Introduction To Lucid Dreaming

Submitted article #1:

Dream recall
The ability to remember your dreams.

Dream recall is essential to lucid dreaming, for very obvious reasons. It is the main building block for everything else, and as such, is our starting point. Most people remember dreams only occasionally, so don't be discouraged if this is where you're starting from. Also, let me make this clear: Everybody dreams, but not everyone remembers it. Everybody can learn to recall their dreams, so don't be discouraged if you aren't starting with much. Conversely, if you're one of the fortunate few who does remember dreams frequently, there is still most likely room to improve. The ultimate recall would be every dream every night down to the faintest detail. So we all have something to work on.

I have simplified the factors of dream recall down to three (the affirmations are a bonus) things:

What was I just dreaming?
Taking time each morning to stop and focus on remembering your dreams.

This is the most important step for somebody just starting out, as it will give you something to work with.

As soon as you wake up, lay still. Keep your eyes closed, and try and remember what you were just dreaming. Try asking yourself
"what was I just doing/dreaming/thinking/feeling?" as a way of jogging your memory. After recalling as much as you can, even if it is just a feeling, pick out what seem to be the most important parts of the dream. Try to keep it to just a few. These will be our "anchors" later on. Now that you've got those picked out, try and make them stick by telling yourself (in your head) how important it is that you remember them. Using powerful emotional associations can sometimes help. Next, you'll go through the steps of dream journaling, detailed in the next section.

Dream journaling
The practice of keeping a journal of your dreams.

Another essential component for long term improvement in dream recall is keeping a dream journal. This simply entails keeping a small journal with a pencil next to your bed, perhaps with a light.

Now take those anchors from before and write them down into your dream journal. This will help you keep the main points of the dream fresh. After doing that, flesh out the details using the anchors as well, anchors. Get as much detail as you can remember. Although this is exhaustive, it will also increase your results. If you don't think you have the willpower to keep this up, then only do it in the beginning until you've got decent recall. Then you can skimp a little more. Just remember that ultimately, what you don't write down will be forgotten.

The first two were direct influences. These last two are more indirect.

Affirmations as you are falling asleep
Repeating a phrase to yourself as you drift off

This is useful for increasing recall in the beginning when you've got little to nothing to work with. As you're falling asleep repeat to yourself: "I remember my dreams daily upon awakening, I will remember my dreams" Or something similar. The idea is that you believe it and influence your subconscious to act on it, sort of like hypnosis. I find this generally helps out when you wake up.

The amount of REM sleep you get
Making sure to get adequate sleep.

This is fairly self explanatory, but just to make sure we're on the same page: REM sleep is Rapid Eye Movement sleep, which is when dreaming typically takes place. You get significantly more REM sleep in later parts of the night, as you are farther into your sleep cycle. This is because later sleep cycles have a longer REM period. These are the most vivid, longest, and generally most enjoyable dreams. So if you cheat your sleep, you lose the best REM.


A few important points to reiterate:
Don't give up after a few tries, anybody can remember their dreams.

Don't stop working at it after only a few tries, you will lose it if you don't keep up with it.

Keep a dream journal. This is paramount. If you do nothing else, this will keep your recall at good levels.

Submitted article #2:
Reality Checks
Checking if you are really awake.

A reality check is an action that works in reality but acts differently in a dream. These are used to check whether you are dreaming or not. The typical usage involves doing reality checks through the day; so that you will eventually do one in a dream and notice that it didn't work. A few fairly common reality checks are: Looking at your hands, which are typically disfigured in dreams, holding your nose and trying to breathe through it, and looking at a clock or other writing and then looking back again, in dreams it will usually be nonsense and will change.

Reality checks are a proven method by themselves for inducing lucid dreams, but we'll be adding other things on top of them for greater chances. That happens later though. Right now we'll be focusing on developing the habit of checking reality frequently. This has a very subtle effect on dreams and on your overall consciousness. It will make you more skeptical in dreams over time, which will eventually culminate in you realizing more dream signs. Thus, the main goal of reality checks it to raise your awareness to the level where you aren't just reacting to life, you're actually watching it objectively and questioning it. So instead of being another pawn in the day to day happenings of your life, you're an active participant. Now, what are the main building blocks for a successful reality check habit? I have narrowed it down to yet again, three basic things you should remember while doing reality checks, as well as a list of common reality checks.

Consistency
Establishing reality checks as a frequent habit.
The first and probably most difficult hurdle to get over is establishing the habit of reality checks. The idea here is to get into the habit of doing a reality check whenever something strange happens, or whenever you think of it. Granted if you just did one a minute ago, you probably don't need to again unless something extraordinary just happened. A good number to shoot for in the beginning is ten a day or more, but anything is better then nothing. Once you've done it for about two weeks or so, the habit sets in, so it isn't too hard to simply add more checks. However, the difficult part is mustering the willpower to establish the habit. A few ways to keep yourself thinking about reality checks are to write something on your hand to remind you, make a poster and put it on your wall, or maybe wear a string around your finger. Once you've hit the two week mark, these are simply extras. Just keep trying to do reality checks throughout the day, and remember that even if you only remembered to do three today, you can still do more tomorrow.

Diversity
Using multiple types of reality checks
This is a longer term goal to work on after you've established the habit. Remember that reality checks aren't infallible, and can fail from time to time. For this reason, it is important that you either switch which one you're using throughout the day or that you do your primary then a secondary. (Or perhaps even a third after that if you want to be more certain) This will increase the chance of reality checks alerting you to when your reality is waking life.

Seriousness.
Seriously asking yourself if this is real or not
This is a preemptive strike against apathy. If you get into the habit of reality checking, and even of using multiple reality checks, it still may not work or will work poorly if you don't honestly ask yourself whether or not you are dreaming. If you become conditioned to it and let it ride on the back of your mind, it won't be as effective at waking up your conscious. So make sure that you give it your full attention and truly consider that you might be sleeping, even right now.

Reality Checks
A list of common reality checks, with how effective they are next to them. (5 is most effective)

Looking at your hands, and consciously counting your fingers on each hand. (5)
Reading text and looking back a second later to see if it has changed. (5)
Trying to change text as you're reading it. (4)
Look at a mirror, and see if it looks normal. (4)
Holding your nose and trying to breath through it. (4)
Look at a clock, and make sure that the time makes sense. (4)
Flipping a light switch to see if it works. (3)
Trying to fly by willing yourself to, or by jumping and trying to. (3)
Willing and expecting something odd that shouldn't be behind you to be behind you when you turn around (3)
Look at your nose from one eye (3)
Try altering reality with powers, like telekinesis. (2)

A disclaimer
These techniques vary in effectiveness for each individual. These are fairly constant for most everybody, but if you find that one of these consistently doesn't work you should probably try an alternate. I would only switch if you notice it failing in your remembered dreams though.

A few important points to reiterate:
Reality checks are used more to hedge your bets then as a primary induction technique, although they can be used as one.

Reality checks generally don't have a large influence on dreams until about a month after they've become a habit. This is a very rough estimate though, so it will probably vary for you.

Keeping up with reality checks is paramount. Almost as important as dream journaling!

Submitted article #3:

WBTB
Waking up a certain amount of time into your sleep cycle.

This is a simple, powerful, and easy to accomplish technique for increasing the chance of lucid dreaming. What's the catch? You have to wake up in the middle of the night. WBTB is meant to awaken your conscious mind close to your next REM cycle, so that you can use another technique to reach a lucid dream. The usual time to wake up after you go to sleep is 5 hours. After waking up, you stay up for a little while, or a long while, depending on who you ask. For our purposes, we'll use a short while. Stay awake for about 10 to 15 minutes, and read something about lucid dreaming, or something to keep you thinking about lucid dreaming. You then perform the technique to induce a lucid dream as you're going to sleep.

MILD (Simplified)
Repeating an affirmation to yourself as you fall asleep.

This technique was originally created by Stephen LaBerge, and was much more complex then what we are going to be using. I have taken one of the more important parts of it for use with WBTB. This simple component is repeating affirmations to yourself as you fall asleep. Just keep repeating something like "I realize I am dreaming" "I will realize when I am dreaming" or "I recognize when I am dreaming." You could also go the more direct route and say something like "I will perform a reality check in 20 minutes" or perhaps "I will be in a dream in 20 minutes." These are just suggestions, feel free to come up with your own. Now, as you are falling asleep, repeat the phrase of your choice. Focus on that phrase, and try and keep it as your main focus. Do this for 10 minutes, or until you fall asleep. Make sure that you aren't concentrating too hard so that you keep yourself wide awake. The goal is too fall asleep with this phrase repeating in your head so that your subconscious will perform it.

The Combined Technique
Putting WBTB and MILD together.

Set your alarm for 5 hours from when you think you'll fall asleep. When it goes off, try and let your body stay asleep. Get up and try and get your mind active and focused on the goal of lucid dreaming. You might read something on a lucid dreaming forum, a book about lucid dreaming, or anything that is related to dreaming and that will wake up your mind. Some people do math problems to wake up the analytical side of their brain. Do this for around 10-15 minutes or until you feel sufficiently awakened, then go back to bed and do MILD.

Why This Works
An explanation of why this is effective.

These two techniques are fairly easy to accomplish, with a little willpower. WBTB isn't really a technique in itself, it is more like a boost for any other technique. It will increase your chances of whatever you are doing by a significant amount. The reason behind this is the WBTB technique wakes you up in a defined part of your sleep cycle, right before you're about to hit the best REM sleep. Since you are now conscious, the chances of becoming lucid are increased, as your conscious mind won't be as asleep as it normally would have been. Combined with a simplified version of MILD, you have a very effective technique. The reason MILD is more effective with WBTB is because whatever you were just running through your head is more likely to be still in your head when you hit REM, because you were so close in the first place. The ideal application of this technique would have you falling asleep in about 10-15 minutes after you first started MILD.

Points to reiterate

Realize that this will probably take a few tries, and will probably leave you a little groggy. You will probably want to only preform this when you have some extra time in the morning, or aren't rushed.

Submitted article #4:

bwgen download.

HILD
Using hypnosis to influence the subconscious to induce lucid dreams.

Hypnosis is a very powerful tool, but it is a tricky one. Belief is the engine that fuels the subconscious, and hypnosis is sort of a cheat to get yourself to believe something. It allows you to more easily connect with your subconscious and give it suggestions as to what you believe, and what you want it to perform based on these beliefs. However, if you don't believe something completely, it won't happen, or will have a greatly diminished chance of happening. This is where habitually re-affirming your belief in something comes in. By brainwashing yourself into believing something and honestly wanting to believe it, eventually you will. Once you've got your subconscious and your conscious on the same page and working together, you can achieve lucid dreams with ease.

The reason simply believing something will work and then asking your subconscious to do it works is fairly simple. You are relying on your subconscious to initiate your lucid experience, as is the case with DILDs. If you tell your subconscious what you want it to do, in unambiguous terms, it will act on it. If your subconscious believes that you can have a lucid dream at will, and that you are going to have one tonight because you told it so, it will act to make it happen. It will make you realize dream signs, or simply make you lucid without reason.

Self Hypnosis for Lucid Dreaming
The two part formula for success

Daily Affirmations

This is the part for putting your conscious on the right track. During the day, repeat this to yourself:

"I have the ability to lucid dream, I have simply chosen not to use it until now"

You can use anything similar to that as long as you believe your reason. Once you have convinced your mind that you really can dream, and that you simply have not been utilizing your control over dreams. I'm not lying to you, you really do have this power. Everybody has it to some degree, some people just have to develop it more. Look to how your dream recall was before you started working on it. I bet you didn't think how much you've improved in that area was possible. This isn't any different, so just realize that you are master of your dreams, you just haven't been filling the role until now.

Self Hypnosis

Hypnosis is all about belief, if I haven't stressed that enough, so make sure you believe that hypnosis is possible and can happen to you. Want it to happen. Next, find a quiet place you can stay for 30-45 minutes to without being interrupted. Start up Bwgen and put it on the deep relaxation pre-set. Put on the headphones and start the preset. Now try and relax as much as possible. Think about each muscle in your body becoming relaxed, starting with your face muscles, then neck, then shoulders, etc. Work your entire way down your body and try to feel your muscles becoming relaxed. Do this a few times, until you feel in a sort of dreamy, relaxed state. you might repeat something to yourself such as:

"My body becomes relaxed, my muscles loose all tension."

Now that you're relaxed, we're going to start off with a phrase to build your faith in yourself. There are several applications for hypnosis, but we'll use dream recall for our purposes. Repeat this phrase or something similar to yourself for your first few sessions:

"I remember my dreams every morning upon awakening."

Once you have noticed the effects that has had an effect, and have convinced yourself that hypnosis is actually effective, move onto some lucid dreaming statements. Depending on your belief and comfort with hypnosis, you will want to use one of these possible suggestions, or make one of your own like these. You'll probably want to use one of the "weaker" suggestions first, and work your way up.

"I have the ability to lucid dream at will."
"I lucid dream every night."
"I will lucid dream tonight."
"I lucid dream at least once a week."

The reason I gave you some watered down versions of the same thing is that your conscious mind has to not only find it possible, it has to believe it for it to be truly effective. That's where the first half of this comes into play. I'd suggest starting on the bottom sentence, that way you can tell yourself that you didn't fail tonight, you simple are going to dream some other time this week.

Disclaimer
This isn't as effective for everybody as the other techniques were. However, if it works, it really works well.

This technique isn't for everybody, but it is worth trying to see if it works for you. Why you ask? If perfected, all you need do to achieve lucid dreams is tell yourself you will have them. It is the least work possible to induce a dream, if you can even call telling yourself to have a lucid dream work. As everybody isn't successful with self hypnosis, or may have trouble believing in hypnosis in the first place, this may not be a great stand alone technique for some individuals. I would recommend adding it to any lucid dreaming routine though, as it adds the chance of a spontaneous DILD.

Points to Reiterate

Remember that this is a belief building exercise. Just because you thought you were completely convinced, had hypnotized yourself and given the proper suggestions to your subconscious but had no success doesn't mean that you "failed." It simply means you haven't built up enough faith in yourself.

Hypnosis is not as effective on everybody as I would like. Thusly, this may not be very effective for you. However, do not give up after two days. Stick with this one for at least two weeks, and if after that period of time you don't notice any difference in your dream recall or dreams in general, then it's fine to move on.

Belief is paramount to everything in hypnosis. You have to really believe what you're saying, no half-hearted mindless repetition. The more you believe, the greater your chances of success.

END

-Hatter