Lucid Dreamer Tactics Explained

So you want to be a lucid dreamer. Well that’s a good start, at least you know what you want to do; but how exactly do you go about it?

You also need to think about exactly why you want to become a lucid dreamer. What are the benefits of lucid dreaming? To help us find the benefits, let us first look at ‘normal’ sleep.

When you go to sleep, you get into bed, close your eyes for a certain length of time, and either dream or just see black for a few hours and then wake up! It isn’t very interesting now is it?

This kind of sleep allows us to get the rest we need to go about our activities the following day. Have you ever wondered, though, what it would be like if you could actually take control of your dreams and dictate their events?

What if rather than being an active observer, you can be the one who can lead your dream to be whatever you want, rather than your dream leading you? This is what a lucid dreamer is; someone who is in total control of their dreams; able to explore new worlds that are not bound to the physical, societal and time-space laws of the real world.

This sounds great the only thing left is the how. You can accomplish lucid dream state in one of two ways. One, you can have a dream initiated lucid dream (DILD); this is where while dreaming you become aware of the fact that you are dreaming. In this way, you bring a level of consciousness into the dream.

The second way is having a wake-initiated lucid dream (WILD); where the dreamer goes from being awake, to being asleep with no change in consciousness. In other words, the dreamer enters their dream as if it were a door, rather than just “waking up” in a dream.

So what are the actual methods used to induce these two types of lucid dream experiences?

Dream Recall

One of the best ways to begin learning to become a lucid dreamer is by practicing dream recall. This is simply the ability to remember your dreams. When you remember your dreams and learn more about the commonalities which can be observed in your dreams, it is easier to recognize a dream and start to take control over the direction of it.

A dream journal is perhaps the best way to learn this skill. Use this to write down every detail of your dream that you can remember immediately after you wake. If you wait., it will become increasingly difficult to recall.

Mnemonic Induction of Lucid Dreams (MILD)

Developed by renowned lucid dream researcher Dr. Stephen LaBerge, this technique works by telling yourself to recognize a certain object or situation when you see it in your dreams. When you see this object, it triggers the realization that you are in a dreaming, allowing you to begin lucid dreaming.

Wake-Back-to-Bed (WBTB)

This technique is fairly simple. You set your alarm for just a few hours after you go to bed. When you wake, don’t just go back to sleep. Instead, stay awake for about an hour, then return to sleep.

According to Stephen LaBerge, there is a 60% success rate of this technique. The reason why is that you would have woken up during the process of sleep, meaning that your mind is not fully aware of this, and are still in the middle of REM cycle. So basically, it’s like going to your mind and telling it that you want to lucid dream.

Cycle Adjustment Technique

This was created by Daniel Love, and what it is, is setting your alarm to wake you up an hour and a half before your normal time. Once you’ve adjusted to waking up early, alternate your alarm to wake you up normally and early. During times you are to wake up normally, you’re body will already be ready to wake up early, and therefore, you will be likely to be awake in your dream.

Wake-initiation of Lucid Dreams (WILD)

This method was described before. If you would like to achieve a lucid dream this way, all you have to do is to keep your mind awake while you body falls asleep. This is perhaps the most interesting way of entering a lucid dream. It is as if you are getting ready to watch a movie. You are in the real world, you sit on your couch, you turn on the TV and press play (starting to sleep), the screen is black (in the same way as when your eyes are closed), and all you have to do is wait for the movie to actually start.

There are any number of ways to keep your mind alert, count, controlled breathing techniques or concentrated relaxation are all great ways to keep the mind alert. It is a bit like hypnotizing your self. This works best if you are not exhausted, try it during an afternoon nap.

Technology has moved on in recent years, and there are various devices like dreaming masks and other scientific appliances which contain such things as strobe lights to induce lucid dreams.

Definitely the easiest and most reliable way of inducing a lucid dream however is by listening to binaural beats sound frequencies via headphones.

These work by synchronizing the two hemispheres of the brain and have the effect of almost instantaneously changing your brainwaves to the REM frequency needed for a lucid dream to occur.

With self affirmations and self hypnosis combined with binaural sound, being a lucid dreamer is a goal which anyone can reach.