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Dreams And Lucid Dreaming
Wouldn’t it be nice to have lucid dreams, to be aware you are dreaming and control what
happens? Of course you do, but how does one learn to do this?
So, what is so good about being a lucid dreamer? What would you gain from it? In order
to understand the advantages of being aware when you are dreaming, we need to examine
what regular sleep actually is.
When you go to sleep, you normally get into bed, close your eyes for a length of time,
and then you either dream or aren't conscious of anything for a while before waking up.
Normal sleep isn't very interesting!
Average sleep has a purpose it prepares our minds and bodies to carry out the duties of
the next day. However, consider the idea of managing your dreams consciously.
Instead of being helplessly caught up in whatever dreams your subconscious mind
decides to hand you, how about you controlling the action? A lucid dreamer can do this.
It is a new and fun world, a lot like being inside your own video game where you can fly
or wish for something and have it.
All well and good, but how exactly do you become a lucid dreamer? There are two ways
of accomplishing this goal. The first method is to have a dream-initiated lucid dream, or
DLID. This is where the dreamer becomes aware that they are in fact dreaming and
begins to take control over the dream.
The next way is called wake initiated lucid dream (WILD); in this process, you go from
wake to sleep stage with no loss of consciousness. To put it more simply you walk
through the door from here to your dreams instead of just happening upon them
How do you go about achieving these two states of lucid dreaming?
Recall your dreams
If you're interested in lucid dreaming, dream recall is one of the most effective ways of
learning to do it. Dream recall is the ability to remember your dreams. If you remember
them, you're more likely to be able to recognize them while you're asleep. That's because
most of us have the same dreams or dream elements more than once.
Keeping a dream journal is the best way to learn this skill. A dream journal is for writing
down anything which you can remember about your dreams for future reference. You
should do this immediately after waking up; the longer you wait, the harder it will be to
recall.
Mnemonic Induction of Lucid Dreams or MILD
This technique was developed by Dr. Stephen LaBerge, one of the lead scientists in the
field of lucid dreaming. To use this method, just tell yourself about an object or element
that you will remember. When you dream, there's a good chance you'll see this element,
then realize that you're dreaming.
Wake-Back-to-Bed (WBTB)
In this technique, you sleep and set your alarm for only a few hours from the time that
you go to bed. Upon awakening, don't go right back to sleep – stay awake for about an
hour, then go back to bed.
According to Dr, LaBerge, this method has a 60% success rate. The idea here is to wake
yourself in the midst of a REM cycle so that upon returning to sleep, lucid dreaming will
be easy to achieve.
Cycle Adjustment Technique
This method was created by Daniel Love in this technique you set an alarm to awaken
you 90 minutes before you normally would awaken. This is done for approximately a
week. After a week, you begin to alternate between normal wake up and early. On the
normal waking days, the body will come alert earlier thereby increasing the chance of
lucidity.
WILD refers to Wake Initiation of Lucid Dreams
As described earlier wake initiated lucid dreams are matter of keeping your mind
conscious as you fall asleep. This may be the most fun way to achieve lucid dream state.
Imagine if you will that, your dreams are like a movie you are planning to watch. You get
comfortable, turn on the television set, (sleep), first you have a dark screen (eyes closed)
and now it is a matter of getting through the previews to the movie.
Think of ways to keep your mind awake. Count something, keep your mind active. Focus
on your breathing and deliberately relax every muscle in your body. This is a self
hypnosis technique. Do not do this when you are too tired as you will have much more
trouble keeping your mind active.
Like many other areas of our life, technology has made its mark. Today you can find
several electronic devices that can aid you in inducing lucid dreams. There are masks that
can detect when you enter REM sleep then use a vibration, sound or small lights to
induce lucidity.
One of the easiest, most reliable methods to induce lucid dreaming is by listening to
binaural beats and special sound frequencies through headphones.
Binaural beats induce lucid dreaming by causing the hemispheres of your brain to work
synchronously, making your brainwaves shift to the frequency required for lucid
dreaming.
Anyone can learn to be a lucid dreamer. Practice the self hypnosis and keep telling
yourself when awake that you will be aware when you are dreaming. This will prepare
you for your lucid dream experience.
Lucid Dreamer Secrets Discussed |
