“Forget them, Wendy. Forget them all. Come with me where you’ll never, never have to worry about grown up things again.” – Peter Pan
Lucid Dreaming 101
We all sleep about one-third of our lives and many of us never use that time creatively nor productively.
How many of you have had the experience of realizing that you where dreaming while in your dream? Maybe you where being chased by a monster and then told yourself, “hey!!..this cant be real.. I have to be dreaming”. Most likely after that realization you did not know how to proceed with your new-found awareness and ended up waking up.
Lucid Dreaming is the practice of becoming aware in your dreams and learning to control your dreams to a certain extent. To some people lucid dreaming comes very easy and with no effort, but to most people this experience happens very rarely and if it happens most don’t remember their dreams the next day. But the reality is that with a little training, anyone can dramatically learn to increase their chances of a lucid dream and learn to interact with the dream.
Why Would You Want to Lucid Dream?
When you learn to become lucid in your dreams you are able to explore your inner self and the different aspects of consciousness. In the dreaming environment you really are only limited by your imagination.
Adventure and Excitement: One of my favorite things to do when I am in a lucid dream is to fly like superman to exotic locations that I make up. I usually end up going to places that look like the beaches of Thailand.
Insight: Let’s say you are having a conversation in your dream with your wife, how would you like to ask your “dream” wife a few important questions you have put off. In your dream it will feel as if you are really talking to your wife and she will respond as if it where really her. But your consciousness is the one giving you the replies. When you wake up in the morning, you might realize that you got some incredible insights that you had not contemplated about in your waking life.
Problems: If you have a problem and not really sure how to solve it, write it down as your goal that next time you have a lucid dream you are going to try and answer that problem. You might really surprise yourself with how creative your subconscious can be in supplying you with answers that in waking life you had not considered.
Social Practice: Once you get the hang of it you will come to find that lucid dreaming can be so vivid that it will actually feel like your normal waking life. This can come in handy in playing out different scenarios in your dreams. You can use lucid dreaming for rehearsal for social events, public speaking, difficult or awkward confrontations.
Just to give you an example, there was an incredibly attractive woman who I saw frequently at a coffee shop, but never had the courage to introduce my self. One night I had lucid dream and told my consciousness that I needed to act confident, and approach her in the best way possible. My conversation with her was a very casual conversation, and I even made her laugh.
In my dream I was thinking to myself “see this isn’t so hard, sure she is extremely beautiful but she is just a normal person”. In the dream I end up asking her out on a dinner date, and she agrees. This realization even in my dream had a very calming and reassuring effect on me. A few days later I was back at the coffee shop, when I finished paying for my coffee, I walked up to her and struck up a conversation similar to my dream. My conversation with her felt really natural and not forced, it was like déjà vu. After about 10 minutes I got her phone number and ended up dating her shortly after.
Creativity: Personally I use lucid dreaming to come up with new ideas. When I was younger I was really into “streetball” a form of basketball that revolves around being creative and coming up with new moves, kind of like an updated Harlem Globe Trotter. I would realize that I was dreaming and than I would transport myself to a gym and tell myself to come up with a move I have never thought of, and with no hesitation my dreaming personality would carry out my intent.
Increasing Dream Recall
Before you are ready to have a lucid dream you need to train yourself at increasing your dream recall. I suggest you get a notebook that will be used solely for your dreams. Keep it near your bed or under your pillow. Affirm to your self that when you wake up that you will remember your dreams.
When you awake in the morning, spend the first few minutes just laying in bed with out doing anything. Just focus on letting any dream imagery and memories come to the surface. Write down anything, doesn’t matter if it makes sense or not. Later in the day those clues can lead to you remembering the majority of the content in your dreams. Once you train yourself to remember your dreams almost nightly, than proceed to some lucid dreaming techniques.
Lucid Dreaming Induction Techniques
Suggestion: When lying in bed have an affirmation you keep repeating to yourself as you drift off into sleep. I use “tonight In my dream I will become aware that I am dreaming” and really focus on that being the last thought that is in my consciousness as I transition into the dreaming world.
Mnemonic Induction of Lucid Dreams (MILD)
Created by: Dr. Stephen LaBerge, Ph.D of http://www.lucidity.com
The MILD technique employs prospective memory, remembering to do something (notice you’re dreaming) in the future. Dr. LaBerge developed this technique for his doctoral dissertation and used it to achieve lucid dreaming at will. The proper time to practice MILD is after awakening from a dream, before returning to sleep.
1. Setup dream recall:
Set your mind to awaken from dreams and recall them. When you awaken from a dream, recall it as completely as you can.
2. Focus your intent:
While returning to sleep, concentrate single-mindedly on your intention to remember to recognize that you’re dreaming. Tell yourself: “Next time I’m dreaming, I will remember I’m dreaming,” repeatedly, like a mantra. Put real meaning into the words and focus on this idea alone. If you find yourself thinking about anything else, let it go and bring your mind back to your intention.
3. See yourself becoming lucid:
As you continue to focus on your intention to remember when you’re dreaming, imagine that you are back in the dream from which you just awakened (or another one you have had recently if you didn’t remember a dream on awakening). Imagine that this time you recognize that you are dreaming. Look for a dreamsign–something in the dream that demonstrates plainly that it is a dream. When you see it say to yourself: “I’m dreaming!” and continue your fantasy. Imagine yourself carrying out your plans for your next lucid dream. For example, if you want to fly in your lucid dream, imagine yourself flying after you come to the point in your fantasy when you become lucid.
4. Repeat until your intention is set:
Repeat steps 2 and 3 until either you fall asleep or are sure that your intention is set. If, while falling asleep, you find yourself thinking of anything else, repeat the procedure so that the last thing in your mind before falling asleep is your intention to remember to recognize the next time you are dreaming.
Tip: I like to set my alarm 1 hour before I normally wake up, so usually on the 7th hour of sleep, which also tends to be during the R.E.M (rapid eye movement) stage of sleep. During this phase of sleep is where the most vivid dreams take place. When my alarm goes off and wakes me up, I focus on remembering my intent and quickly try and go to sleep as I am still very groggy. If I am able to stay focused I will almost immediately find my self in a lucid dream as I go back to sleep.
Dream Symbols:
Dream symbols can serve as triggers to let you know that you are dreaming. Just pick a person, place, or thing that will serve as your trigger. Several times through out the day I like to look at my watch and say to myself “tonight I will know that I am dreaming when I look at my watch”. Than if I am lucky, in my dream for some reason I will look at my watch, and right there like magic I realize hey I am dreaming.
Another weird thing you will find when you are lucid dreaming is that if you are reading something or looking at a clock, and you look away, when you look back again you will find that most of the time the words or the time has completely changed. This is also a good reminder to let you know that you are dreaming.
5. Take some natural supplements that can dramatically increase your chances in inducing a lucid dream. I recently wrote about it here: Supercharge Your Lucid Dreams With These Natural Supplements. These techniques have dramatically increased the vividness and length of my dreams.
I really hope you enjoyed this short introduction into the world of lucid dreaming and hopefully interested you enough to try and have your own lucid dream. If you try and don’t succeed don’t give up it can take weeks to months to have your first lucid dream, but when you do it will be well worth it. The experience can have a profound effect on you. Lucid dreaming truly is one of the greatest learning tools we have available, and if you’re going to be sleeping anyway, might as well learn to live in that world as well.
If this post peeked your interest, make sure you check out my friend Rebecca Turner’s concise guide to lucid dreaming as quick as possible. This is the guide I wish I had when I first became interested in lucid dreaming back when I was in middle school. It took me a lot of trial and error to figure it out on my own.
If you have any questions or if you have your own tips on lucid dreaming head on over to the community forum to participate.
I have been lucid dreaming for years…I couldn’t agree more we spend so much of our lives asleep there is so much we can do out there…so explore all you can. I haven’t had a bad dream since I was 4 or 5 and from lucid, to astral projecting to leaving your body at all sorts of times. There is so much we don’t know so go explore you might teach us all something new.
see you out there
I need help with all of this. I can remember my dreams very well but I can never realize that i’m dreaming!
I believe that there are many ways to do things… nothing is writing in concrete. It helps I think to spend time as often as possible writing down what you were dreaming about, then start focusing on what you want to dream about… I believe when you force anything it won’t happen….for me it was my out of body experience I had at 16 that I had true knowledge of being out of my body.. so it left me knowing when I was outside of myself, then whenever that happened I’d instantly know I was outside and with excitement would say… ohhhhh where should I go?? and with a thought I am there :~)
good luck
[...] 5)Campuzano, Ivan (2008, Desember 25). How to lucid dream easy. Ivan Campuzano [online]. Hentet fra, http://ivancampuzano.com/how-to-lucid-dream-easy/ [...]
This is a skill I really need to get the hang of and attempt everyday, because then I can begin to become fully aware not only when I am “awake” but also when I am sleeping. I have an amazing book called “Head Trip”. I really need to focus. Thanks
Great advice! Im going to try these techniques.
awesome
…let me know how it works out 
…
I think I’ve had several of these before…. Now that I come to realize it…
keep working at it
it is so much fun once you get the hang of it!
can you lucid dream while your day dreaming I really want to know.
I can only lucid dream when im high. (on marijuana) I think its due to fact that when i smoke i think about things way harder and thats how i remember that im dreaming. (If you’ve never smoked before i don’t suggest you start just to have lucid dreams, this is just the way i do it. It’s different for everyone)
I smoke too lol, but when I get stoned I rarely remember my dreams. Different strokes, huh buddy?
Very interesting read. Ive done this a few times on accident. The first time, I was running through a maze of cubicles while volcanic lava was seaping over the top, but the lava flow was different. Almost as if it was following me. This was when my brain told my subconcious that I was dreaming. After that, all I had to do was think and the lava disappeared and the maze of cubicles turned into an office building, full of white collar workers. I woke up shortly after that.
awesome story, thanks so much for sharing
….
Is it strictly necessary to get full 8 hours of sleep to practice
lucid dreaming?
No, you need to understand your own sleep cycle to see when your body is in the REM cycle, which is ideal for becoming aware in your dreams.
I’m 14 year old boy and I follow all your step and i still cant lucid dream ( i know it takes time ) but i been doing this for a month and still i dont have the lucid experiences and tip?
Have you had any luck yet? Meditation during the day time can help you. Just learning to be more aware in the day time can translate to being aware in the night time.
i only realised that i was dreaming once in one month practising and that time when i realised that i was dreaming … i didn’t know what to do i mean i couldnt keep myself in sleep and i woke up and went to tell my parents that i was able to realise that i was in a dream but i was still dreaming … and after that i woke up for real .. and i said what the fuck … aafter that i havent been able to realise that im dreaming in my sleep … but i will … wont give up
Have you had any more lucid dreams since then?
i am 10,weird i am here huh?i was dreaming last night that i was stuck at walmart when my mom was at work,and i autimatically realized that it was a dream when i asked my 14 year old neighboors in my dream,if they could help me get home,they pulled out a gun,i realized it was a dream because where is a 14 year old gonna get a gun?i automatically turned myself into a vampire,i killed them…i have weird dreams…
haha, perfect examples
thanks for sharing your experiences……
when i start dreamin ill get to know iam dreamin but i wake up….so wat to do?
you need to learn to remain calm and not exert too much force on the dream…be gentle…one thing it try is to try and remain calm and in your dream gently rub your hands together…this tends to stabilize the dream for me…thanks for sharing…
Okay, everybody imagine, what if when we are lucid dreaming, we are actually becoming intouch with our actual beings, and when we are “awake”, we are actually in our dreaming stage….MIND BLOWN
keep exploring that
keep going deeper 
Hi my name is lily, and I am twelve, I have dreamed lucidly all my life in every dream, until I was about 11 and a half. I don’t know why I stopped, but I did go to therapy because I have about the best imagination ever. I have been trying to be lucid. Any tips or ideas on why I am no longer lucid?
Since it came naturally to you now that you are consciously trying you may actually be hindering yourself…don’t worry about it so much..it may come back to you…your brain chemistry maybe changing now too….
Hey there! I have been lucid dreaming now for around a year and a half. I learnt about it in an A-Level psychology lesson, the idea of being able to control my dreams, just seemed amazing. The need to master this ability gripped me. I searched the web for ways to do this, although none tended to work. The only solution I could find to do this was to ask myself the question “am I asleep”. I done this in reality one every few hours for about a week, them one day in my dream state, I asked myself the question, I realised I was dreaming and woke up immediately. Over the next few months I practised this technique, perfecting it so I wouldn’t wake up, so I could carry in dreaming. It worked, and I lucid dream almost every night. the only problem is, recently, when I do lucid dream, my dreams always end up in a nightmare-ish state. For example, I could be in a hotel room one minute, the next it will be shrinking, trapping me. Does anyone else get this? Being in contro of a dream one second, then being totally out of control the next?
thanks so much for sharing, happy to hear you can induce them regularly…I really haven’t had the problem you are experiencing…it can be due too many things….whats going on in your life right now? you change up your diet?…
Hi I have a nightfall problem and a real bad one too, is lucid dreaming a solution for this problem?
it can be, if you gain enough control you can just simply set the intention to avoid this problem….
Well, after reading this I wanted to lucid dream so I tried, and both of the times I did I dreamt about tarantulas either chasing me or biting me. I understand why this happened – because I’m scared of spiders and I should have realized it was a dream, but I can’t seem to lucid dream!! Advice?
I have had lucid dreams since I can remember… the best really stay in my head.. I need help with my flying.. when I start flying I am scared of going too far and end up in space haha I know it sounds silly, but it terrifies me. Also, I wish I can’t stop being scared of not feeling my heart beat (I feel like if I’m death or something). And sometimes I loose control of my lucid dream, and it is not pleasent at all is like if all my fears come out in once.
Thanks so much for sharing, you are having many interesting experiences…I would say that just keep exploring your dream world…just sit back and enjoy the ride…even when it is scary….
There is a technique that i learn and practice.. whenever you feel like slipping from your lucid dream, spin yourself.. and your lucid will resume..
p/s: why are there so many school kids reading this blog?
thanks for sharing, I have not had to do this in a long time…
I`m Hannah and I want to lucid dream when ever i want, but its only happened a few times and i don`t remember how i did it, any advice
keep practicing every day what this article says, you need to train yourself….
Hello, I’m 15 years old and would like to start lucid dreaming. Very very badly. I can barely even remember dreams. I usually remember dreams vividly once a month. I wish I could remember them more often! The last vivid dream that I can remember was in late December. This drives me CRAZY! Ever since a few nights ago, I’ve turned off my tv before and during sleep. Two nights ago and last night I remember waking up in the middle of the night and remembering a dream but when I fall back asleep and wake up officially in the morning I remember almost nothing. Like last night, the only thing I remember is having a question about Spanish and a girl that sits next to me in Spanish answered it. But when I woke up in the middle of the night it was a long elaborate dream. Does anyone have any suggestions on how to remember regular dreams and for me to start lucid dreaming?? I would REALLY appreciate it! Thanks!!
For remembering dreams, you can try this trick:You need to make sure that you don’t open your eyes immediately. If you do, your dream will most likely disappear without a trace. If you have an alarm clock that wakes you up in the morning, try to position it somewhere where you can turn it off without having to open your eyes. This should prolong the existence of your dream. After this, you should try to write your dreams down in a notebook or journal so you’ll remember. After you do this for a while, your dreams should become progressively easier to remember.
For remembering dreams, you can try this trick:You need to make sure that you don’t open your eyes immediately. If you do, your dream will most likely disappear without a trace. If you have an alarm clock that wakes you up in the morning, try to position it somewhere where you can turn it off without having to open your eyes. This should prolong the existence of your dream. After this, you should try to write your dreams down in a notebook or journal so you’ll remember. After you do this for a while, your dreams should become progressively easier to remember
I lucid dream where I know Im in a dream, but don’t really make decisions. help?
Whenever I smoke marijuana before I go to sleep I almost always have lucid dreams and if I don’t have a lucid dream I remember every part of my dream
Hey Mezz,
Thanks for giving basic concepts for newcomers to lucid dreaming. I think things that are crucial when attempting to lucid dream are increasing your dream recall, being honest with yourself, and seeking to improve progressively. Ever since I started getting into lucid dreaming, I always made sure I was descriptive in my dream journal that I would keep in a Microsoft document.
A lot of newcomers, at least from my experience and their responses of “why can’t I lucid dream well” and such disregard having discipline with their dream journals. Dream journals help a lot with figuring out your dream signs, and if a person doesn’t know a good amount of what occurs frequently in their dreams, they’ll have less chance of pulling of being lucid in their dreams.
And as for supplements, Lucid dreaming definitely can convince people to remember that taking your vitamins is always a good thing. Hopefully people won’t get too crazy with supplements like Galamantine and other components that promote the chance of having vivid and memorable dreams.
Awesome post Mezz, thank you for putting in effort into this.
My pleasure, thanks so much for contributing, please be back soon!
Ivan´s last [type] ..Why You Need To Be SMART To Achieve Your Goals
This his is not the easiest, the easiest is binaural beats.isocranic beats can get to you in lucid dreams in 3-4 days.
I still cannot LD! It’s completely aggravating to
Not be able to do so. Wild does not work for me, and WBTB barely works. And MILD doesn’t work either. Any other ways?
Hey guys im Anex and after reading this article i realized that I’ve had the same dream more than one and I’ve never actually tried to have a lucid dream before so if you guys have any tips on how i can quickly train my to realize when I’m dreaming it would really help
When I was young, I would do this all the time subconsciously. I got so good at it that I started seeing things in my dreams that would later happen in real life o.o Now I can’t do it at all. Any help?
ilove lucid dreaming. i had to confront an awkward situation when in real life a boy said to me that he liked me nd i didnt know how to respond so i lucid dreamt that i actually like him but i didnt realize. now we are bf nd gf thanks to u
another thing was that whatever i lucid dreamt happend in real life. some ppl think im a phsycic. when i was a kid lucid dreamt that i was a wizard but what was weird was that me and my brother had the exact same dream nd we woke up at the same time nd shouted “you had the same dream as me.”
i love lucid dreaming because we sleep half of the day so dreaming is half of our life so i want to have fun in it
when i lucid dream i always feel tired and i feel like i dont get much sleep when ive been sleeping for like 12 hours. any advice. most of my dreams are about my social life. i like to feel as if im controling my real life.
My 1st lucid dream:
I was dreaming about a boy i had a crush on. I wasnt sure if this was a lucid dream so i said “Hold my hand.” and he did. I then said “Hug me.” and he did. And i really liked the fact that he would do everything that i wanted him to do so i finally said “Kiss me.” he kissed me nd i had lots of fun.It felt real when i lucid dream. I really like this boy nd he probably doesnt like me bak but when i lucid dream it feels as if he is in love with me! YAY! I have a lucid boyfriend.
My 1st lucid dream:
I was dreaming about a boy i had a crush on. I wasnt sure if this was a lucid dream so i said “Hold my hand.” and he did. I then said “Hug me.” and he did. And i really liked the fact that he would do everything that i wanted him to do so i finally said “Kiss me.” he kissed me nd i had lots of fun. I am in love with this boy and he probably doesnt like me bak in real life but when i lucid dream he’s in love with me so i now have a lucid boyfriend. Im not crazy by the way. lol
I’m a thirteen year old girl and the thought of lucid dreaming is very interesting! I have done it before, many times, but I forget them after maybe two hours prior to the dream. I remember this on nightmare/dream where I was in a desert surrounded by hanging people. Beside me was the remnants of a wall and a window that was just barely standing on the ground, and my very good friend. I was really freaked out, but then My friend told me to jump through the window. That was when my dream became lucid, and I jumped through the window. Instead of landing on the other side, though, I actually landed in a luscious forest, surrounded by my family. From then on, all I had to do to ‘switch dreams’ was jump through a window.
Weird, huh? Our minds can come up with the craziest things!
I have yet to have a lucid dream. My dreams are never very vivid, and the most often i ever dream is about once a month. is there anyway to improve on this? on school days i get about 5 hours of sleep, and on weekends i get about 10-12 hours. Like, how can I have more dreams? Is medicine the only way?
I’ve probably only had a few lucid dreams that I can actually recall in my life. My first time becoming aware in my dream was a very interesting and strange experience. My dream contained many random events that seemed all too fictional so I knew I was dreaming and I tried to wake myself up, but I felt disconnected, I set my mind on waking up, but nothing happened. Sometimes I could feel my eyes trying to open which sounds rather odd but that’s what I recalled when I actually woke up.Any ideas on that whole scenario?
I’ve been trying this myself for abit of time now to try and combat 2 very horrific “wake dreams” is what i call them, were by im asleep and i dream im awake, i cant move at all and when i shout no words can be heard no matter how hard i try, another is the same, but struggling very hard to breath and still not being able to move, still it has not appeared to work anyone have any suggestions? to describe it i do actually know i have dreamt it but only when i wake up when it occurs when im sleeping i do genuinly think im awake while doing it, even tho i have had it many many times and i know its only a dream…if that makes any sense at all!
Is it possible to create such an insane dream to the point you cannot control it?
I can always tell when I’m dreaming, it controlling them that I am working on. When I dream I’ll know I’m asleep and when I can’t figure out how to control it I’ll start focusing and I’ll make myself automatically wake up whenever I want to.