For those of you who like to get straight to the good stuff, I’ve compiled a list of the top 10 tools that you can use to learn how to lucid dream. These are so good that you probably won’t need to use any more than two or three before you start having some degree of lucidity.
1. Take naps.
Napping during the day not only means you’ll be less tired (increasing likelihood of lucid dreams), but it gives you an extra chance to practice.
2. Take more notice of your surroundings.
If you stumble through your waking life in a haze, make it a habit to take more notice of the external world. Many people spend a lot of their day with an internal focus. If you habitually pay attention to the sights, sounds and colors of the world you’ll increase the likelihood of spotting something out of place in your dream world.
3. Listen to music as you sleep.
Music has the ability to trigger just about any emotion you can think of. Play a CD or run your iPod through a set of speakers bedside your bed as you sleep. Find some music that triggers strong memories or emotions and intersperse those tracks with relaxing background music. Create a playlist and let it loop as you sleep through the night.
4. Get a voice-activated tape recorder.
Unless you snore heavily, a voice-activated tape recorder put on your bedside table will be able to record any sounds you make during the night. If you’re talking during your dreams or making any sounds, playing back the tape the next morning will help you recall dreams any you may have otherwise forgotten. Not only will this help you learn how to lucid dream, it might give the definitive answer to whether or not you snore once and for all!
5. Eat spicy foods
Consuming foods with strong flavors or spices has an interesting effect on the body, just as taking some drugs or medications can do. These can trigger unusual or vivid dreams, both of which are a good thing if you’re learning how to lucid dream and trying to remember and control your dreams.
“The Dream” – Pablo Picasso (1932)
6. Use affirmations.
Rather than repeat “I am going to have a lucid dream”, try an affirmation like “I recognize and control my dreams” or “I know how to lucid dream and can control my dreams at will”. Write it on a sticky note and put it somewhere you’ll see it during the day like in your car or on your computer monitor. Repeat it before you go to bed each night.
7. EFT.
You dreams represent issues that your subsconcious is processing. You don’t need to understand your dreams to use them for healing. A simple acupressure technique called the Emotional Freedom Techniques (EFT) can be used to clear these issues both while lucid dreaming and when awake. Learning the basics of EFT is free and you can also work with an experienced EFT Practitioner if you need some help healing these dream issues.
8. Set your alarm
Wake yourself up during the night. Get out of bed and walk around for ten to thirty minutes before returning to sleep. This is similar to napping. The return to sleep from a recent awake an conscious state leaves what can best be described as “consciousness remnants” in your dream state that makes it easier to lucid dream. This is called WILD, or Wake Induced Lucid Dreaming. The alarm is best set for 3-4 hours into your sleep – the period when REM sleep usually occurs.
9. Do a reality check when you wake up.
Sometimes you’ll awaken within a dream and be still asleep. Great horror movie fodder, to be sure. For lucid dreamers, the fear or concern is that the recognition of a dream may result in the dreamer waking up. It’s possible that “waking up” will be a false awakening when it really represents a loss of control over the dream as the unconscious mind takes over. Get into the habit of doing reality checks every time you wake up, and you can prevent this from happening.
10. Get help!
If you’re struggling to do it alone, spend a few bucks and invest in some professional tools that will help you. Think of it like spending money on a DVD that you can make into any movie you like! Grab the lucid dreaming kit today and you won’t even need to spend extra on popcorn!
Finally, dont give up! Persistence is also an important part of learning how to lucid dream. Not everyone will achieve success with the same tools or in the same time. It’s important to recognize that a dream is usually a conversation with your unconscious mind. To know how to lucid dream is understand how to be in tune with yourself. That means paying more attention to things in your waking life that you normally do not.
How To Lucid Dream 
Hi Rich
I love this part: “and you won’t even need to spend extra on popcorn!”
I often wake up thinking my dreams are so entertaining and creative they would make a blockbuster movie. =)
warmly
Kerri
I whole heartedly agree, from experience, with the part about taking naps and using the WILD technique (although I don’t do it with alarms because somenights I just wake up on my own and can have a dream in about 3-4 parts!) And naps, I wouldn’t do often. I think the main point about napping is that it is out of place from your routine. So doing it all of the time will defeat the purpose.
11. Sleep Deprivation
This works if you have a quiet day or two without work or family distractions. Force yourself to stay awake all night, drink coffee or whatever if it helps. Maybe use the time to catch up on something useful like paperwork. Starting about 10am take a nap somewhere unusual such as on the sofa – not your bed. It should be hard to fall asleep. Instead you may experience several short naps, during some of which you may find you can go lucid. Thanks to this technique I am more practised and can now go lucid a couple of times a week in normal sleep.
If im lucky enough to notice something that is not real like, Iv found my double bed in the corner of a factory before and my workmate asked me “what is your bed doing here?”) I realized that i had not brought it with me to work and the only logical answer was that i was dreaming. I got the biggest rush from this realization and flew out the door and around the hills. Iv had lucid dreams before but this is the only trigger i can ever remember. my bed at my workplace is an obvious trigger, yet in normal dreams I can accept the most stupid things as completly normal and remember them in the morning wondering why this did not trigger. perhaps too tired
i am trying hard at the moment, very hazey because of smoking weed in the evening.. Ill stop that because i know i could hav great ones if i do that.. Fingers crossed for me people!!
hi my name is kezli and im 13 since i was about 10 i have been having lucid dreams. in my dreams i first notice im in a dream and usually say to my self “hey wait a second, im in a dream” or somthing like that. then i start to try and do things in that dream. i have for a while been obsessed with a certain anime tv series and always try and transport myself into that tv series. i close my eyes in the dream and consentrate as hard as i can on going there but i always stay were i am, this annoys me because i can do things like levitate objects and fly and stuff but i can never do things like go into a tv show i also have trouble seeing myself like if i look down and try an make myself wear something pretty i cant see it, does anyone know how to fix my problems?
To kezli, Try flying above the clouds of your dream world. Imagine your going to land in a reoccurring place in your amine show. Then slowly decend back through the clouds to your desired location. This may take a few tries.
Best of luck,
E
This trick worked for me watch that show alot just watch from beginning to end at least 2 hours after you feel tried with me I played a video game then could play it in my head it was cool Link just did what I wanted to do not what I said
i cant sleep during the day 😦
The first and only time I’ve ever had the slightest trigger to a lucid dream was a few weeks ago. The stairs that lead up to the back of my house were in my pool, and I asked myself “Am I dreaming?” I never realized I was though. I’ve been trying this ever since then but I can’t seem to get my subconscious mind to do a reality check in my dream. When I wake up though, I realize I should’ve asked myself, but I can’t really do it.
your subconscious is geared to do the opposite of of lucidity, so its very difficult to realize your in a dream. Anything that seems bizarre will register as normal in your dreams. one thing i found out that helped was keeping a dream journal, every morning as soon as you wake up write down everything you can possible remember about your dream, like colors, people, places, events, etc. Then before you go to bed read over your dreams and try and remember them. the key here is to find re-occurring dream signs, so you can recognize them and therefore realize that your dreaming. another tip would be reality checks, in your dreams your hands will look disoriented, your surroundings will be off, and if you plug your nose and can still breathe. so throughout the day look at your hands and surroundings and ask your self am i dreaming?
the first time i was lucid dreaming, i heard drumms, screams, and someone screaming “THIS IS SPARTAAAAAAAAAAA”
that just about scared the HELL out of me! 😀
i was in a state of paranoia when i woke up and randomly went outside my house for no reason, and i wasn’t aware of it until i ended up in the swings of my local playground.
then, i’m like “why is this swing wet?”
then, “why am i in a swing?”
and then “where am i and what am i doing?”
and finally, “WTF AM I DOING HERE?”
true story. i still remember it since 8 months ago.
Ive had lucid dreams before now thinking back to it. There are specific ones that just stick with me, as I’m sure most people have. But just recently I encountered something bizarre which not trying to do it on purpose. It was about 10:30 in the morning and I had slightly woken up from my dad yelling my name. I replied saying I was awake and quickly fell back asleep. But whilst sleeping again I could still hear his calls. These calls were a trigger that did the opposite of lucidity. When I hear my name being called, I woke up in the dream thinking I was awake in real life. I hadn’t found tools to use like light switches or watches before so I was convinced that I wasn’t sleeping. I went downstairs and hid from my dad in my sleep while hearing his calls from real life. I thought it was the funniest thing until in my dream my sister approached me and scared me from behind, waking me and leaving me in a state of shock thinking that I was just downstairs. I don’t have an explaination, I just hope some people fin this interesting and inquisitive.
I’ve had something like that while i was in the Army… I was dreaming that our drill Sergeant was shouting and we needed to get Dressed and ready for Combat. I Woke up a Lot of Times thinking why aren’t the other guys getting Dressed… Then One Time he was really shouting and i thought i.m dreaming again XD
I always try to remember to look at my hands. They usually are fuzzy or contain extra digits. And since I am so familiar with them I recognize that I am dreaming
I remember when my mom used to get me up every morning and every morning I would fall back to sleep half a dozon times before my mom yelled at me to get up again. Some mornings I would fall back to sleep but dream that I was getting ready for school. Since getting ready was a part of my every day routine and I was so used to everything, nothing in my dreams were ever odd or different because I guess my mind was used to the same thing every day. Because of that, I never realized I was dreaming. I would get completely ready and once I was about to walk out the door to the car, my mom would come in my room and would wake me up again. I am not a morning person, so when I woke up and realized that I had to get completely get ready AGAIN, that did not start my day off as well as i hoped my day would start.
Everytie I dream its not lucid..:/ but in the dream I’m always doing something that is very unlikely and the dream is always 3rd person and it’s really blury but I never realize it a dream I just think its normal!!
I have never had a fully lucid dream, as I have only recently looked into the subject. However, often times in dreams I will question whether or not I am dreaming before going to the bathroom, as many times in my dreams I will pee in strange places. I still only get it right about half the time, but usually when i do realise that I am in fact dreaming I only remain conscious of the fact for a few minutes (what feels like minutes in the dream anyway) before I either wake up or the dream changes and I am unaware that I am in a dream again.
Like I said on kezli’s post I dreamt I was playing the game I played all day only I didn’t realize I was just asleep I realized I was awake and dreaming like actually had a tv in my closed eyes I could still Talk to my brother,move my arms though moving limbs made the image fade a bit so I held still but talked
Thanks for all the tips – Great advice.
Outstanding information I hope this works out the best for me. What do you think about listening to techno or drum and bass music while falling asleep, oppose to my daily spa/ meditation music I listen to at night.
i did lucid dreaming only once in my live ( i am 16) its the only dream i can remember to
i onlyhad a lucid dream once *
I remember a while back I was waiting for my brand new computer to come in and I was extremely excited about it until I heard that the shipping was backed up due to a storm in the area and I’d have to wait for an extra week until I got it. I ended up going to sleep that night, extremely upset that my brand new computer wasn’t coming the next day. I ended up dreaming of my new computer and getting it set up and all, but didn’t realize I was dreaming for a while into it when I couldn’t remember what I ate for breakfast. I tried to look back into the morning and then I realized that I had no recollection of myself getting out of bed, causing me to ask myself if I was dreaming. This is the only time where I remember ever having a lucid dream and I think it was onset by my strong emotions of being disappointed. I recommend to anybody attempting lucid dreaming that they look for something to trigger a strong emotion shortly before falling asleep. Hope this helps.
I’ve never lucid dreamt before but usually i partly know that i am dreaming, like when I was standing at the very top of a castle made of loose platform things, an earthquake came and the castle was falling and i knew that i wasnt going to get hurt since you dont feel the pain in your dreams, then after it fell and i just got up, i just forgot that i even recognized it as a dream. It was freakin’ weird. ^~^