Hey all,
I've seen Dreamviews lose a lot of good people and conversation has seemed to run dry. I've been wanting to write my own guide, so here goes:
Disclaimer: much of this is derived from personal opinion and observation and my understanding of psychology. If you disagree, that's fine. There is much room for personal opinion, psychology (and especially dream psychology) is a soft science.
First: I will lay out the abbreviations I will use and many you will see on LD sites.
LD: Lucid Dream
WILD: Wake-initiated lucid dream
MILD: Mnemonic initiated lucid dream
DILD: Dream initiated lucid dream
WBTB: Wake back to bed
REM: rapis eye movement, or a period of sleep when the brain is more active recharging neurons. This is when you dream.
HH: hypnagogic hallucination
SP: Sleep Paralysis
* - any asterisk will denote a technique that I have seen to work in my study and experimentation.
--Any other abbreviations will be explained in the text.
1)
A word about dedication
Dedication really will make or break you having LD's. No technique is easy, but all are worth it and rewarding.
You will find the most success when you are excitedly and diligently training to lucid dream.*
2)Dream Journaling (or DJ)
Keeping a DJ is key to LDing. How can you lucid dream if you can not remember any of your dreams? Exactly.
Start keeping a dream journal. Write down any dreams you remember when you wake up BEFORE doing anything else.
Let me repeat - set aside your first waking moments to record your dreams.
This will aid you to remember more dreams with more clarity.* Dream journals can also be used in the MILD technique (more on that in the next section) to analyze dream characters, objects and trends. This can produce triggers that when one notices, will induce lucidity called Dream Signs.
3) Mantras
I have found that mantras are a GREAT way to help influence the mind to prepare for anything. This idea was originally championed by Napoleon Hill in, "Think and Grow Rich" which is a classic. But Dr. Stephen LaBerge from Stanford found it especially important to LDing.
A mantra is basically a repeated phrase.
So: if I wanted to improve my dream recall, I would use a mantra such as, "I remember my dreams."*
I would repeat this as I was falling asleep, allowing it to take over my thoughts and all consciousness. This influences the mind to remember your dreams.
If you wanted to improve your awareness, use mantras such as:
"I am aware of my surroundings"
"I notice obscurities and become lucid"
"I notice details and become aware". The importance of awareness will be made clear later.
As such, mantras will help obsess the mind with LDing to help one become lucid.*
One last quick note about mantras: they must be in the present tense. If you use future tense, such as "I will become lucid" your mind will indefinitely put that off and it will never be time to become lucid.
http://www.dreamviews.com/attaining-...technique.html
4) Reality Checks
Reality checks are employed by every lucid dreamer. In the waking state they help to practice becoming lucid. In the dream state, they verify lucidity. They consist of physically impossible things. This would be like Leonardo DiCaprio's spinning top in the movie Inception. My preferred RC (reality check) is the nose plug. Plug your nose and try to breathe through it. If you can't you are awake. If you can, you are dreaming and it is pretty cool.
Here are some others:
1) Hands - try to put your fingers through your palm.
2) Test gravity - gravity is can be altered in the dream state (very fun)
3) Clock - check a digital clock, now check it again. Is the time the same? It won't be in a dream
4) Mirror - look in a mirror, dream mirrors are normally distorted
5) Read - read something, see if it makes sense
You can look up other RC's if you do not like these.
5) Awareness
You will see awareness stressed in A LOT of tutorials. Makes sense right? Lucidity is equivalent to being aware in the dream state. Therefore, one should be aware in their waking life so it will carry into the dream state.
Awareness can be practiced in many ways. For me, it is repeating a mantra as I scan my environment, analyzing particular aspects of my surroundings such as colors, shapes, and objects in general.* This will help you to become lucid, because the dream state is not composed of a logical environment. The brain is spontaneously creating the environment around you, and will often make errors, you are just not trained to catch them. This would produce a DILD. A lucid dream where you become aware by noticing something in your dream environment. You should definitely read these two awareness tutorials to better understand the concept:
Puffin's DILD Guide - Lucid Dreaming - Dream Views
http://www.dreamviews.com/induction-...kingyoshi.html
6) Wake Back To Bed
In my opinion, WBTB and timing REM cycles is the most important aspect to lucid dreaming. Sleep cycles occur and reset roughly every 90 minutes and decrease in duration through the night. Dreams actually occur about 80-85 minutes into the cycle, or even later.
The purpose of WBTB is to awaken the mind. When you fall asleep at the beginning of the night, your mind is not alert or aware. This is because you are probably tired and will not remember your dreams. You will begin to have longer REM cycles (dreams) as the night goes on and will remember your dreams more vividly. So, waking up in the middle of a sleep cycle will bring you closer to REM and will allow you to drop into a dream state quickly after falling asleep.
To perform a WBTB, you must wake up and get out of bed at some point in the night, at least 1.5 hours before you need to wake up for the day. How long you stay up is relevant to you. If I am going to try to WILD I will stay up for 60-75 minutes, bringing myself very close to REM*. Some people claim they can successfully WBTB after only 20 minutes. To play it safe, I would make my WBTB duration longer if I were not an experienced LDer.
You can set an alarm if you sleep in a room alone to wake yourself, or you can just get up as you wake up in the night. I personally drink a bottle of water before going to bed so I wake up about 4.5 hours later to pee. I will then stay up studying, reading,or on the internet, just doing relaxed activity. A WBTB can also work with an late morning nap. Several times I have woken up at around 6 AM and taken a nap around 10-11 and had an LD because my mind was awake and alert.
Why I believe WBTB is so important for LDing is because it helps to waken the mind. If one does not WBTB, it is easy to sleep through the night unaware of your dreams (especially if you are tired.) The frontal lobe of the brain is not active, which is the logical center of the brain. When we awake, the frontal lobe begins working again and will stay active into sleep, greatly improving your chances at an LD.
7) What To Do When Falling Asleep
The 5-15 minutes (if not more) you spend lying in bed before you fall asleep is a pivotal time to influence your dreams. Do these things before falling asleep, they will help train the mind to LD.
1) Relax -- use a relaxation method, like the flex/freeze method. This involves flexing a muscle, releasing it and then keeping it still until you fall asleep. Got from head to toe or toe to head.
2)Use a breathing exercise -- count your breaths or breathe along a slow, relaxing pattern.
3)Repeat a mantra -- this is a great time to repeat an LD mantra to help prepare the mind and implant the idea of LDing just before you dream.
4)Practice becoming lucid -- this can be forced or not. Just before you fall asleep, your mind processes and will experience short day-dream like visions. These will be similar to dreams. You can also visualize a situation here, preparing to shape whatever dream world you may enter. In this state, practice becoming lucid. If in a natural day-dream or a visualization, notice something in your environment and become 'lucid'.
Steps 1 & 2 should take the most time. Step 3 can be done during 1 & 2 and just after. Step 4 will occur on its own just before you fall asleep.
8) WILD - a young Dreamer's goal and nightmare
A Wake Initiated Lucid Dream may sound similar to a WBTB, but is entirely different.
A WILD is basically an LD induced by never falling asleep.
Let me explain, a WILD is performed when the dreamer lets the body fall asleep, but the mind never does. They keep it occupied and active so they are already lucid when the dream starts. This is best paired with a WBTB.
WILD is performed by doing the steps above in the last section, but never falling asleep after. Lie still in bed, but keep the mind active. Focus on some sound or keep visualizing.
When doing this, you will probably fall asleep until you have practicing a few times. That is fine, it will probably yield a DILD if you fall asleep.
If you manage to stay aware, you might experience HH, I do. This is like a short nightmare. It can be frightening images and loud, illogical sounds. My last HH was a dog biting my leg. When you experience HH, stay calm. This will help to not wake you up. Ride through the experience (it is pretty cool) and wait for a dream to start, you will be close.
If all goes well, you will drop into a dream scene aware and lucid. Do an RC and have fun!
Thanks for reading and happy dreaming!
Leave comments, I want to hear your ideas.
