Lucid Dreaming or Conscious Dreaming is the art of being aware that one is actually dreaming. In simple words, while in dream, you are aware that all the events are not happening in fact, or ‘It’s Just A Dream!’ kind of situation. There is certain amount of control you can exercise while lucid dreaming, which is not the case in normal dreams.
Having control over your dreams is an incredible experience. Everything which you thought you couldn’t keep from holding you back from your goals just falls before you and you have new found mental clarity, even when awake.
But is it as simple as it looks like? Can everyone experience lucid dreaming and bring to life what otherwise seems difficult or impossible in this reality?
In fact, lucid dreaming is not too difficult a task. If you are determined to learn this powerful medium of expressing your inner desires, there are tried and tested ways of achieving this.
You need to know what you hope to achieve through lucid dreaming. Are you after something specific which can help you with other areas of your life, or do you just want to turn your dreams into a playpen of the imagination? Whatever your reason for wanting to learn lucid dreaming, know your goal and be determined to reach it.
Then starts the actual process of learning this art. Firstly, you need to learn a process, called Dream Recall, i.e., recalling a dream you had the previous night. Unless you remember a dream, you can’t achieve the stage of lucid dreaming.
This is not going to be an overnight kind of process. You should keep a dream recall register to begin writing down every single detail you can recall of your dreams every day. You will find your capacity for dream call improving as you do so. Try implementing “reality checks” during your dreams to begin training your mind to be alert as you dream.
For a lot of people, hypnosis helps them to prepare their mind for lucid dreaming much more quickly. Sometimes, as few as one or two sessions may be needed to get you being able to recall all of your dreams every day. Once you can do this, you are ready to begin trying lucid dreaming.
While in a lucid dream, it may happen that suddenly, you are wide-awake. However, with the power that you have attained so far, you’ll be easily able to recollect all the important details of the dream. Now, just try to relax and sleep again, while continuing the dream with the desired directions. When you wake up, you’ll realize the real power of conscious dreaming you just experienced the night before.
Another good way of inducing lucid dreams is to wake a few hours earlier than usual, then go back to sleep. The dreams you will have in these few hours are the easiest to make into lucid dreams. You may even find yourself unsure whether you have been sleeping or just thinking to yourself as you lay in bed. Just set your alarm for a few hours early, wake and reset the alarm and then go back to sleep and you will be more likely to have lucid dreams.
When trying to have lucid dreams, it is helpful to become familiar with your sleeping habits so as to be aware of the best times to try for lucid dreaming.
Lucid dreaming can be a helpful practice for those with sleeping troubles such as insomnia. When you are having a hard time getting to sleep, remind yourself that sleep means lucid dreaming; and your subconscious mind will make sure that you get to sleep quickly.
It once was the case that it could take years to learn lucid dreaming; the only way to prepare the mind was meditation, which took a long time to master. A lot of people lack the discipline and would simply give up. New technologies, especially audio technology have made it possible for anyone to experience lucid dreaming.
One of the quickest and most reliable methods of inducing lucid dreaming is to listen to binaural beats audio.
These work by playing slightly different frequencies in each ear and have the result of deeply relaxing the listener and bringing their brain waves to the correct frequency for lucid dreaming to occur.
Before this technology, meditation was the technique of choice, which did not work out so well for many people. Binaural audio is much faster and works reliably for the majority of people.
Binaural sound waves, especially in tandem with hypnosis can prepare your mind and allow you to begin lucid dreaming very quickly, sometimes even on the first try!
