Imagine you’re having a nightmare where you are being chased or cornered by a monster and you don’t know how to lucid dream.
You don’t realise that it is a nightmare and continue to struggle for your survival as you have nowhere to run.
Researchers have generated meanings from some of your dreams. They largely believe that whoever is after you, chasing you endlessly could be a representation of a part of you. Maybe your past guilt coming back to haunt you.
What if in the middle of this nightmare, you could be conscious that you’re in a dream and can even change its outcome?
Instead of running away from the dreaded monster and maybe even waking up panicking, you can change the course of the dream.
Maybe you could snap your fingers and suddenly the monster turns into dust. Or maybe you turn into a superhuman or even fly away? In short, you can get rid of your nightmares and sleep paralysis.
What is a Lucid Dream?
A lucid dream is when you are completely aware that you are dreaming. A lucid dream can be a slight realization that you are in a dream to fully control your actions, people, or objects in the dream or even the dream itself.
It is said that most people will have a lucid dream, at some point in their lives. Children tend to have them more frequently than adults.
This is because children tend to have more active imaginations than adults. Sometimes taking certain medications triggers people to experience intense, lucid dreams.
You can also practice and train yourself to experience lucid dreams. With time you can also learn to control your actions within your dreams.
Advanced lucid dreamers are said to not only direct their actions but can also set the narrative of the dream itself.
Although not much is known about lucid dreaming or even dreaming in general, researchers believe that lucid dreaming may be therapeutic.
While in your regular dreams, your subconscious mind is processing the events of the past day. In lucid dreaming, you may experience entirely different scenarios and emotions.
You can also make decisions or practice conclusions that provide insight and may even help you resolve situations in real life.
Steps to a Lucid Dream
Here we are going to learn five ways to increase your chances of a lucid dream tonight and no, this isn’t any bogus hype, it’s scientific.
First things first, remember these need to be included in your overall lucid dream strategy. Individually, they work, but not hugely well. Combined, they’re much, much better.
But when they’re part of your overall lucid dream practice, they’re incredibly REM sleep cycles for vivid lucid dreams and are powerful for lucid dreaming.
5. Go to bed an hour earlier
Most REM dreaming sleep happens at the end of the night. But because most people aren’t getting enough sleep they wake up before their biggest period of REM.
So if you go to bed an hour earlier, you have more sleep and more of a chance of having that large period of REM at the end of the night.
Going to bed an hour earlier gives you a much bigger target for lucid dreams.
4. Dream Journaling for Lucid Dream
Read your dream journal regularly and this includes in the middle of the night too. While going through your dream journal, you’re not just having a read, but you’re looking at your dream journal for the reasons you didn’t become lucid and what you should have done to become lucid.
In other words, dream signs what this does is it hones your mind, it trains your mind to look for those differences and will help to trigger lucidity in the near future.
3. Prospective Memory
Prospective memory is the ability to remember to do something in the future and we often do this every single day.
You do it when you need to remember to pick up your wallet before you go out turn off the lights or buy some milk from the store, it’s something we’re all used to doing.
But if you rely on external reminders, Like apps or notes you’re offloading that skill to something else. You don’t want to be doing that.
Try to practice prospective memory. And when you’re using it for lucid dreaming remember it’s nothing exotic. It’s no more impressive than being able to remember to turn off the lights as you go out of the house.
2. Morning Naps
Weirdly, most people don’t try this but I really recommend doing it. Have morning naps. Now, what I mean by that is sleep normally throughout the entire night obviously going to bed an hour earlier.
If you can, when you wake up, stay awake for an hour, read through your dream journal then go back to bed for a morning nap.
What you’re doing here is guaranteeing that you’re going to have some sleep where REM occurs but not only that. Your mind will be more alert and especially more alert, if you follow the next tip.
1. What to eat for a Lucid Dream
The sleeping brain is a hungry brain and the dreaming brain is a hungrier brain. We have the majority of REM at the end of the night and that is hours and hours since we had our last meal.
Now, what does the brain eat? Well, it’s not burgers. It’s not chocolate. It’s glucose. Glucose is the primary source of energy for the brain.
But by the time you’re in your largest period of REM, your brain is basically starving. So, this tip isn’t something I recommend doing every single night but do it maybe once a week when you’re really trying hard for a long lucid dream.
When you’re just about to sleep, take a glucose pill. Make sure it doesn’t have caffeine or any other additives, just pure glucose.
What this does is it gives your brain its primary source of energy so when you’re busy in that very, very intense period of REM at the very tail end of the night, your brain has the fuel it needs to work properly.
This gives your chances of a lucid dream a huge boost because your brain isn’t starving it’s not running on empty, and the chances of having a lucid dream go through the roof.
Another tip that I would recommend, and make sure you do this, is after you’ve taken your glucose tablet, get some mouthwash or your toothpaste, give your mouth a rinse, and brush your teeth you don’t want to be risking your dental health.
The nice thing with glucose pills is they’re much sweeter and much safer than all of the dodgy lucid dreaming pills that are for sale online.
A lucid dream can also help you get rid of sleep paralysis, end night terrors and creatures in your nightmares.
Thankyou, I appreciate the tip about glucose pills.