20 Facts You Should Know To Help With Lucid Dreaming

Philosophers have long spoken of the many varying states our body experiences during the course of one lifetime. The two realities we encounter on a near daily basis are waking life and the dream state. Slipping into the narrow void that exists between these two states is referred to as Lucid Dreaming. If your mind becomes aware of the fact that it is dreaming, and you manage to sustain that realization, then you can successful manipulate the inherent nature of your dream. What you make of it from that point on boils down entirely to you. Some Lucid dreamers claim to have lived a thousand years in a single night, others have even helped researchers prove the possibility of complete control and consciousness in their dreams by successfully relaying signals using pre-determined eye ball movement in their sleep. It is entirely possible to become lucid in a few short weeks. Read on to find out how you can do this, and why you should even try this at all:

Reality Checks

The only way you can recognize a dream is by constantly questioning reality. Our brain releases Acetylcholine and other similar chemicals during our REM state that be can found when we are wide awake as well. This is why our dreams appear so real to us, despite being absolutely random and unbelievable at times. One of the most important techniques in differentiating between a dream and waking life is relying on reality checks. Constantly question whether you are awake or asleep, ask yourself as many times as you can the question ‘Am I dreaming’? If you do this enough times during your waking life, you are sure to replicate this habit in your dream, giving you a bigger chance of spotting it as well. Reality checks, however, work best when you understand the rules in dreams.

Understand The Rules

Unbelievably enough, there are universal rules to dreaming! There are certain things you cannot do in your dreams such reading time, fluctuating the lights in any room, reading fine print or even looking at your own hands. Understanding and applying these constants is the key to amplifying your reality checks. As soon as you ask yourself the question, ‘Am I dreaming?’, make sure you perform one of these tasks that cannot be performed in your dream, such as looking at your hands, fluctuating the light switch or trying to read the time. If you can’t do it, it means you are dreaming.

Carry A Totem

Another popular method of maintaining a grasp on reality is by carrying a personal totem. It is a reminder of reality and every time you can see or access your totem, you will know that you are awake.

Study Your Dreams

To be able to successfully identify a dream, it is important that you understand yourself. This can be easily achieved by maintaining a dream journal. Make sure you write down your most detailed thoughts about the dream(s) you best recall as soon as you wake up in the morning. By reading and observing the contents of your dream journal, you can understand the pattern of your dreams and also raise your level of awareness regarding the types of dreams you are most likely to have. Sometimes dreams tend to repeat themselves and if they do, you stand a greater chance of spotting it.

Fighting The Dream

Spotting a dream is only half the battle won. The first time you do spot a dream, odds are that your mind will not allow you to retain that memory for very long and will offer plenty of distractions to help you forget your observation. Your mind can be fascinating in that sense, as it fights to keep you in an unconscious state. It is important to persist when this happens as this is often the greatest pitfall most people face when they attempt to be lucid. Overcoming your own limitations will allow you to enter the lucid state.

Sustaining Lucidity

Your first lucid experience may not last as long as you may hoped, but it is important to not be discouraged. You may have managed to maintain lucidity only for a few seconds the first time, but persisting at this junction of your process is vital. Every experience of lucidity you encounter will power you to stronger experiences in future attempts. Soon you will manage to sustain your lucid state based on your needs and necessities.

Maintaining Your Sleep Cycle

You are most likely to be lucid when you are in the state of Rapid eye movement (REM). Our mind is closest to the state it operates in when you are awake during REM. Achieving lucidity during REM can lead to truly vivid and comprehensive dreams. If manage to maintain a constant sleep cycle, you are most likely to access your dream during REM.

Gamma Brain Waves

Our brain can emit the gamma wave, the highest frequency wave possible, only when it is highly self-aware and operating at near-maximum efficiency. This phenomenon is seen when measuring the frequencies emitted by geniuses, monks or lucid dreamers. This is an indication of the level one’s brain must operate at, to be able to achieve true lucidity.

Learning In Your Dreams

The process of achieving lucid dreaming does require a certain level of dedication and effort, but its rewards are magnificent and still not fully understood. The world has learnt more about this phenomenon in the last thirty years than it has ever known in its history. For instance, we now know that it is possible to learn new information in our lucid dreams that we had never previously encountered in our lifetimes. This means that a lucid dreamer can gain knowledge and information about specific or random ideas while they are asleep, thereby vastly improving on their intellectual capabilities.

Exploring Any Possibilities

Being in control of your dream allows you to explore any and all possibilities that your mind can fathom. You are in complete control here! You can get creative with the avenues you explore, visit remote and wondrous destinations, talk to or even create whoever you want and basically go berserk exploring every corner of your imagination.

Understanding One’s Self

You can even take the time to carry out some true self-introspection. You can explore the depths of your mind, your personality, your relationship with the people around you and truly get in touch with your innermost personality.

Practical Applications

There is no career or life that cannot benefit from lucid dreaming. As a writer, I can build and create the worlds I look to explore in my novels in my mind, before I actually translate the events to blank pages. A scientist or an engineer can use lucid dreaming to perfect a process or understand the strengths or weaknesses of a project they are pursuing. The possibilities are endless.

Meditation and Lucid Dreaming

There is a strong link that has been determined between meditation and lucid dreaming. Both processes involve utilizing your conscious mind in a manner that the brain in normally not used for. Achieving success in one of these tasks is known to bring success in the other as well.

Existing techniques

There are numerous existing techniques that are already being practiced by millions across the world to achieve lucidity. If you are not interested in exploring your own process to lucid dreams, then you can follow the methodology of one of these proven techniques such as wake-back-to-bed method or the MILD method.

Accidental Lucid Dreaming

It is a well known fact that most people manage to accidently achieve lucidity in their dreams. This happens most often during childhood but is also known to happen to most adults. This is further proof of the possibility of the process and the ease with which lucidity can be accessed when operating with a casual, trained and relaxed mind.

Binaural Beats and Isochronic Tones

There are many frequencies that can be used to help with the lucid dreaming process. Falling asleep to binaural beats and isochronic tones is one of the most reliable methods of achieving lucidity.

Many Chances At Lucidity

Most people perceive their dreams to be isolated events that happen once or twice in a night. In reality, we can have nearly ten to a hundred dreams a night which allows lucid dreamers many opportunities to recognize and enter their dreams.

Everyone Can Be Lucid

The best part about Lucid dreaming is that it can be achieved by everyone in the world. It just requires the right amount of patience and perseverance.

A Thousand Year Old Practice

Although most people believe Lucid dreaming to be a new found concept, it has been in practice for over a thousand years. The Egyptians are the first ones to have ever recorded this event which means that the possibility of this practice has never really gone unnoticed.

Path To Enlightenment

Tibetan monks refer to Lucid dreaming as Tibetan Dream Yoga and use this process as a stepping stone to their path to enlightenment. The process is highly revered and it is evident that the benefits of lucid dreaming can indeed be immense when utilized with purpose.