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You have decided you want to be a lucid dreamer, otherwise known as a conscious dreamer. Knowing what you would like to do is good, the question remains on how do you accomplish this?

You may have heard that there are benefits to being a lucid dreamer/lucid dreaming. This is the case, but to get a clearer picture of what these benefits are, you need to take a look at what usually happens when you go to sleep.

What typically happens is you lay down, you close your eyes and you wake six to eight hours later – you may or may not remember any dreams you gave had in this time. In and of itself, not terribly exciting.

Normal sleep just seems to serve the purpose of simply refreshing ourselves in order to live out the next day. But what if you could control that period of time that you have dreams?

What if you could be an active instead of passive participant in your dreams? What if you could take control of your dream instead of being controlled by it? Someone who has managed to become a lucid dreamer can do all of this – they are not bound by anything except for their imagination.

This sounds great, but how can you become a lucid dreamer? There are two ways to reach this state – one is by having a DLID, or dream initiated lucid dream. These are instances where the dreamer has taught themselves to recognize that they are having a dream and start to assert control over the direction of their dream.

The other method is by having a wake initiated lucid dream (or WILD) this is where the dreamer transitions from a state of wakefulness to lucid dreaming without a sensation of falling asleep. The dreamer simply goes straight from being awake to lucid dreaming.

So what are the actual methods used to induce these two types of lucid dream experiences?

Dream Recall

If you’d like to lucid dream, perhaps one of the most successful way of doing so is known as dream recall. Dream recall is simply the ability to remember one’s dreams. By remembering your dreams, you are able to recognize them when you are sleeping, because most likely, you will have the same dream, or at least aspects of it, more than once.

A dream journal is perhaps the best way to learn this skill. Use this to write down every detail of your dream that you can remember immediately after you wake. If you wait., it will become increasingly difficult to recall.

Mnemonic Induction of Lucid Dreams (MILD)

Developed by renowned lucid dream researcher Dr. Stephen LaBerge, this technique works by telling yourself to recognize a certain object or situation when you see it in your dreams. When you see this object, it triggers the realization that you are in a dreaming, allowing you to begin lucid dreaming.

Wake-Back-to-Bed (WBTB)

This simple process has you taking no action except to set an alarm that will waken you in less time than you normally sleep. For most of us about five or six hours will do it. After the alarm awakens you do not try to fall back to sleep. For about an hour you should read, watch TV or concentrate on lucid dreaming then go back to sleep.

According to Dr, LaBerge, this method has a 60% success rate. The idea here is to wake yourself in the midst of a REM cycle so that upon returning to sleep, lucid dreaming will be easy to achieve.

Cycle Adjustment Technique

Developed by Daniel Love, in this technique you first acclimate yourself to waking 90 minutes earlier than usual. Then alternate waking early with waking at your usual time. When you wake up at the later (regular) time, your body will begin to stir 90 minutes earlier, giving you a much better chance at achieving a state of lucid dreaming, at least during this 90 minutes.

Wake-initiation of Lucid Dreams (WILD)

This technique involves maintaining mental alertness even as your body shuts down for sleep. Think of it as if you are in a movies theater, with the film soon to begin; your closed eyelids are like the black screen just before the movie starts.

A number of ways to stay aware are counting, imagine climbing or descending stairs, chant, control your breathing, count your breaths, and concentrate on relaxing the body from their toes to head. (This all falls under the term ‘self hypnosis’.) It is best to do this when you are not tired, like in the afternoon.

Technologies like strobe lights and dreaming masks can also help you to become a lucid dreamer.

Listening to binaural beat frequencies through a head set is the simplest and most consistent way to create a lucid dream.

These work by synchronizing the two hemispheres of the brain and have the effect of almost instantaneously changing your brainwaves to the REM frequency needed for a lucid dream to occur.

With self affirmations and self hypnosis combined with binaural sound, being a lucid dreamer is a goal which anyone can reach.