As such, one of the best ways to embrace that receptivity is to keep your eyes closed when you first wake up from any dream (if you don’t have to rush to work, that is), and stay in the same position. The brain is in a receptive place right after you wake up-which is typically why we can recall dreams in vivid detail upon awakening only to forget them minutes later. Stay still for a few seconds upon waking up. She recommends accepting from the jump that lucidity may happen and planning to remain calm if it does, in order to more effectively ride the wave. “When we see something fantastical like a dinosaur, we’re often like, 'That can’t be real,’ so we catapult ourselves awake, but if we can just trust it and embrace it, we’ll have a better experience,” says Cheung. One of the biggest roadblocks to achieving the full extent of a lucid dream is waking up just before it really gets going. Anticipate lucidity, so you don’t wake yourself up from it when it happens. Drawing this level of attention to your physical self can help you better retain awareness, even when you move into the unconsciousness of sleep, says Cheung. When you get into bed and close your eyes, Cheung suggests focusing on whatever images or colors you can see behind your eyelids, and then moving down your body, cycling through the sensations of each body part until you fall asleep. Similarly, you could use certain parts of the senses-based SSILD approach outlined above, but without having to do them in the middle of the night. Tap into your senses before going to sleep. to go back to my house and walk my dog,” you could also say, “I will have a dream when I fall asleep tonight, and I’m going to know that I’m dreaming.” The idea is simply telling your brain what you want it to do, just as we often set reminders for other things in our life, says Cheung. Just as you might say, “I must remember at 3 p.m. To do so, simply set an intention to have a lucid dream at any point in the day, framed as a note to your future self. You can adapt the core element of the MILD approach noted above without having to pair it with a timed middle-of-the-night wake-up, says Cheung. Try the following safe (non-sleep-restricting) techniques: 4 techniques that can help you achieve a lucid dream 1. Engaging with these types of media is more likely to spark your imagination and creativity in a way that can be just as transporting as a lucid dream, says Cheung: “When you immerse yourself in the alternate reality of, say, a video game, you’re essentially practicing the dream state.”Īll of the guidance above will help move you into the right headspace for a lucid dream, but if one doesn’t come naturally, don't give up hope. Like dreams, fantasy worlds portrayed in movies, TV shows, and video games reflect alternate realities, where restrictive rules of the universe, like logic and physics, don’t apply. So if you’re repeatedly noting and noticing your surroundings while you’re awake using what Cheung calls mini "reality checks"-simply asking yourself throughout the day, "Am I awake, or is this a dream?"-you’ll also be more likely to be mindful of a dream whenever one happens, she says. “We know that dreams are a continuation of your waking life in symbolic, psychological language,” she says. More awareness while you’re awake can summon more awareness while you’re asleep, says Cheung. While the first involves setting an intention to experience a lucid dream by saying something like, "Next time I’m dreaming, I will remember I’m dreaming," the second involves shifting your attention to sights, sounds, and physical sensations immediately before falling asleep. “Despite all the mystique, lucid dreaming is something completely natural that we’re all capable of doing.” -Theresa Cheung, dream decoderĪ couple of the most popular lucid dream techniques-the "Mnemonic Induction of Lucid Dreams" (MILD) and "Senses Initiated Lucid Dream" (SSILD) techniques-emerged as successful (at a rate of about 17 percent) in a 2020 study of 355 people analyzing different lucidity-prompting strategies over a two-week period. She cites the release of the film Inception in 2010 as the source of the uptick in general fascination with lucid dreaming, which also prompted her to spend the past decade researching and experimenting with several lucid dream techniques. “Despite all the mystique, lucid dreaming is something completely natural that we’re all capable of doing,” says dream decoder Theresa Cheung, whose work in dream decoding inspired her book, The Dream Dictionary From A to Z. Before we dive into lucidity-boosting strategies, though, it’s worth noting that while lucid dreaming may be elusive, there’s nothing magical about it.
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