You want to have a lucid dream. That much you are sure of; however, what you are not at all sure of is how to go about having one.

So, what is so good about being a lucid dreamer? What would you gain from it? In order to understand the advantages of being aware when you are dreaming, we need to examine what regular sleep actually is.

What is different about lucid dreaming? Normally, you lay down and you’re out for six to eight hours. Maybe you remember your dreams, maybe not. The usual ? not all that interesting, really.

The human body has a built in requirement for sleep. It rests the body so that we are prepared to continue our lives. Without it, there is strong evidence for insanity. That is all well and good but there is nothing saying we cannot control certain aspects of sleep is there?

How would you like to control what you do while in your dream? Control the events that happen in it in any way you like. A lucid dreamer is in complete control of their dreams.They are able to enter the spiritual realm of existence far removed from what exists in the physical waking hours.

How can a person achieve this? How do you learn to be a lucid dreamer? DILD refers to a dream initiated lucid dream. You need to realize you are dreaming. In other words, if you are dreaming and know it, you are having a lucid dream.

The second method is to have a wake initiated lucid dream, or WILD. In these situations,the dreamer goes from awake to lucid dream with no change in consciousness. The dreamer simply begins dreaming without having the sensation of falling asleep.

So how are these types of lucid dreaming induced?

Remember your dreams.

A simple place to start when you would like to lucid dream is in dream recall. This is where you can remember and perhaps recite your dream in part or in whole. You are very likely to have the same dream more than once in your life and being able to remember them will alert you the next time you have that particular dream.

Writing down everything you can recall dreaming, this is called keeping a dream journal. The more you do this the more likely you will be to remember your dreams. If possible do this as soon as you wake up as this is the time when you will remember the most about your dreams.

Mnemonic Induction of Lucid Dreams (MILD)

This method was developed by top lucid dreaming researcher Dr. Stephen LaBerge. The idea is to affirm to yourself that you will remember something when you see it in a dream ? then when you do, you will realize that you are dreaming and begin to assert control over your dream.

WBTB refers to Wake Back to Bed

To use the wake back to bed method you need do little initially beyond setting your clock to wake you up. Set your clock for about five hours sleep give or take an hour, once the alarm goes off get up and do something. Read a book, your dream journal anything but going back to sleep, after approximately an hour you may go back to bed. In studies done this method has 60% of the time. When you are interrupted in the middle of sleep, you are interrupting rapid eye movement sleep. This is the time when dreams are the most active. Therefore, you stop in the middle of your best dreamtime only to return to sleep a short time later, improving your chances of entering lucid dream state.

This technique of learning to lucid dream has a sixty percent success rate according to Stephen LaBerge. You have waked up during the dream cycle of your sleep which is referred to as REM. This is like a trigger telling your mind that you want to be aware when you are dreaming.

As the name suggests this technique is all about cycling your sleep. Go to bed at your normal time but for a week set an alarm to wake you one and a half hours early. You should continue to do this for around 7 days. Once your body has settled somewhat into this routine, begin to alternate your wake up times. One day normal, wake up time the next early, on your normal days you will be trying to wake up early and should increase lucid dream chances.

Daniel Love came up with this way to accomplish lucid dreaming. Start getting up an hour and a half earlier. After you get used to this, go back to getting up at your usual time. Since you are used to getting up earlier but don?t have to now, your mind is still thinking you are awake, therefore you will be more likely to be aware in your dream.

When you consider all the methods and techniques wake initiated is by far the most intriguing way to enter lucid dreams. What you have to do is manage to keep the brain aware while the rest of you falls asleep. You can enter your dreams much like entering a theater. You go into watch the movie, set down and the light go down, (sleep) dark envelopes you just before the movements on the screen appear.

Let’s get back to this method which is described above. To achieve lucid dreaming, the technique is to try to keep mentally aware even as your body relaxes into a sleep state.Think of it this way ? you are getting ready to watch a movie; your closed eyelids are like the black screen before the movie begins and you are waiting for the trailers to roll.

Some of the methods which can keep you mentally alert are chanting, being aware of your breathing, counting, and picturing yourself climbing up or down stairs and focusing on relaxing your body from head to toe. All of these techniques fall under the umbrella of self hypnosis. The best time to use this technique is when you are not physically tired, especially in the afternoon.

The sounds bring the two sides of the brain in synch. Your brainwaves are then converted to REM waves the time during sleep when you dream and the frequency at which lucid dreams occur.

However, the most reliable method of all is to listen to binaural sound frequencies (also called binaural beats) on headphones.

This type of sound can alter your brain and bring you to the REM stage of sleep very quickly. This is where your lucid dreaming will occur.

With a combination of self affirmations, self hypnosis and binaural sounds, being a lucid dreamer is something anyone can do successfully.