by Rebekah Aura Nemethy

Created on: September 10, 2009   Last Updated: October 05, 2009

The key to encouraging lucid dreaming lies in building some extra links between your conscious and subconscious minds. In order to be more aware of our dream worlds we must become more aware in our waking lives. Here are three simple steps to 'waking up' in your dreams.

Recollection

The first step is to become more aware of what you're dreaming about. Keep a dream journal under your bed, or a tape recorder if it's more convenient. Before you hop out of bed to record your dream, close your eyes again and try to visualize the dream in as much detail as possible.

Everyone has dreams, but it may be harder for some of us to remember our nightly adventures.

The more gently you wake up the easier it is to recall your dream. The jarring sound of an alarm clock can kill a dream faster than a bug zapper electrocutes a moth. Whenever it's possible turn off the alarm or set it to a radio station that plays soft music.

The Reality Check: Am I Dreaming?

This is the most crucial step to 'waking up' in your dream. Throughout the day you should constantly ask yourself if you're dreaming. We do many of the same things in our dreams that we do everyday, we see the same people, we visit the same scenes. Wherever you are, whatever you're doing, stop, look around and ask yourself if you're really awake.

When I first started my lucid dreaming program I found that the whole day would pass by without a single reality check. So I got a pad of Post-Its, wrote "am I dreaming?" on dozens of them and stuck them all over my house. Put reminders on your bathroom mirror, the fridge, the dashboard of your car, in you wallet, and eventually one of these notes might pop up in your dream.

I also drew a dot on both sides of my hands with a marker everyday, whenever I looked down at my hands it was a reminder to give myself a reality check. You might be surprised to find out how many times you look at your own hands when you're awake and when you're dreaming.

Review and Refocus

Many people will only need to concentrate on the reality check and lucid dreaming will come naturally, even if it seems to be sporadically. If you're still having trouble or you just want to increase the rate of lucid dreaming compared to free dreaming this step should help.

After you have a few of your dreams written down go over them again. What kinds of patterns can you find? Try to find scenery, characters, and objects that are frequent in your dreams. Do you often dream of your working environment or does your cat always seem to pop up in your dreams? Once you establish the patterns you should focus your reality checks on them. Whenever your cat runs by ask yourself if you're dreaming.

Sometimes you will find that you can become lucid in surprising ways. For me, it took about a week of these exercises before I became conscious in one of my dreams. However, I didn't find a Post-It note with a question and I didn't look down to find black dots on my hands. I just walked through a door and I found myself in the same room I had just stepped out of.

When you become aware that you're dreaming for the first few times, the excitement may actually wake you. All skills take practice and lucid dreaming is no different. Keep at it and before you know it you'll be controlling dream scenery and characters as if you were directing your own movie; your whole world can be changed with nothing more complicated than a thought.

Learn more about this author, Rebekah Aura Nemethy.
Click here to send this author comments or questions.