Sunday, January 25, 2009

How Does Lucid Dreaming Work?

By Trevor Albitt

Sometimes known as conscious dreaming, lucid dreaming is the art of keeping self aware and knowing that one is dreaming while in a dream. This includes being conscious that the events unfolding around you are only part of the dream and being able to exercise control over the dream. All of this is possible for the person who has learned how to use lucid dreaming.

Having control over your dreams is an incredible experience. Everything which you thought you couldn't keep from holding you back from your goals just falls before you and you have new found mental clarity, even when awake.

Is lucid dreaming as straightforward as all that? Is lucid dreaming something which can be experienced by anyone?

In fact, lucid dreaming is not too difficult a task. If you are determined to learn this powerful medium of expressing your inner desires, there are tried and tested ways of achieving this.

You need to know what you hope to achieve through lucid dreaming. Are you after something specific which can help you with other areas of your life, or do you just want to turn your dreams into a playpen of the imagination? Whatever your reason for wanting to learn lucid dreaming, know your goal and be determined to reach it.

The next step is to learn the techniques of reaching the mental state where lucid dreaming is possible. You'll have to begin learning dream recall, which is simply remembering your dreams. To begin lucid dreaming, you need to first be able to recall every detail of the dreams that you have.

The process is slow, but it can be achieved by maintaining a Dream Recall Register in which you enter as many details as you can remember about your dreams daily. Slowly but surely, you'll realize that you can remember even the most vivid details of your dreams. Periodic reality checks during the course of dreaming will train your mind to be aware in dreams.

Hypnosis can be very helpful for many in preparing their minds to have lucid dreams and can get the process of learning lucid dreaming off to a good head start. In fact, hypnosis can have people remembering their dreams in detail in as few as a few sessions. When you can do this, you are ready to try out lucid dreaming.

While in a lucid dream, it may happen that suddenly, you are wide-awake. However, with the power that you have attained so far, you'll be easily able to recollect all the important details of the dream. Now, just try to relax and sleep again, while continuing the dream with the desired directions. When you wake up, you'll realize the real power of conscious dreaming you just experienced the night before.

Another good way of inducing lucid dreams is to wake a few hours earlier than usual, then go back to sleep. The dreams you will have in these few hours are the easiest to make into lucid dreams. You may even find yourself unsure whether you have been sleeping or just thinking to yourself as you lay in bed. Just set your alarm for a few hours early, wake and reset the alarm and then go back to sleep and you will be more likely to have lucid dreams.

When learning lucid dreaming, it helps to be well aware of your sleep patterns so you know when the best times for you to have lucid dreams are.

Lucid dreaming can actually help you fight sleeping disorders, like insomnia. Whenever you are struggling to sleep at the normal sleeping hours, you just need to tell your mind that sleeping equals lucid dreaming, and your mind will take care of all the thoughts that are preventing you from falling asleep.

It once was the case that it could take years to learn lucid dreaming; the only way to prepare the mind was meditation, which took a long time to master. A lot of people lack the discipline and would simply give up. New technologies, especially audio technology have made it possible for anyone to experience lucid dreaming.

Binaural audio is one of the most reliable methods of getting people to have lucid dreams.

These work by playing slightly different frequencies in each ear and have the result of deeply relaxing the listener and bringing their brain waves to the correct frequency for lucid dreaming to occur.

Before this technology was available the only sure way to be able to lucid dream to order was by the way of meditation techniques which often took years to learn and the perseverance and determination required was too much of a struggle for most people.

By listening to binaural sound waves, particular when combined with hypnosis to prepare the subconscious mind, it is possible for you to experience lucid dreaming very soon after your first attempt. - 20897

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