5 Ways to start Lucid Dreaming

February 24th, 2008 • Related • Filed Under

You might have heard of lucid dreaming and may have even experienced a few lucid dreams but can you make them happen every night?

The answer is a definite yes.

What is Lucid dreaming?

Lucid dreaming is when you wake up consciously within your dream, whilst your body is still asleep. This means that you can control your dream. It takes practice and patience but once you have mastered the art of lucid dreaming, it can be life changing.

I first started lucid dreaming about 15 years ago and the first experience left me euphoric for about 1 week. I researched it at the time and eventually was able to control my dreaming life.

Here are 5 ways to get you started on your lucid adventures

Start by learning to remember your normal dreams. This can be done quite easily after a few days. Before you drop off to sleep, tell yourself that you will remember your dreams as soon as you wake up. That is all there is to remembering your dreams. Soon you will be able to remember all your dreams and you will be able to do it without telling yourself.
During your waking day, ask yourself ‘Am I dreaming’. Really ask yourself and don’t just tell yourself that you are not dreaming, look for clues as to why you are not dreaming. A lot of people say they pinch themselves, but you can do this in a dream and feel the pain of the pinch, so that is not a good indicator. I usually tell myself if this is a dream I would be able to start flying, try, and will yourself to fly. Obviously don’t throw yourself off a bridge and then tell yourself you should be able to fly if this was a dream. In dreams it is well know that you cannot read properly, as the words become jumbled and start shifting, try and read billboards whilst you are out and about. Ask yourself this question about 5 times throughout your day.
A lot of lucid dreams occur whilst in the Alpha stage of sleep. You can learn to lucid dream quicker if you wake up about an hour earlier than usual and then drift back off to sleep asking yourself if you are dreaming. You will then drift back into an alpha stage sleep cycle. When you do start to dream again keep asking if you are dreaming and then try something like flying, just tell yourself to lift off the ground and fly. This will work eventually
When you have your first lucid dream the trick then is trying to control it. When your first lucid dream occurs you will become excited and more than likely lose the dream as the body gets too excited and will wake you up. Try and stay calm when you first realise you are lucid dreaming. There are advanced techniques for staying within a lucid dream like ‘spinning’, this is where you get your body to spin as fast as you can and this, for some reason, prevents you losing the lucidity.
Be aware of some strange phenomenon such as ‘sleep paralysis’ which is when your body is paralysed but your mind is fully awake. You cannot move your body at all but you will still be able to look around you and think normally. A panic might set in at this stage. This is a natural phenomenon for people who practice lucid dreaming and astral projection and the trick here is to stay calm and try and move 1 finger at a time and eventually the paralysis will wear off.

If you are interested I have written an 8 part course earlier in this blog.

Lucid dreaming part 1
Lucid dreaming part 2
Lucid dreaming part 3
Lucid dreaming part 4
Lucid dreaming part 5
Lucid dreaming part 6
Lucid dreaming part 7
Lucid dreaming part 8

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There Are 13 Responses So Far. »

Comment by Alex Shalman on 24 February 2008:

This is awesome, I think Lucid dreaming is one of the coolest things, seriously. Actually, I interviewed the master of Lucid dreaming, Erin Pavlina, and I loved several of her stories on the subject.

Comment by Naples on 24 February 2008:

Never knew that you could control your dreams! Sounds like the sleep paralysis can be a little on the scary side though.

Comment by Clangnuts on 24 February 2008:

I’ve done lucid dreaming in the past. It can be a great way to get the creative juices flowing. The hardest part is remembering everything afterwards. A pencil and notebook by the bed is essential.

Comment by Steven Aitchison on 24 February 2008:

Hi Alex, I will check out the interview with Erin. I am loving the happiness project and hopefully can get more time to visit everyones blog as I have been manic for the last 5 week.

Hi Glen, the scarier thing is having the sleep paralysis terrors, I won’t tell you about them, lol.

Hi CN, nice to see you back, i haven’t seen you around in a while or stumbled any of your pages. you’re right I used to keep a dream diary by the side of my bed.

Comment by Phil the Plumbing Expert on 25 February 2008:

Very interesting! For me, lucid dreaming is quiet scary because your body is paralysed… I wanna experience that!

Comment by Steven Aitchison on 25 February 2008:

hi Phil

Sleep paralysis doesn’t occur all the time, it’s just when you are training your mind to be alert and your body is asleep it can happen. I actually got into the sleep paralysis as a way into astral projection and had a few successes with it, so it can be a good thing sometimes.

Comment by Steve Olson on 25 February 2008:

Taking your course is something I am going to add to my GTD projects list. I’ve worked on lucid dreaming in the past and had some success. But I’d guess I needed more information and more persistence to get there.

Comment by Hunter Nuttall on 25 February 2008:

I’ve experienced sleep paralysis a few times, but never lucid dreaming. I have extremely poor dream recall, so I’m working on that. I’ve started the habit of writing down whatever I can remember when I wake up, but unfortunately that’s usually nothing.

Comment by Jennifer Mannion on 25 February 2008:

Hi Steve, Thanks so much for this great post! I am definitely going to check out your course. It came at a PERFECT time — I had just set the intention last week to try and start lucid dreaming again. I tried it as a teen and was finally getting the hang of it and stopped — who knows why — some teen angst reason probably. But I have been very interested in starting again and listened to Erin Pavlina’s podcast on it. Thanks again — this will give me a step by step approach — can’t wait! Gratefully, Jenny

Comment by Jen, writer MembershipMillionaire.com on 26 February 2008:

I don’t ever recall actually experiencing a lucid dream. Lately, I’ve been able to remember my dreams in better details and I think I have, on occasion, hovered around number four. I sometimes get the faint feeling that I am dreaming and then a second later, I’m awake. And we have a term for that sleep paralysis thing where I come from. We call it “bangungot” and is supposedly hereditary.

Comment by Elizabeth on 8 March 2008:

My son is 22 years old and has been having sleep paralysis since he was age 12. It started two weeks after a bad fall that put him in the hospital. He hates the sleep paralysis, he get it four or five times every sleep cycle, he also has lucid dreams. He is always tired and cannot get a regular job because of this problem. He has seen several specialist to no avail, no one can seem to help him.
Does anyone have any suggestions how NOT to have sleep paralysis? It has messed up his life! Fortunately, he knows everything there is to know about a computer and can make a living from home but his sleeping schedule is all messed up. Please help if you can……..

A caring mom

Comment by Steven Aitchison on 8 March 2008:

Hi Elizabeth, your son has obviously got into the habit of keeping his mind alert whilst his body is resting and it is time to unlearn that state which I don’t think will be easy.

I am willing to bet that your son does not have a regular sleeping pattern? he probably goes to bed at all hours of the morning and when he goes to bed his mind is still active with the thoughts of the day.

I would suggest the first thing to do is take a complete break away from his daily living routine. Go on holiday for a week to somewhere relaxing, somewhere he doesn’t think about his normal daily routine, somewhere away from a computer and a phone. And when he gets there ask him to set a sleeping routine of going to bed at maybe 11pm and getting up at 6-7am. This way his body is fully rested.

The reason for taking the break is to calm down his thoughts, I would imagine he has a very active mind and constantly thinking about different things that excite his mind and he is still thinking about them when he goes to bed, hence the reason his mind is alert but his body is trying to fall asleep. When he takes away the cause of his excitement it will deplete the effect of his condition.

I would also address the fall, which happened at a young age, does he speak about this much?

I am certainly not a medical person and the advice given here should only be taken as friendly advice and not medical advice.

Hope this helps Elizabeth

Comment by Jason on 26 March 2008:

I’m currently 31 years old, and I’ve experienced sleep paralysis since I can remember. Until I decided to search the subject one day on the internet, I thought I was crazy and didn’t want to tell too many people about it. I’ve found that any time I fall asleep on my back that my odds of experiencing the sleep paralysis are very high, as in 90% of the time. The easiest way for me to not experience it is to sleep on my side or stomach. I’ve had several occasions where I still do it on my side or stomach as well, but that has been very rare. Another tip, if you experience it and do not want to immediatly do it again, get up and walk around for a minute or two. If you go right back to sleep, chances are you will have another episode. I’ve grown to enjoy it at times though, it’s very easy to have a lucid dream or the out of body experience after an episode.

Also, Steven is right on track with the busy mind issue. I have the same problem. It sometimes takes me hours to fall asleep, then I do not want to wake up in the mornings. That leads to a very bad sleeping routine.

Elizabeth, if your son needs anyone to talk to about it, let me know.