Lucid Dreaming Techniques

During sleep, we cycle through its 5 stages. These steps can be clubbed into two types, the REM sleep and the non-REM sleep. The REM is a short form for rapid eye movement. The REM sleep is associated with dreams and is characterized by the rapid eye movements. There are moments in a dream when we suddenly realize that we are asleep and having a dream or a nightmare. At the back of your mind, there is a tiny spark of awareness which allows you to examine and analyze the scenes or the theme of the dream. It is a place or the time or the combination of both which protects the sanctity of your remoteness from the whirlwind of the dream.

It is a dimension of the sleep in which you are aware of the truthfulness or the falsehood of the details, the objects and the events of the dream. Your remoteness allows you to shift through the character of the dream, like, a detective shifting through the evidence of the tragedy, accepting or rejecting it. You are dreaming but your mind is clear i.e. lucid. Lucid dreaming is dreaming whilst being aware that you are having a dream. You can take part in the dream and even change some of the situations being played out in the dream. There are certain lucid dreaming techniques, which can help you in attaining this state and increase the scope of your manipulation of the events of the dream.

Techniques for Lucid Dreaming

Sigmund Freud, the father of psychoanalysis, said that dreams are platforms where everyone can express their unconscious wishes, emotions and thoughts. However, most of the people, after realizing that they are having a dream, slip back into the REM sleep and in the morning cannot recollect any aspect of the dream. The basic aim of the lucid dreaming techniques is to prepare you to take the control of the dream and become aware of experiencing a dream. How do you know whether you are having a dream or not. Dream signs will help you in doing so.

1. Dream signs: When you are awake, you have to practice some actions such as pressing the door-bell button or looking at your digital watch and noticing the digits denoting the time. In sleep, when you become aware of having a dream, you try to look at your watch a few times and notice the digits displayed on it. If on each occasion, you notice different numbers on the watch or that the numbers are blurred, then be sure that you are having a dream and ready to take control of the dream by using your mind analytically. Whilst experiencing a dream, one tends to accept its abnormalities without cross examining it. For example, when you observe a cow flying in the sky in your 'dream-aware' state, you must analyze this fact. "How can a cow fly in the sky?" and come to the conclusion that you are experiencing a dream.
   
   Your act of analyzing the events of dream can give you the opportunity to exercise the control over your dream. The dream, instead of developing in a haphazard manner, is now under your direction. You can try to ride the flying cow in your dream to the Antarctica or to the moon. Anything is possible in a dream. In a dream, you can fight and slay a dragon or you can be a superhero and save the world from the villains from the Andromeda galaxy. A creative person can direct his dream to go on a tour of the solar system and can visit all the planets orbiting the Sun. The dream signs is one of the easy lucid dream techniques which can help you to identify your 'dream-aware' state and the opportunity to practice lucid dreaming.
   
2. The reality check: While doing reality check, our aim is to compare the facts of our dreams with that of the reality. The lucid dreaming techniques advise us that whenever we come out of the dream, we must immediately write down whatever we have experienced in the dream. Later on, when we are wide awake and go about our every day life, we should try to compare dream facts with that of the reality.

Some people can easily have lucid dreams, but the rest can practice lucid dream techniques and master the art of lucid dreaming. Individuals who consistently experience nightmares can benefit from the use of the lucid dreaming techniques. It allows them to develop and master the faculty of observing the nightmare they are experiencing neutrally which they may find relieving. The rest of the people can use lucid dream techniques to manipulate their dreams and enjoy doing what they cannot in the real world. It is said that the lucid dreams techniques can also help to stimulate one's creativity.