I've been quite interested on the topic of lucid dreaming for a while now and have been itching to write down my thoughts about it. A lucid dream involves the dreamer being conscious that they are dreaming in one of either two ways. The first starts as a normal dream until the dreamer ultimately concludes it is a dream, due to perhaps circumstances that seem far too unreal. This is known as DILD, a dream-initiated lucid dream. The second, known as WILD, a wake-initiated lucid dream, occurs when the dreamer goes from a waking state to a dream state with no lapse in consciousness.
After it came up in conversation a while ago, I found hardly any of my friends had experienced, or even heard of the concept. I've experienced a few that I can remember and when asked what I did during these dreams, a bewildered look of disappointment appeared on their faces most likely because I didn't do something one would most likely attempt, like flying or picking a fight with your boss. In fact all I can remember doing in these dreams was telling people that I was dreaming while they laughed at me. I think the reason I didn't attempt to do something that defied physics was because the discovery I had made seemed like the greater thrill.
The first lucid dream I experienced must have been in primary school. Our classroom had been turned into our local church and myself and my classmates were doing our work like normal on these church benches. Even though most of our dreams seem realistic while dreaming, but when we wake up they seem ridiculous, for some reason I stopped observing the dream and suddenly had a conscious control over myself. "This is a dream!" I shouted, confusing my classmates. I ran around telling them they didn't have to work because it was just a dream and we should go out and play. But, even though it was my own subconscious, they chose to ignore me and carry on working, while my teachers told me to sit back down. I remember feeling so alive and more awake than in real life, at which point I woke up, completely forgetting about what had happened until remembering late afternoon.
How to Induce Lucid Dreams
I've done a bit of research on how to induce lucid dreaming but since my last one, a year ago while on holiday, I haven't been able to force one upon myself. Here a few tips about inducing them:
The first step to induce lucid dreaming is by having a good dram recall. Dream recall is the ability to remember your dreams. Seeing as we could more than 10 dreams per night, no wonder people find it difficult to remember just one of them. Having a good recall increases your awareness of dreams, which can be improved by keeping a dream journal. After waking, try writing down anything you can remember about your dreams. This will help to show patterns in your dreams, for instance recurring places or people or objects that appear so you will be more likely to associate these things with a dream.
Reality checking can also help to induce lucid dreams. If you do discover recurring themes or objects, as noted above, then you must ask yourself if you're dreaming if you spot one of them in real life. Say for instance you always dream about Kelly Brook, who doesn't? If you see her in real life, which may be unlikely, ask yourself if you are dreaming. Hopefully this technique will carry on into your dreaming state, giving you the opportunity to decide whether you are actually dreaming.
Dr Stephen LaBerge is noted as a leader in the study of lucid dreaming. One of his techniques entitled MILD, mnemonically induced lucid dream, involves spending a little time every night doing an affirmation or visualization that you will have a lucid dream as you fall asleep. LaBerge has also proposed two ways to prolong a lucid dream. The first technique is spinning one's dream body. He proposed that when spinning, the dreamer is engaging parts of the brain that may also be involved in REM activity, helping to prolong REM sleep. The second technique is rubbing one's hands. The intention is to engage the dreamer's brain in producing the sensation of rubbing hands, preventing the dreamer becoming aware of the sensation of lying in bed. LaBerge tested his hypothesis by asking 34 volunteers to either spin, rub their hands, or do nothing. Results showed 90% of dreams were prolonged by hand rubbing and 96% prolonged by spinning. Only 33% of lucid dreams were prolonged with taking no action.
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