Take Control Of Your Dreams: A Guide To Lucid Dreaming

Have you ever experienced the sensation of being in a dream and realizing that it's not real? Lucid dreaming is a technique that allows you to control your dreams by shaping the narrative with your imagination. Dreams are mysterious and unpredictable, and the ability to become conscious while dreaming changes the way we experience them. In this article, we'll explore everything you need to know about lucid dreaming and some other interesting facts about dreams.

Several factors affect the recollection of dreams, such as the number of hours you sleep and even your diet. Studies reveal that people who make less effort to remember what they dream about during the night can more easily enter the lucid state. If you've never had a lucid dream, don't worry, because people can learn and get better at it with time. In fact, there's more than one way to practice having lucid dreams.

A researcher tested the effectiveness of five different techniques to induce lucid dreaming, working with hundreds of participants. The first technique is reality testing, where participants examine their physical environment repeatedly every day to perceive its reality. The goal is to turn this behavior into a habit so that participants can make reality checks in dreams and understand that they're dreaming. You can also do reality checks during the day, which enhances metacognition, or the awareness of your own thoughts. You can check the time to see if it's running normally or press your finger into your palm to feel if it's solid or not. Applying these reality tests when you're awake will prepare your brain to try them in a dream and enter lucidity.

The second technique is called wake-back-to-bed. This technique suggests that you go to bed and set the alarm to wake up after five hours. You stay awake for a short time and do an activity to stimulate your mind, such as writing or reading. Then, you go back to sleep, going straight back to the REM phase. You can dream during this stage of your sleep cycle, so by kind of tricking your conscious brain, you make it stay active as you re-enter REM sleep.

The next technique, mnemonic induction of lucid dreams, or MILD for short, also asks you to wake up after five hours of sleep. When you wake up, remind yourself that you intend to realize that you are dreaming the next time you go to sleep. You can literally say to yourself, "Next time I'm dreaming, I'll remember I'm dreaming." Think of your brain like a supercomputer, and program it with this phrase. When you notice that you're sleepy, focus on the most recent dream you had, and try to pick up a dream sign, which could be something that felt surreal about the narrative of your dream. Your intention is to remember, return, and visualize that dream to become lucid in it.

The senses initiated lucid dream technique also works like that. This practice suggests that the participant should focus on noises, sights, and physical sensations after waking up. They can control the action and content if they concentrate on each stimulus for 20 seconds before falling asleep again. This technique is among the most effective.

The last technique is a combo. When the alarm wakes you up after five hours of sleep, you focus on the sounds and sensations you get from your surroundings. Then, you remind yourself of the whole point of doing it with the help of the intention phrase. It requires practice and takes time. Little by little, people become more mindful of their dreams.

Did you know that younger people have a natural tendency to have lucid dreams? A Harvard study found that most younger people experience these dreams in their growing-up process. The results show us that people don't actually learn but rather remember how to become lucid. This means we have the know-how all along, we just need to practice