Lucid Dreaming Tips and Techniques

Eeden classifies his dream experiences into nine categories for ease of documentation. Lucid dreams were his favorite and seventh on the list of nine. He examined 500 dreams of which 352 dreams he attributes to lucid dreaming!

When asleep and lucid you are dreaming, but part of your consciousness awakens. You realize (much to your sweet surprise) you are in the dreamscape! Because you are both awake and asleep at once, you stay in the dream. At your will, and interact with objects, people, and the dream environment.

Lucid Dreaming Benefits:

In an article appearing in The Wall Street Journal, entitled “The Benefits of Lucid Dreaming,” writer Shirley S. Wang explains lucid dreams benefits. One chief advantage of lucidity in a dream state is the ability to experiment. The better you get at experimentation, the greater the likelihood you can use your experiences for waking-hour problem-solving tasks. Experimentation lets you test scenarios or situations in your dream-realm where you can work out real-world problems.

Second, with the ability to interact with things in a dream scene, you have a chance to face your inner demons and conquer phobias. Researchers at the University of Lincoln, England, discovered people who can achieve lucidity in the dream state have an easier time at dealing with “cognitive tasks” and problem-solving. Experts have also found practicing something while asleep makes you better at it when performing it when awake. Additional lucid dreaming benefits include:

• Having lucid dream events for the adventure and sheer experience.
• Conquering issues with nightmares or uncomfortable recurring dream.
• The opportunity for rehearsing real life events before they happen.
• Using the dream realm for inspiration.
• Using lucidity to explore one’s creative potential or to access creative ideas.
• Relying on lucid dreaming methods for healing the self and others.
• Challenging one’s existing beliefs and encouraging spiritual growth.

The Lucid Dream Experience

Part of learning lucid dreaming methods is in understanding when you’re experiencing the lucid awareness. There are degrees of clarity you can experience. Knowing what the degrees of awareness are will help you separate lucidity from other types of dreams. Yes, there’s more than one type of dream; in fact, Eeden categorizes dreams into nine types! He notes in his book how lucid dreams are the seventh type of dream out of nine. He also notes the lucid experience is his favorite kind of dream experience out of all categories!

The professor of psychology and Gestalt psychologist, Paul Tholey, suggests there are different “conditions of clarity” when entering a lucid dream state. He categorizes seven lucidity conditions. Thus, he defines the degrees of clarity you can achieve when lucid dreaming. The degrees of clarity are:

• Dream State Awareness: A state in where you achieve full or complete awareness in the dream.
• Decisive-Action Awareness: A condition where you experience the freedom of choice.
• Memory-Function Awareness: An event where your waking-life memory remains accessible to you.
• Self-Awareness: Referencing the awareness of the dream and waking state while lucid dreaming.
• Environment Awareness: A state where you can experience the dream realm with one or more of your five senses.
• Meaning Awareness: A condition where you understand the connation or meaning of dream symbols while active in the dream.
• Focus Awareness: An event where you experience clear consciousness while in the dream scene.

Lucid Dreaming Tips and Productive Sleep

The first series of lucid dream tips often focus on ensuring a productive sleep session! Makes sense, right? You can’t develop awareness in a dream state if you can’t fall into a deep enough sleep for REM to occur. So, encourage lucid dreaming success goes together with setting the stage for a quality night’s sleep.

• Lucid Dreaming Sleep Tip #1: Set the scene and use dream incubation techniques.

Is your bedroom arranged in such a way you’ll be able to enter the dream state with considerable ease? Is your bed comfortable? When experiencing pain while you sleep, brain senses it. The brain will present you with imagery and sensations related to the pain in your dream. Do everything to ensure your total comfort when sleeping.

Dream incubation involves ritual-like preparation for dream work. You can set the bedroom up to make it ideal for sleeping. But incubation involves more than this first step. When incubating dreams, it involves preparing questions or dream scenarios before sleeping. The attire you wear is ideal for comfort so wear loose and breathable fabrics. Other incubation and sleep stage-setting factors include:

• Cessation of food or drink several hours before bed.
• Avoidance of drugs or stimulants.
• Ensuring the room is at the best temperature for sleep.
• Use of essential oils for triggering the ideal mindset for sleep.
• Extinguished lighting for promoting a quality sleep session.
• Choosing the right colors for the bedroom or sleeping area.

• Lucid Dreaming Sleep Tip #2: Plan for the right time for cessation of food and drink.

Eating the last meal of the day is something you’ll want to do several hours before going to sleep. Sleeping on a full stomach will trigger strange dreams. If you have issues like GERD, it can create problems with acid reflux occurring during sleep. In fact, with GERD, you’ll wake up with the rude sensation as digestive acids trigger heartburn.

Consider drinking fewer beverages before going to bed. You might find you near a lucid dream state but never get to access it because of having to empty your bladder? But, a small cup of chamomile or lavender tea with a touch of honey can encourage sleep.

Note: One of the alternative lucid dreaming tips you can use suggests drinking a lot of water before bedtime. It forces you to wake in the middle of the night if you’re hoping to experience dream recall.

• Lucid Dreaming Sleep Tip #3:Avoid drugs and stimulants during the day, but especially before bedtime.

Lucid dreaming is about achieving awareness in a dream. So, it’s clear you’ll want to avoid consuming alcohol or taking any drugs. It will allow for the best chances of achieving awareness. If you are taking prescribed medications, talk to your doctor before stopping use. But illicit drugs are not a recommended practice.

When you are drinking a lot of beverages or consume foods high in caffeine content, you’ll want to consider cutting down. Caffeine is great for a temporary boost in energy levels and awareness while you’re awake. But it can prove a monster when you want to sleep and experience lucid dreams.

• Lucid Dreaming Sleep Tip #4: Set the room temperature so you are not too cool or hot while you sleep.

Speaking of comfort, did you know you are more likely to have a lucid dream in a warm room? Remember, we aren’t talking the tropics here! Make the room comfortable. During Non-REM sleep, at least in stages one and two out of four sleep stages, you might shiver when you get cold.

Pause for a fascinating fact here: You will not perspire or shiver when in REM Sleep!

In REM sleep your skin temperature will increase. If the temperature increases in REM sleep, what difference does room temperature make? Do a few degrees, give or take, make a difference?

Researchers from the Netherlands Institute for Neuroscience and the Institute of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences conducted a study. They wanted to find out more about body temperature during NREM and REM sleep. The 2008 study, published in Brain: A Journal of Neurology and entitled “Skin deep: enhanced sleep depth by cutaneous temperature manipulation,” spells out the findings of the study. Sleep depth and duration are better with a small change in body temperature. Essentially, more quality sleep means a greater chance for more lucid dreaming. So, stay warm, but don’t overheat yourself!

• Lucid Dreaming Sleep Tip #5: Use essential oils or incense to establish an altered state of awareness and relaxation before bed.

Before you go to sleep, you can use an essential oil diffuser with a scent conducive to sleep and dreaming. Scent and memory go hand-in-hand. Using essential oils might help you have a better night’s sleep as well. Scents like Frankincense, Lavender, and Rose are nice choices. Incense is also a good substitute. However, you’ll want to ensure the incenses burns down before you sleep to prevent a fire hazard.

• Lucid Dreaming Sleep Tip #6: Limit the lighting in the sleep area and shut down unnecessary electronics.

You want your body to fall asleep easily, it’s time to turn off the television, and to turn off the cell phone Go on, you can do it… it’s almost impossible to imagine now, but it was just 20 years ago people did without phones for more than 24 hours at a time! Oh, the abject horror of the street-side payphone in an emergency!

Leave the electronics out of the bedroom. Put your cell phone on the charger and put it on vibrate. Better yet, shut it off for the night if you don’t need it on for any reason. Turn off the television before you put your head to the pillow!

Now, if you want to listen to quiet music. The kind conducive to sleep – something soft and New Age or classic. AC/DC’s “Hell’s Bells,” while great to rock out on, but might be too stimulating to induce a lucid dream state! Unless you’re looking to explore an unforgettable rock concert scenario!

• Lucid Dreaming Sleep Tip #7: Prep the sleeping area and choose the right colors for interior decor. Your quality sleep session depends on it!

Let’s face it if you don’t sleep you won’t dream, and if you don’t, there will be no exploring your dreamscape. According to Sleep.org, the ideal color to paint your room is blue, as it will allow you to sleep in longer. Why?

Ganglion cells are in our retinas making us sensitive to blue. Select colors induce relaxation. Now, there’s no rush, and you don’t have to call into work tomorrow just to get the color of your bedroom the right shade of blue (Nice try, though, and I’d like to be a fly on the wall for that one)! Just consider the color of your room when it is time to refresh the paint job!

Lucid Dreaming Tips and Dream Recall

First things first: Demonstrate a real interest in your dreams. Learn about the different types of dreams you can have. Explore dream meanings in a dictionary so you can understand the language of symbols. With more focus on your dreams, the more the dream world will open to you.

• Dream Recall Tip #1: Make regular use of a dream journal to track dreams and lucid dreaming success or failure.

Journaling is an important part of that because it helps in building up your dream recall. But, keeping true to the practice is more difficult than you might imagine. Many people start out with a firm commitment to record their dreams. But, a million excuses can get in the way of maintaining the journal over the long term.

If you’re going to master lucidity in dreams, you’ll need to be ready to write down dreams, even when you are tired or don’t feel like it. One of the best lucid dreaming tips you’ll ever get is to keep your dream journal current with detailed dream descriptions.

• Dream Recall Tip #2: Go over your dream documentation to examine imagery and interpret meaning.

By reviewing what you’ve written you can familiarize yourself with common symbols appearing in your dreams. You’ll also recognize the tone and mood of the types of dreams you experience.

For complete information on how to interpret dreams, check out the complete guide here on Building Beautiful Souls. Oh… and if you need a little help deciphering crazy dream symbols, you’ll see in your dreams, visit the A to Z Dream Dictionary here on Building Beautiful Souls as well!

With the dream journal, you can note if there’s anything influencing your dreams too. Consider the foods you eat or medications and note them in your journal. If you are in a mood before sleep, note how it influences your dreams. Eventually, you’ll be able to identify the best lucid dreaming triggers that work for you.

• Dream Recall Tip #3: Use self-talk and tell yourself you will recall your dreams with clarity.

As you prepare for bed, make sure you have your journaling material accessible. If you use a recorder, put it near your bed so you don’t have far to go to access it quickly. Record or write down your dreams with as much detail as possible. Tell yourself repeatedly you will remember the imagery you see. Repeat this process each sleep session.

• Dream Recall Tip #4: Rely on a “dream anchor” as a reminder you want to remember your dreams.

If you’re looking to make it easier for dream recall, you can rely on a trick stemming from neurolinguistics practices. It allows you to create a “dream anchor.” An anchor is an item of your choosing from your sleep area. Using affirmations, you can view the object daily while telling yourself you will have excellent dream recall every time you see the item.

It’s a process that may take a week or more before you notice an increase in dream recall. It’s like giving your subconscious mind a wake-up call. You’re letting your mind know you are ready and willing to be attentive to the dreams you experience. Your subconscious mind responds by allowing you more dream experiences and a better memory of dream imagery.

• Dream Recall Tip #5: Change the time you go to bed.

Just this small change in time and the amount of sleep you get can improve dream recall. When you aren’t getting enough sleep, you’re cheating yourself out of REM time suitable for lucid dreaming conditions. If you want to know to dream lucidly, you need to know getting eight to nine hours sleep is important.

When your sleep cycle is off, you’re sleeping patterns are erratic. It’s time to make a routine allowing you to go to bed and wake up at the same time every night. It will take a few days of waking up at the same time every morning despite your level of fatigue to restore your sleep cycle to normal.

• Dream Recall Tip #6: A regular dose of vitamin B6 is a natural memory booster.

Vitamin B6 is one of the eight B Vitamins considered a brain booster. In fact, a side effect of low Vitamin B6 levels is short term memory loss. If you want greater dream recall, consider taking a supplement containing B6. It also contributes to establishing a normal sleep cycle. It is responsible for body clock regulation and melatonin production, which contributes to a sound sleep. There are several food sources containing B6 you can incorporate into your diet as well.

Lucid Dreaming Techniques and Dream Lucidity

Having lucid dreams often starts as a random experience for many of us. Once having such an experience, you’ll find you want to experience lucidity again. It’s not long before you start looking for information on how to make lucid dreams happen.

Once you master lucid dream triggering techniques, you’ll want to have the experience all the time. Who wouldn’t? You get the freedom to explore a surreal world and experiment with an alternate reality.

A common question arises for many dreamers: “Can you lucid dream every night?” Many skilled lucid dreamers report achieved lucidity several times a week. Everyone is different and the ability to trigger dream awareness depends on a variety of factors. Practice and patience are two of the main factors contributing to lucid dreaming success.

• Lucid Dreaming Tip #1: Perform reality checks to determine your level of dream awareness

Lucid dreamers use a technique in which they constantly check on the state of their reality. At first, this is something you can do in your waking hours and through rote memorization, you can turn the effort into a habit. Once a habit, you might trigger reality checks in your dream state. Regular reality checks are one of the best ways to have dreams with lucidity.

One of the simplest means for testing your reality is to ask yourself if you are awake or if you are experiencing a dream. Look around the dream scene for clues to determine if you are in a hybrid state of consciousness. Signs include difficulty reading numbers and words and seeing feet and hands.

Sometimes you can only get a partial awareness of your body in the dream. But, when experiencing lucidity, you might be able to see your entire body if you happen to look down. So, if your feet and hands look weird, or you can see yourself in your entirety, or you can’t seem to read what you want to, then it is likely you’ve entered a lucid dream state.

Speaking of hands … do a quick finger count to check your reality. If you are in a dream, you may have trouble counting altogether or, no matter how many times you count your fingers, the number you come up with will not match!

Once you’re done checking your hands, act as if you are about to bob underwater by plugging off your nose and closing your mouth. If you’re still breathing normally, you can rest assured in knowing you are still in the dreamscape.

• Lucid Dreaming Tip #2: Create and memorize affirmations; use the power of intention to enter lucid dream states.

Use affirmations just before going to bed. Affirmations are such a beautiful tool to use if you are looking to make life improvements or turn actions into unconscious habits. They cost nothing, and you can use them anytime, anywhere, without anyone ever knowing you are using them.

Sit down for a few minutes and write a couple of affirmations, short simple statements of intent you can use during the day that will help improve the likelihood of lucid dream induction and awareness. For example:

“I will transition in and out of lucid dreams with ease.”
“I am the master of my dreamscapes and can control what happens to me.”

• Lucid Dreaming Tip #3: Practice meditation regularly.

Meditation is an excellent tool to use when you are looking to induce dream lucidity. In an article appearing in Psychology Today entitled, “The Link between Mindfulness, Meditation, and Lucid Dreaming,” writer Michelle Carr explains how meditation helps improve your awareness of the “here and now,” in both the waking and dreaming worlds. Meditation is not at all complicated. All you need is ten minutes before going to bed to get in the right state of mind for sleep and dream exploration.

Don’t struggle with trying to keep thoughts from coming into your head. Instead, when you have a thought, acknowledge it with an inhaled breath, and let it go with an exhaled breath. Keep your focus on your breathing the entire time you meditate. The more you do it, the better you get at it.

Ways to Induce Lucid Dreaming

Ways of triggering lucid dream events are, shall we say, “unconventional.” In fact, there are methods that may even shock you! Let’s look at more exceptional ways to begin dream realm exploration.

• Lucid Dreaming Tip #4: Make time to play video games!

What? What on Earth do video games have to do with lucidity? More than you might imagine. Jayne Gackenbach is a researcher of altered states of consciousness and particularly lucidity during dreams. Gackenbach is also a writer and professor at MacEwan and Athabasca Universities, in Edmonton, Alberta. She explains in a presentation she wrote for the Games for Health 2010 Conference how video games are an immersive activity.

The video gamers tested to discover this information play up to two hours a couple of times every week. She identifies the remarkable parallels between acquiring lucidity and video gaming. First, both video games and dream scenes are “alternative realities.” Lucid dream experimentation and video gaming will hone spatial skills and reduce incidents of motion sickness.

Gackenbach also suggests video games and dreams allow you “to simulate threatening situations in the safety of a virtual environment.” To trigger dream lucidity at night why not try playing a video game or two just before bed? You’ll get a chance to get comfortable with the sense of controlling the environment in a virtual setting. Later, you can use the control skills when experiencing lucidity.

• Lucid Dreaming Tip #5: Visualization exercises help improve your ability to trigger lucidity and recognize the transition into a lucid dream state.

It may be hard to picture it (yes, a pun is my intention here), but visualization exercises during your waking hours will make lucid dreaming events more likely. The first visualization exercise is excellent for sleep promotion. See yourself falling into a comfortable sleep session. Visualize your breathing easing into a quiet, even pace. Imagine sleep enveloping you like a warm blanket. You are comfortable but remain in control.

Visualizing a dream scenario or what you might like to experience when lucid is another exercise that will improve your dream work. It gives you a chance to imagine what moving through a dream reality is like. Visualization allows you to use your imagination, so you can improve how vivid things appear to you in a non-physical or alternate reality. The more vivid the experience, the greater your chances for dream recall.

When exercising visualization skills for improving the vividness of the imagery you detect, visualize the entire environment. Include all stimuli in your visualization. Try to imagine scents and sounds besides visuals. Also, visualize unusual scenarios so you get used to the flexibility of dream imagery. Floating, flying, shapeshifting, and transformations of all kinds are something the arena of dreams will allow you to experience.

• Lucid Dreaming Tip #6: Use “dreamsigns” to let you know you’ve achieved “awareness” in the dream environment.

Stephen Leberge is an author of several works on lucid dreaming. In “A Course in Lucid Dreaming,” he mentions “dreamsigns.” Actually, he coined the term and uses it to define dream elements which indicate you’re still dreaming. Examples of dreamsigns include visitations from the deceased, malfunctioning appliances, bodily anomalies, and anything diverging from reality.

You can develop your own set of dreamsigns through continued study and analysis of your dreams. It requires training yourself to recognize the signs you choose later in future dream settings. Leberge recommends the use of induction aids for training the mind to acknowledge dream signs (more on induction aids later). Learning your dreamsigns will take time and commitment, but also points to the importance of continual journaling of your dreams.

MILD Lucid Dream Tips

Sometimes your brain will require repeat training. There are complicated means for approaching lucid dreaming methods, just as there are simple techniques. MILD is a method requiring little time, but a lot of focus and practice.

• Lucid Dream Tip #7: Use Mnemonic Induction for Lucid Dreaming (MILD) to trigger lucidity.

Among the lucid dream tips, LeBerge and other dream experts propose is the use of mnemonic induction. Okay, you’re probably saying to yourself, “What the heck is Mnemonic Induction, right?” “Mnemonic” is a word stemming from the word “Mnemosyne” (the ancient Greek Goddess of Memory). “Mnemonics” are aids you would use to improve your memory.

Induction means you’ll be triggering lucidity in a dream state. Thus, you have Mnemonic Induction for Lucid Dreaming (MILD) or “memory triggers.” This method is also the MILD technique. In “Lucid Dreaming: A Concise Guide to Awakening in Your Dreams” and in Your Life, LaBerge, suggests the best time to implement MILD. It is right after waking from a dream and before going back to sleep.

The MILD technique is something to implement before bed. Your intention needs to be serious for the technique to work. You need to recite an affirmation or two at the same time each night before you go to bed. You can be something like “I will experience a lucid state,” or you can say, “I want to be aware when I am in my dreams.” Commit the affirmations to rote memory. The more you use them, the more likely it will become a habit and something you can do in your sleep.

Wake Induced Lucid Dream Tips

For those who want to have a lucid dream, the Wake Induced Lucid Dream (WILD) technique proves helpful. Of course, you’ll need to practice the process to master it. But, for those who have already used the technique, they claim it is one of the best ways to train yourself to lucid dream.

• Lucid Dream Tip #8: Using the wake-Initiated Lucid Dream Induction technique.

Think of the WILD method as preparing to enter the wild side or wilderness of dreams! The technique starts out while you are still awake. About one hour before you’re ready to retire for the night, read material on lucid dreaming. (For free reading resources, see the resource section of this article for more information). If you prefer, you can review content in your dream journal.

During the hour when reviewing material, make sure you have no distractions. Turn off all electronics and do not consume any beverages or food. Doing this promotes relaxation. Follow the reading by doing breathing exercises to ensure a relaxed state. The remaining steps for the WILD method are:

• Get in a comfortable position on the bed. Once comfortable, don’t move. Keep still and calm.
• Use your imagination to visualize simple forms. Try to see all the colors of the rainbow one by one. Then try to visualize basic shapes like squares, triangles, circles, ovals, stars, and rectangles.
• Continue the visualization exercise until you drift naturally into sleep, but concentrate on keeping your mind aware
• After plenty of practice, the WILD method allows you to fall into the lucid dream state naturally.

Dream Initiated Lucid Dreaming (DILD) Technique

Now, above you just read about the “wake-initiated lucid dream,” and this is the type of lucid dreaming tactic you can try to improve with practice. The alternative method is the dream-initiated lucid experience. There is less control over this type of lucid dream trigger, but there are things you can do to help induction.

• Lucid Dream Tip #9: Lucid dream techniques also include the Dream Initiated Lucid Dream (DILD).

The DILD method is where you are already asleep, and you wake to discover, “WOW, I’m dreaming, and I know it!” This method takes considerable practice and is more like falling into a lucid dream state. It will require the ability to become aware while dreaming. If you become proficient at lucid dreaming, DILD experiences are near spontaneous and require little to no incubation techniques.

Using the already mentioned techniques like reality checks and dreamsigns will help identify you are in a dream state. To induce DILDs, try the following lucid dream trigger methods:

• Napping: Set the alarm to awaken a half hour to an hour earlier than your normal schedule. Then, go ahead and hit that extend snooze button! Go right back to sleep! With lucid dreaming efforts you have the excuse to do so! Doing this simple measure alone can improve the likelihood of experiencing in-dream awareness by 20 times! There is a greater success using this method when comparing induction technique users to dreamers using no technique at all.
• Wake Back to Bed Method: With this lucid dream trigger you’ll sleep for about five hours. Set an alarm to wake you. Make sure you become fully conscious. You will remain conscious for about an hour before returning to sleep. This increases the likelihood of entering REM and experiencing awareness. The method takes practice and repetitious use for it to work.
• Cycle Adjustment Technique: Daniel Love is a British author and lucid dreamer who is the developer of this method. The practice is simple. It involves changing the time you wake up every day, so you can change the chemistry in your body. It will help improve your level of awareness when you experience REM in the morning hours while sleeping.
• Self-Hypnosis: The use of affirmations, meditations, and self-hypnosis videos or audio programs, you can improve your concentration and level of dream awareness.
• Subliminal Induction of Lucid Dreams (SILD): Consider using subliminal means to trigger awareness in dreams. You can create your own sound recordings to play at a low whisper while you are sleeping. The subconscious mind can pick up on the sounds you record. Doing this practice may increase dream awareness success.
• Text Analysis in Dreams: Attempting to read text in a dream, looking away, and seeing if the words change. Abrupt changes signal you are in the dream state.

Lucid Dreaming Tips for Prolonging Dream Experiences

No doubt, when you achieve lucidity in dreams, you’ll want to prolong the experience. The longer you’re lucid in a dream, the more fun and experimentation you can enjoy! Consider the following lucid dream tips to help you stay aware in the dream state if possible:

Lucid Dream Tip #10: Simulating physical senses and keeping your wits about you will make you lucid longer.

• • Stay Calm: While in the dream state the moment you become aware is an empowering feeling. In fact, you may feel as if you’re on top of the world. If you get too excited though, you’ll lose sight of your goal. It’s difficult to keep a focus and remain active in a dream realm when you get too much mental stimulation. Your excitement with draw your attention aware from the task. So, breathe. Focus on the imagery in front of you. Don’t allow the thrill of the experience to shorten your time for adventure!
  • Hand Rubbing: Rubbing your hands together while experiencing the dream state is effective when prolonging a lucid state. You direct your awareness to the sense of your hands touching one another. It keeps you calm and helps you retain a vivid awareness of your dream reality.
  • Spinning: If you feel the dream imagery is fading, one fast way to recover is the use of the spinning lucid dreaming technique. Remember when you were a kid and you would find a nice steep grassy hill and roll down it as fast as you could? (Yes, back in the days where we were invincible and playing outside was normal?) Or when you whirled around in a circle so fast and long the whole world would spin?Spinning is a lot like being a child all over again, but here you spin your astral or dream body around as if you are repeating your actions as a child. The spinning action creates the experience of a “false awakening.” What is a “false awakening?” Think of those horror movies you see where someone is dreaming they are awake only to awaken and discover they were dreaming the whole time! That’s a false awakening.

    When you see yourself spinning, it triggers kinesthetic and vestibular engagement in the brain. Kinesthetic senses relate to bodily position. Vestibular senses have to do with balance and the inner ear.

Special Note: You’ll know you are still dreaming after spinning. How? Unlike the dizziness you experience when you spin around in an awakened state, spinning while in a lucid dream doesn’t result in dizziness! So, how effectiveness is the spinning method of lucid dream prolongation? After spinning, the ratio of remaining in a lucid state to awakening is 22:1.

Lucid Dreaming Methods and Dreaming Aids

When you are dreaming, your ears and brain still detect external stimuli from your physical environment. Stimuli can end up being part of your dream experience via dream incorporation. Your ears signal to the brain. Then the brain translates the signal into imagery (often with symbolic meaning).

• Lucid Dreaming Tip #11: Use the power of sound to your advantage; it can help you trigger dream lucidity.

An important thing here is the sound can reach the brain. Sound-producing lucid dreaming aids include light music and pre-recorded subliminal messages. Alternative sound producing dream aids you can use include:

• Binaural Beats and Isochronic Tones: Brainwave entrainment is a process involving the use of binaural beats and Isochronic tones. Binaural beats and Isochronic tones are special soundwaves that trigger distinct brainwave behaviors. The process requires wearing headphones and listening to special soundtracks before going to sleep. The state these sounds induce is lucidity in the dream environment; Brainwaves these tones trigger match those you achieve when you are in deep meditation. Isochronic tones are beats that play at regular intervals.
  There are single tones accompanied by monaural beats as well. An Isochronic tone gets turned on, the off, then on again, but in rapid succession. Think of what it sounds like if you were using Morse code and tapping out S.O.S., and you’ll get an idea of what Isochronic tones sound like
• White Noise Generation: And no, I’m not referring to the paranormal flick featuring Michael Keaton! A white noise generator is a device that creates a soft background noise. The noise sounds like an electric fan on low speed.White noise is the product of several tones or sounds playing at the same time. You can get a special machine that produces the sound for little expense. The device helps block out unwanted noise while lulling you to sleep. Sleep promotion is not the only benefits you’ll derive from using a white noise application during your lucid dream work. Benefits include:
• A greater sense of well-being.
• A sense of still calm and ease.
• More intense concentration and awareness during meditations.
• Better cognitive abilities.
• Mental clarity while awake and during dreamtime.
• A sense of peace.

• Lucid Dreaming Tip #12: Invest in a dream light or alternative lucid dreaming aids.

Among tricks to lucid dream are techniques involving the use of various aids that support sleep and dreaming. Knowing when you’re dreaming is the key to triggering dream lucidity because you can start checking your reality. If you have difficulty establishing lucidity because you are not always aware of when you’ve entered a dream, one of several dream light products might help trigger dream state recognition.

Remee, an eye mask with six red LED lights and a thin, flexible, tiny switchboard inside of it, flashes red light at various intervals after you have achieved a deep state of sleep (lighting triggers about 4.5 hours after you go to bed.) Then, for the remainder of the evening, the lighting flashes every 10 minutes or so.

The lighting pattern marks the time you are most likely dreaming. You can train parts of your consciousness to recognize the red -light flashing patterns when they occur. One word of recommendation: If you are going to use a product like dream lights, you should commit to practicing dream lucidity techniques for the long haul. Unlike affirmations and meditation, which are entirely free to use, Remee is a costlier investment.

Free Resources with Lucid Dreaming Tricks

As mentioned earlier, reading about dreams or lucid dream induction can improve your chances of triggering awareness. You can get some material listed below in book format. For research purposes only, the content is online at no cost. Try the following lucid dream resources for further study:

• “A Course in Lucid Dreaming,”? by Stephen Leberge and a series of other lucid dream instructors. It is available for free access in the Internet Archives. Leberge is the founder of The Lucidity Institute online, which is another excellent resource for reading material on lucid dreaming. The authors explore the concept of lucid dreaming. The book maps out a course for learning the art over a series of weeks. Levitan and Leberge detail the MILD and WILD lucid dreaming techniques. Additional exercises and reality checks are also in this body of work. You can download the book in a variety of formats.
• “Lucid Dreaming,” by Stephen Leberge is another free offering available from the Internet Archive. The book contains lucid dreaming tips and techniques. If you’re interested in the history of lucid dream experimentation, this book is ideal. Leberge goes further into the applications of lucid dreaming. Such applications include methods for harnessing the practice for the betterment of your waking life.
• Lucid Dreaming Discourse,” by Stephen Berlin is an 11-part video discourse on lucid dreaming. Berlin emphasizes the importance of dream journaling as part of the experimentation process. The course runs through an array of tips and techniques to enhance your dream lucidity. Best of all, the entire video discourse is free on the Internet archive.

Mix and Match Lucid Dreaming Techniques

The lucid dreaming tips here will get you off to a terrific start when looking to learn about and master lucid dream triggering techniques. Try one, a couple, or all the tips to discover what works for you and what doesn’t. If one lucid dreaming doesn’t work for you, then try another. If you get a few triggering methods to work for you, put the tips to use often.

And, don’t stop there! Try out as many methods as possible. Check out some lucid dream courses available. Make your lucid dream studies a lifelong effort. Practice often and dream with intent! Finally, keep up with all the latest dream content at Building Beautiful Souls! You’ll find tons of fresh new advice, tips, and information to make the most of your surreal dream real experiences!
-Sweet Dreams, Friends!-