What is Lucid Dreaming?

Lucid dreaming is the act of becoming aware that you are dreaming while you are still doing so, thus gaining the ability to manipulate yourself and your dream environment. The ability to achieve this state is usually, but not always, slowly developed through a conscious effort to remember and recognize your dreams. Once lucidity is established, you come to realize that the world around you exists entirely in your mind, and as such the rules of this world are not the same as the rules you live by while awake.

What can you do in a Lucid Dream?

Nearly anything, as long as you are able to maintain the state. In lucid dreams, it is possible to fly. It is possible to metamorph yourself into an animal. It is possible to turn invisible. It is possible to walk through walls. Your imagination is the limit. If you’re in a lucid state and you believe that you can do something, you almost certainly will be able to do it. If you’re the less active type, you can also just relish the fact that you are dreaming and treat the experience as an extremely vivid and interactive movie.

Lucid dreaming is very, very effective at curing nightmares. As a personal example, I used to often have dreams where I was being chased by a man who possessed some sort of crude weapon. One night it would be a hammer, another night it would be a knife, and so on. This went on until one night when I found myself running away from the man once again, his weapon du jour being an axe. This time, however, I became lucid. The thought process went like this:

“Hey… I’m dreaming!”

“I have a shotgun.”

I looked down at my hands, and sure enough I had a shotgun. The man came running around the corner behind me, and while his face was never distinct (a common occurrence in dreams), the feeling of shock and alarm that I got from my pursuer was very satisfying. I’ve never had a ‘being chased’ dream since. During a lucid dream, you are ultimately in charge no matter what the situation.

You too can have Lucid Dreams! Here’s how!

Anyone is capable of having lucid dreams. Just like any other skill, it takes time, practice, and patience to learn and maintain the ability. Basic steps are as follows:

First, establish the proper sleep patterns. Dreams occur during the REM stage of sleep, which lasts for 20 minutes and most commonly occurs every 90 minutes while you are sleeping. Because of this, you want to get used to sleeping for periods that are multiples of 90 minutes, so that your last REM stage will be shortly before waking. So 90 minutes times 4 is 6 hours, 90 minutes times 5 is seven and a half hours, 90 minutes times 6 is 9 hours… if you sleep for 6 hours, 7 ½ hours, or 9 hours, you’ll be more likely to remember your dream once you wake up. The ability to remember dreams is the first major step towards lucid dreaming.

Next, start maintaining a dream log. As you can probably tell, this is a journal where you will write down your dreams. Remembering dreams and thinking about them when you wake up will enable you to better recognize what a dream looks and feels like while you are actually having one. It is imperative that you begin writing down the details of your dream as soon as possible after waking, so you will need to keep a notebook, pen, and flashlight next to your bed where they can be reached immediately. You’ll be so sleepy that your handwriting will be barely legible, but that’s OK. The memory of a dream will melt very quickly, so every second will be precious. Even without the incentive of lucid dreaming, dream logs alone will enable you to recall some interesting nighttime experiences.

Once you’ve gotten to the point where you’re remembering dreams and writing them down, begin training yourself to look for certain cues in order to realize that you are dreaming. Dreams completely lack the ability to present things in a sharp, distinct, or detailed manner. Because of this, certain aspects of dreams are easy to recognize once you are aware enough to look for them.

Among other discrepancies, dreams will have the following features that are ‘off’:

Look at a digital clock, look away, and then look back again. You will see that the time is very different, or that the characters on the clock are complete nonsense.

Your hands will be indistinct and often have the wrong number of fingers. This is my favorite ‘tell’, as no matter how bizarre your dream might be, you will always have hands that you can observe. Hands never, ever look right in a dream.

Electronics, especially light switches, will not work the way you expect them to.

If you try and lean against something, you will start to fall through it.

Objects in mirrors are heavily distorted. Personally, I would not use this to determine if I am awake because objects in the mirror, especially your face, can look terrifying in a dream.

In short, once you are aware enough to look for cues in a dream, it is easy to notice that the environment is not real. The tough part is conditioning your mind to become aware in this way, and in order to do so, it is necessary make these same checks when you are awake. So, if you’re awake and in a situation that seems at all weird, take a quick glance at your hand or check your watch (especially if the watch is digital) in order to verify that you are not dreaming. Try to do this two or three times a day. It sounds eccentric, but if you perform these self-tests while you are awake, you are training yourself to perform these same actions while sleeping.

Finally, if you’re lucky enough to enter lucidity, you may become very excited and this can wake you up. If you feel yourself leaving the dream state, try spinning around. Doing so can sometimes keep you lucid and locked into your dream world, where you can continue to impose your will.

If you fail to achieve success quickly, don’t be discouraged. It will take time to train your mind to perform this act, and several months may go by before you have your first lucid dream. Even people who are real practitioners of lucid dreaming are not able to do so for more than a few times a month. Just be patient, keep at it, and you’ll soon be taking charge of your dreams in ways that you can barely imagine!