by Shelly Barclay

Created on: January 15, 2011   Last Updated: January 31, 2011

Lucid dreaming is willful or accidental dreaming that occurs when the dreamer becomes aware that he or she is dreaming. Lucid dreaming is an experience that allows the dreamer to not only realize that he or she is dreaming, but also to manipulate his or her dream. This means the dreamer can fully enjoy the sensations that would not be safe in "real life," but occur often in dreams, like flying without a flying mechanism, taking huge jumps or being involved in an unreal scenario. Luckily, lucid dreaming does not have to happen by chance. People can teach themselves how to have lucid dreams and try to induce them. It does not work every time, but your lucid dreaming experiences are bound to increase by using these techniques correctly.

Dream Signs

The use of dream signs is probably the most common and easiest to use lucid dreaming technique. This technique involves the use of obvious signs that you are dreaming to increase dream consciousness. To find out what dream signs will work best for you, start keeping a dream journal. The moment you wake up from a dream, record the unreal things you can recall about the dream. A pattern of common dream signs should emerge. You may often dream of dinosaurs or flying. Those common dream occurrences will become your dream signs. You will look for them to increase dream consciousness.

After you have established what your dream signs are, concentrate on them before falling asleep. Tell yourself to look for them and recognize them as a sign that you are dreaming. When you see or experience one of these signs in a dream and recognize it, immediately start "doing" things in your dream that you would not normally be able to do. For example, if you notice a dinosaur and then realize you are dreaming, try to fly over the dinosaur. From there, all you have to do is maintain control of the lucid dream and stay asleep. Once you have gotten used to this technique, you should be able to spot uncommon dream signs (things you rarely or never dream about) while you are dreaming and start the lucid dreaming process.

Externally Induced Lucid Dream

EILD is a lucid dreaming technique that is supposed to increase your dream consciousness by introducing external stimuli into your dream. For example, you could set an alarm to play calm music that is not likely to wake you. Tell yourself to listen for this music as a cue that you are sleeping. If done correctly, the introduction of the music into your dream world should allow you to increase your dreaming

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