Lucid Dreaming - What Is It And The Best Techniques

Soooo, how do I start. Uh yeah, the basics first. Always the basics first. So what is 'lucid dreaming'?

Lucid dreaming is a dream in which the dreamer is aware that he is dreaming.

Imagine having the ability to do whatever you want to do - flying? Not a problem, you want to break wall? Not a problem too, meet your crush (or something more, if you know what I mean xD)? Also not a problem. Whichever is the thing you want to do, it's all available while you lucid dream.

Did you get hyped already? Okaay, so how does a person recognize that he is in a dream? Well, there are few things that you can do to gain lucidity while dreaming.

KEEP A DREAM JOURNAL
The first thing you would want to do is to keep a dream journal. It doesn't need to be anything fancy, you can also download journal app for your phone. What you basically need to do is each day after waking, try to recall your dream as much as possible and write it down. Easy right? The reason of doing this is because even if you'd have a lucid dream, you will probably not even remember it.

REALITY CHECKS
What is a reality check? Reality check is a test you can perform to see if you're dreaming or awake. Things that are impossible in real life are possible while in dream. That said, breathing while you have your nose pinched isn't possible in reality but in dream you can do it. The importance of consistently making reality checks is because if you make it a habit in real life, you will probably do it in a dream too, therefore easily gain lucidity. Now this practiced everyday could give you stable and persistent lucid dreams. More frequently used reality checks include: clock check (when you look at the time, look away then look back, if in dream - the digits will change), finger count (often in dream, you will have more than 5 fingers).

After you can recall most of your dreams and made reality checks a habit, it's time to know which methods to use to induce lucid dreams. Note that there's no method that works the best - that's because everyone is different, and one method might be good for someone but for someone else might not. Mostly used methods include: WBTB, WILD, MILD, DILD etc.

WBTB
Wake back to bed (aka WBTB) is a technique that consists of waking you up in your REM cycle (you dream in this cycle), so therefore when you fall asleep you will get directly in a dream. Often, this method is mixed with other techniques like WILD and MILD and produces even better results.

How do you do it? Well, you need to place alarm around 5 hours after you go to sleep (some suggest 2 hours earlier than when you usually go to sleep), get out of bed and stay up for anywhere between a few minutes to an hour before going back to bed. It's preferred that you don't use electronic devices and read something/think about lucid dreaming.

WILD
Wake-Initiated Lucid Dream (aka WILD), refers to a technique that involves falling asleep consciously. For this technique to work you need to be completely relaxed. What it consists is letting your body asleep while your mind stays awake. While you are performing that it is highly possible that you will enter a state called sleep paralysis (YIKES!), but it's nothing to be scared of.. sort of. In that state you won't be able to move your body but you can open your eyes and may see or hear things that are not real (hallucinations). But if you don't fear it, slowly the dream will start appearing in front of you. There's a lot to be talked on this so I suggest you googling for further explanation.

MILD
Mnemonic Induction of Lucid Dreams (AKA MILD) is a method used to gain lucidity in dreams by trying to recognize that you are in a dream. It is done by remembering your last dream and seeing for signs that you missed that make it obvious that it is a dream. This is done so the next time you go to sleep, you go through your dream over and over (noticing the obvious signs and reminding yourself that you will be lucid when that happens) until you fall asleep and therefore get the dream again but now noticing the signs and getting lucid.

CONCLUSION

There are a lot of variations of these methods some that work better than the other but nonetheless it doesn't matter which method is the best, you should try each of them and see which suits you the best.

In summary, you will need to try the methods often, see what works for you and what doesn't, and continue trying even if you fail in the first few times. Consistency is the key. If you don't want to read the whole post here is a short description for everything I've mentioned.

REALITY CHECKS
Reality check is a test you can perform to see if you're dreaming or awake.

DREAM RECALL
Write your dreams after waking up so you will remember the next ones.

WBTB
WBTB is a technique that consists of waking you up in your REM cycle, so therefore when you fall asleep you will get directly in a dream. This method is a great way for beginners to learn how to have lucid dream.

WILD
WILD refers to a technique that involves falling asleep consciously.

MILD
MILD is a method used to gain lucidity in dreams by trying to recognize that you are in a dream.

Sorry for the long post, here's a cute kitten:

Kitten
LD Flying