Lucid Dreams: Have you had them? What are the best techniques?

The most successful, but probably one of the more difficult to adopt, ways of influencing the induction of lucid dreaming is to cultivate a mindset that always questions if you are dreaming or not. Work this kind of critical evaluation into your daily life and you will not only have a higher chance noticing the idiosyncrasies that indicate that you’re dreaming, but also a steadier awareness and higher lucidity in your waking life.

There are lots of other techniques, but the general undertone is to structure your life in such a way as to be thinking about your dreams often. Start a dream journal, record what you remember, and look over past dreams before bed. This will prime your brain to be thinking about them while you sleep, as well as slowly start to show you some of the common themes and patterns of your dreaming mind that have likely gone unnoticed.

Meditate. The states of calm abiding and awareness that are cultivated by meditation transition very well into lucid dreaming. The trick is to pay attention and be engaged without being super excited or attached. This will either wake you up or pull you back into nonlucidity. And aside from that, dreaming or not, meditation is a good idea!

There are audio tracks you can listen to (or make yourself) that are largely silent, except for the approximate periods you’re dreaming. Then a gentle voice reminds you that you are dreaming, and you may hear it in the dream and respond with increased awareness and control. There are masks that take this a step further, detect your REM periods and blink subtle lights when appropriate. Likewise, you can repeat a phrase or mantra to yourself as you fall to sleep, even something simple like “Am I dreaming?” over and over, as long as you actually try and answer that question! Look up MILD (Mnemonic Induction of Lucid Dreaming) and there will be many more examples.

Visit Inward Quest to learn more about Lucid Dreaming.

Did you enjoy this post? Why not leave a comment below and continue the conversation, or subscribe to my feed and get articles like this delivered automatically each day to your feed reader or web site as content.