Staying Lucid

At first it will be difficult to continue a dream immediately after becoming lucid. The reason for this is that upon realizing you are dreaming for the first time you will likely become really excited. If you still aren’t convinced about how amazing it is to have a lucid dream, you won’t understand until you have experienced it. The realization that you are dreaming is usually accompanied by a profound appreciation for just how real everything seems in the dream— it feels like part of the real world. This appreciation is followed by the excitement of the prospect of actually being able to control something that seems so real. It is extremely common among first time lucid dreamers to wake up due to the sheer excitement alone, so don't be discourage if your first experienced isn't as lengthy as you'd expected.


To both prevent yourself from waking up and remain lucid, you’ll need to stay calm and focus on the dream itself. As soon as you become lucid, remind yourself to stay calm. Pause for a moment to collect yourself and take some time to explore the dream world around you. Upon becoming lucid you’ll of course immediately want to try exerting control in your dream, but for your first few lucid dreams you should focus more on training yourself to remain lucid. You can certainly try experimenting with a few things—such as seeing how high you can jump, and perhaps seeking out a particular person—but again in the beginning you should simply try to become comfortable with this new found skill.


Dream Spinning

As mentioned, at first you’ll likely find it difficult to remain in your dream upon becoming lucid. If the world around you suddenly starts to fade, or you inexplicably sense that your dream is ending, or you even feel that your dream consciousness is thinning, there is a technique you can try to salvage your dream: dream spinning. Dream spinning is extremely simple and consists of you spinning on the spot like you would have as a child. That may sound very silly, but the technique is extremely reliable. When you stop spinning you’ll likely find that the dream clarity has returned, and perhaps your surroundings will have changed as well. In fact, if you focus on changing the setting into something else while spinning, it is very likely you will find yourself in your desired environment after you stop spinning. Note that since it is likely your dream will completely change upon completion of dream spinning, you may lose lucidity. Thus, it may be wise to also remind yourself that you are dreaming while spinning. Also, verbal commands can be beneficial when trying to prevent your dream from ending. Of course dream spinning and verbal commands are tools for controlling your dreams, which we’ll get into next.


Rubbing Your Hands

Another common way to stabilize a dream is simply rubbing your hands together or something physical in the dream. The idea here is to keep your senses focused on the dream instead of thinking of waking. If you are dreaming that you are indoors, you can put your hands on the walls or furniture. If you are dreaming that you're outside, you can try putting your hands on the ground. Any of these things will help you keep the dream going.


False Awakenings

While lucid, be wary of false awakenings—waking up within a dream. This is quite common and we’ve likely all experienced it before. This can occur at any time during your dream: you’ll just suddenly dream yourself waking up in your bed. It is very easy to accept this as waking up in the real world since it will seem that you have left the dream world. It is always a good idea to perform another reality check upon waking up to be sure you aren’t still dreaming. From here, let’s finally move on to dream control!