Lucid dreaming: Encyclopedia II - Lucid dreaming - Achieving and recognizing lucid dreams

Lucid dreaming - Achieving and recognizing lucid dreams

The most important aspect in lucid dreaming is to recognize that one is dreaming. Any time that a person recognizes a dream sign, or anything that is out of the ordinary, they should perform a reality test as stated below.

Many people report having experienced a lucid dream during their lives, often in childhood. However, even with training, achieving lucid dreams on a regular basis can be difficult and is uncommon. Despite this difficulty, techniques have been developed to achieve a lucid dreaming state intentionally. A number of universities (notably Stanford) conduct continued research into these techniques and the effects of lucid dreaming, as do some independent agencies such as LaBerge's The Lucidity Institute. At present, there are no known cases where lucid dreaming has caused damage on either the psychological or physiological level. However, it would be very hard to determine whether some form of lucid dreaming might prevent one from receiving a benefit from normal dreaming. Jungian psychology seems to indicate that non-lucid (or partly lucid) dreaming is a way to achieve self-understanding.

Dream recall, the ability to remember one's dreams, is very important to lucid dreamers because it is usually desired that the lucid dreamer be able to remember lucid dreams. Improvement of dream recall is usually the first step people take to learn to have lucid dreams. A common practice used to increase dream recall is to keep a dream journal, or a notebook of dreams. The dream journal should be kept right next to the bed so that dreams can be written down as soon as a person wakes up. This is important because waiting until later in the day to write dreams down will usually cause one to forget most of their content. After waking up, it is often helpful to keep your eyes closed while trying to remember a dream.

Lucid dreaming - Ability

The ability to experience lucid dreams depends on many factors:

• Some naturals have lucid dreams more often and more easily than others.
• Meditation, and involvement in consciousness focusing activities can strengthen the ability to experience lucid dreams.
• Induction techniques (see below) can help much in becoming lucid.

Lucid dreaming - Common techniques

Reality testing is a common method that people use to determine whether or not they are dreaming. This method involves performing an action with results that are difficult to re-create in a dream. An example of a reality test is to read some text, look away, and read it again, or to look at your watch and remember the time, then look away and look back. Observers have found that, in a dream, the text or time will often have changed. In the real world, the text will not change and the time will not change by more than one minute. Other tests include flipping a light switch or looking into a mirror. Light switches rarely work in dreams, and reflections from a mirror often appear to be blurred or distorted.

Another form of reality testing involves identifying one's dream signs, clues that one is dreaming. These can be anything, such as a pink elephant on parade to a talking dog. Dream signs are often categorized as follows:

• Action — The dreamer, another dream character, or a thing does something unusual or impossible in waking life, such as photos in a magazine or newspaper becoming 3-dimensional with full movement.
• Context — The place or situation in the dream is strange.
• Form — The dreamer, another character, or a thing changes shape, or is oddly formed or transforms; this may include the presence of unusual clothing or hair, or a third person view of the dreamer.
• Awareness — A peculiar thought, a strong emotion, an unusual sensation, or altered perceptions. In some cases when moving one's head from side to side, one may notice a strange stuttering or 'strobing' of the image.

Though occurrences like these may seem out of place in waking life, they may seem perfectly normal to a dreaming mind and learning to pick up on these dream signs will help in recognizing that one is dreaming.

Experienced lucid dreamers will often use more advanced techniques, such as those described below, to induce lucid dreams at will.

Mnemonic Induction of Lucid Dreaming (MILD) is a common technique used by lucid dreamers to induce a lucid dream at will. This method involves setting an intention to recognize dream signs while falling asleep.

Wake back to bed is the easiest way to induce a lucid dream. The method involves going to sleep tired and waking up 5 hours later. Then, focusing all your thoughts on lucid dreaming, staying awake for an hour and going back to sleep. The odds of having a lucid dream are then much higher. This is because the REM cycles get longer as the night goes on, and this technique takes advantage of the best REM cycle of the night. Also, lucid dreams are usually longer and more vivid at this time.

Waking induction of lucid dreaming (WILD) is one of the most common induction techniques used by lucid dreamers. In this particular technique, a person goes directly from being awake into a lucid dream. The key to this technique is recognizing the hypnagogic stage. This stage is within the border of being awake and being asleep. If a person is successful in staying aware while this stage occurs, they will eventually enter the dream state while being fully aware that it is a dream. Proponents recommend three steps to induce lucid dreaming: relax, stay aware, and enter your dream. There are key times at which this technique is best used; while success at night after being awake for a long time is very difficult, it is relatively easy after being awake for 15 or so minutes and in the afternoon during a nap. Users of this technique often count, envision themselves climbing or descending stairs, chanting to themselves, or any various form of concentration to keep their mind awake, while still being calm enough to let their body sleep. During the actual transition into the dreamstate, one is likely to experience sleep paralysis, including rapid vibrations and the old hag syndrome.

Adapted from the Wikipedia article "Achieving and recognizing lucid dreams", under the G.N U Free Docmentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki