What is lucid dreaming? A lucid dream is any dream in which one is aware that one is dreaming.

~ Dutch Psychiatrist Frederik van Eeden

• Lucid Dreaming - the action of dreaming with the realization that you are dreaming as well as being able to control your dreams.
  
• Dream Journal - the place where you write down your dreams of the previous night.
  
• Semi-lucid - the state of realizing you are dreaming; however, you don't have control of your actions, only your thoughts.
  
• Dream Signs - signs that will tell your brain you are in a dreaming state. Normally results in lucidity.
  
• False Awakenings - dreaming of waking up in your previous sleeping spot. Normally in your room. Most people will not know they are dreaming, and they will fail to become lucid before waking up.
  

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Dream Memory (Also referred to as Dream Recall)

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Inducing Lucid Dreams

Besides Dream Recall, learning how to induce lucid dreams is the most important part of lucid dreaming. Obvious, right? It may be so, but it isn't easy. I'll be completely honest (again), this is the hardest part of lucid dreaming. The easiest part is the part you are all looking forward to; controlling your dreams. Before that, let's learn how to initiate lucid dreams.

Believe it or not, you have all had many, many, many, many, many... lucid dreams in your lifetime. Up until you learned to recall them correctly, you probably don't remember more than a few. Even in those, you might have only been semi-lucid. There are a few things you need to do to induce lucid dreams, and a few things you can optionally do to help improve probability of lucid dreams (with / without inducing).

I'll start with something very important, yet not 100% necessary.

• Reduce the amount of caffiene you consume. Caffiene can cloud your dream recall as well as reduce the (necessary) brain activity you use to remain semi-concious during lucid dreams. This includes soda, coffee, energy drinks, etc. I'm not saying that you can't have any of these things, but limit the amount you drink. As for energy drinks, I would suggest staying away from those if lucid dreaming is an important goal for you.
  

Now for the actual technique. There are so many different ones, so many variations, but I will teach you the one I use. If it doesn't work for you, fine tune different parts to make it fit yourself. If you still have trouble, try looking up different techniques for inducing lucid dreams.

The first thing you need to do is put your body in a harmless state of sleep paralysis. Keep in mind this is simply the term used; you are not paralyzed for any out there that are paranoid.

The process is simple. Lie flat on your back on something comfortable. (Beds would be the applicable furniture) Sprawl your body out; legs forward, head at a comfortable angle, arms slightly apart from your side. Now all you have to do is flex. Start with your toes; flex them as hard as you can. Then move to your ankles, calves, thighs, abs, all the way up and through your arms. This includes your face; give an ugly smile and stretch those face muscles. Now relax. If you wish, repeat this once more.

Now that you are all relaxed, maintain your position of lying on your back. If you are a side sleeper, that is fine; however, I have always had more success lying on my back regardless of my side-sleeping habits. Shut your eyes and let your mind wander. Don't think of anything stressful, however. This will make you less relaxed and perhaps throw away your opportunity of becoming lucid. Go over the (non-stressful) things that happened today. The object here is to notice when you start drifting. There are normally slow-moving colors. If you need to see what it looks like, here's a trick I learned myself; close your eyes, apply pressure (not too much) to your closed eyelids, and just hold them there. You will notice weird colors floating around, and it normally looks all symmetrical.

Let the sleep drag you in, but not too fast. Subliminally tell yourself that you will remain partially concious and you are still in control. Make sure that you don't move throughout this entire process. Stay relaxed. At some point, you will drift off to sleep and you won't have any control. Now, the great thing about unconciouos minds is the time perception. (Or lack of) Most of the time, you will instantly find yourself in a dream even though it takes around 90 minutes to reach REM.

Upon entering the dream, you normally won't be lucid; but you almost always have some control of your thoughts (not actions). Here are some dream signs:

• Throughout the day, let's say every time you walk through a doorway, say the words, "Am I dreaming?" Simultaneously , plug your nose and take a deep breath through it. This sounds silly, but here's the reason: In your dream, plugging your nose does nothing. You will still feel like you are breathing because your body won't mimic the actions.
  
• There are some other things you can do to check your concious state: Put your fingers through the palm of your other hand. Cross your arms and watch your elbows go through the opposite arm. The reason these things work are because the logical portion of your brain literally shuts down. When your dreaming, who's to say that you can't put your foot behind your head and through your elbow?
  
• Although you can't think logically, there are still a few things that your brain will make note of. If you enter a dream and see your english teacher flying over your head naked on a unicorn with rabbit ears, you will probably think some weird shit's up. Capture this moment, try and force yourself to believe you are dreaming.
  

If you repeat the action enough (e.g walking through a door & plugging your nose) you will do it in your dreams subconciously. You don't have to choose this: maybe every time you look at the ceiling you plug your nose. Whatever works best for you; mine has always been the doorway.

Now that you understand how to enter a lucid dream, let's find out how to maintain stability for the ultimate, vivid experience.

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Lucid Dream Stability

So you're finally lucid. You're having all the fun in the world with no consequences. Then, all of a sudden, you wake up. You're pissed off and you throw your pillow across the room, knocking over 3 $1500 chinas.

If you don't want to pay $4500, you're going to want to learn how to stabalize yourself once you become lucid. Even the thought of becoming lucid can fill your body with adrenaline and wake you up. Signs of instability are fading to blackness, bluriness, finding it hard to move, and inaudible surroundings. Here are some tips to help stablize your dream if you find yourself in an unstablized predicament.

• Stop what you are doing and simply spin around. Twirl on your feet 4 - 5 times, then stop and just focus on one thing. You should have any of the mentioned symptoms fade away.
  
• Smile. This sounds really weird. However, smiling releases endorphans which will help you focus.
  
• Wave your hand in front of your face. It may sound like it would aid you in LOSING focus, however, let your eyes follow your hand and you should have some symptons fade.
  
• All around, spinning & smiling is probably the best. Waving your hand is the last resort.
  

Now, here are some things you shouldn't do:

• Blink. My first ever lucid dream was crushed by my eyelids. Re-opening your eyes after blinking will almost always cause your dream to become black. The best thing to do after accidentally blinking is to instantly try one of the techniques mentioned above. The worst thing you can do is blink again. When you blink, there's a small chance that your unconcious body will put more pressure on it's eyelids, sometimes causing you to actually blink & wake up.
  
• Get too excited. As mentioned, adrenaline will normally wake you up. If you find out you're lucid, don't freak out. Enjoy the moment, but don't instantly try and fly through the air laughing your ass off.
  

A few things to avoid:

• False awakenings. This is a lucid dreamer's biggest enemy. A way to avoid false awakenings is to check the time before you lie down in bed. If you happen to "wake up" in the middle of the night and the time on your alarm clock reads 11:watermelon, chances are you are having a false awakening. Sometimes you can use the realization of a false awakening as a Dream Sign to become lucid, so they are helpful if you become experienced enough to recognize false awakenings.
  
• Too much in-dream sexual activity. Don't lie to yourself, sex in dreams would be an amazing fantasy. You are actually capable of stimulating the sexual parts of your brain and achieving orgasm in dreams. 150% of the time, this will wake you up with a mess to clean up.
  

That's it for dream stability. When you come to the realization of having a dream, stop and think for a minute. Don't become to excited. During you dream, don't ejaculate. Have fun!

(02-11-2013, 12:34 AM)ℳαṧтℯя Wrote: I didn't read it. Did you type this? or did you copy/paste it? if you copy and pasted it, you need to add source part.

(02-11-2013, 12:41 AM)Dr. Doom Wrote: Women in purple dress is screaming YOLO lol, but seriously great guide Box.

(02-15-2013, 11:15 PM)nehal7rao Wrote: Wow nice guide extremely in-dept and a quick question how long did this guide take you to make?, I wanna make my guide for something but I am not really that good at tutorials.

Quote:[*]Too much in-dream sexual activity. Don't lie to yourself, sex in dreams would be an amazing fantasy. You are actually capable of stimulating the sexual parts of your brain and achieving orgasm in dreams. 150% of the time, this will wake you up with a mess to clean up.