscles throughout your body, even though you are awake and aware of your surroundings. This condition is not dangerous, but usually causes fear. What's more, this experience can lead to hallucinations of something strange in the room. Since certain muscles will be more affected, try concentrating on moving your toes or swallowing while trying to stay calm until the hallucinations go away.
- You will wake up immediately if you are too excited when you have a lucid dream. To continue dreaming, close your eyes and focus on remembering your dream again before you wake up. If you are awake, but you are still “in” the dream, turn around or rub your hands.
