Seven Techniques for Lucid Dream Induction

CAT (Cycle-Adjustment Technique)

A reliable technique, however, you lose 90 minutes of sleep.  I can’t give a general description, so I’ll just go on.  First, you must have a regular sleep pattern.  For 7 days, you must wake up 90 minutes before you regularly wake up, to do this, set your alarm.  This is training the brain to wake up at this time, so you’ll be likely to have a LD.  During the 90 minutes you are awake, you have to do reality checks. A lot of them. This trains the brain to do reality checks at this time, so the habit will carry on into your sleep.  It is important that you don’t go back to bed or nap during the day.

WILD (Wake Induced Lucid Dream)

One of the two main methods.  This technique involves tricking your body into falling asleep, your brain will create a dream, and voila, lucid dream. You must wake yourself up during or before a REM cycle.  You can estimate when your REM will be, or you can drink a lot of water before bed. Now to the actual how-to.  You must lay in a comfortable position. You must stay awake. Lay in the same position, you can’t move, you  must have a clear mind.  After about 20 minutes, your body will begin to feel uncomfortable, but do not move, this is a test to see if you are asleep.  Eventually, you will enter sleep paralysis.  This is your body going to sleep. It may feel strange, the experience is different for everyone. While you are in sleep paralysis, you may see hypnagogic hallucinations.  Common hallucinations are colours, stars, whispers, memory footprints, and even incomplete scenes. Eventually, the hallucinations will engulf you into a dream.  There’s also a possibility that you will have a false awakening, but that’s why you should do a reality check when you wake up.  

DEILD (Dream Exit Induced Lucid Dream)

This technique involves waking up, then falling back into a dream.  It’s like WILD except without the long wait.  To do this, you must wake up from a dream, don’t open your eyes or move (this can also be accomplished by using a mantra.) It will only take a few minutes for you to enter sleep paralysis and enter a dream, this time consciously. 

EILD (Externally Induced Lucid Dream)

Not related to DILD or WILD, EILDs rely on something outside of your dream to alert you that you are dreaming. There are programs for this.

Sleep should be a relaxing time, but it is inturrupted by nightmares and other sometimes disturbing dreams. With Lucid dreaming, it can be relaxing again.