Lucid dreaming tips?

[MonkeySage]

This sort of interests me, especially since I frequently draw inspiration from the dreams that I remember, rare as that is. I came up with a monster for pathfinder because something like it featured in one of my dreams.

I've read that apparently you're supposed to keep a dream journal or something like that, but I've never been one to keep journals in the first place- I wouldn't even know what to write, lol.

I've also tried it before and it's not an easy habit to keep up, when going long periods without remembering what I dreamed about.

[truemane]

The point of keeping a dream journal is to help you get better at remembering your dreams. You get up early enough to have some time to yourself and you immediately write down everything you can remember. Even if it's just fragments. Even if they don't make sense. You do it every day, and over time you find you can remember more and more dreams, and more and more detail.

Things that seem to assist in lucid dreaming: Reality Checks (more or less, throughout your day get into the habit of stopping and checking to see if you're dreaming), setting an alarm to go off after about five hours' sleep and then going right back to sleep, and what they call MILD or Prospective Memory. Simply, repeat to yourself that the next time you dream you will remember that you're dreaming.

There was a study done just this year that indicates the combination of the second and third techniques had the highest chance of causing lucid dreams for people who had already been keeping a dream journal for a week. Of those who woke up, used the MILD technique, and fell asleep within five minutes, 46% had a lucid dream.

[ElfMadness]

Check the time often. If you're dreaming your brain makes up a time, and sometimes it royally messes-up, indicating that you are dreaming.

[AuthorGirl]

Ah, lucid dreams! Sources of wacky book ideas and sound life advice, sometimes at the same time!

When I specifically want some out-of-the-box considerations about a problem, I'll outline the problem and tell myself to pay attention to what I dream. That usually adds an extra layer of detail and clarity.

When I wake up and I've dreamed something I want to remember (whether planned or not), I write down absolutely as much as I can. If there's anything that seems to be a symbol for something else, I'll look at that to see if it changes the lesson and/or the nascent story. Drawing pictures also helps (they don't have to be good pictures). If you compose music, writing a "soundtrack" that kind of outlines the dream's story might also be worthwhile - not necessarily outlining in words - I don't know.

[Fri]

On reality check, i can say that it's effective. I used to be an avid lucid dreamer, and used to try to Purposefully induce them. Make a habit of checking your watch and pinching your nose and try to breathe through them. Do it at random time whenever you can remember them. At some point you'll pinch your nose close but you realize you can still breathe through then. It's surreal. At that point you know you're in a dream.

[Starwulf]

One thing I've heard from a good friend who trained to do this, is to not do it long-term. After a while you start questioning whether or not your awake/dreaming all the time, often confusing reality with dreams and vice versa, which can negatively affect your life pretty quickly(Oh hey, I'm dreaming. Let's go run this little old lady over with my car for funsies). He had to quit because of this, and it took him months to get back to normal. Even lost a job over it because he was doing weird stuff(he refused to elaborate) at his workplace.

Other then that, everything that's been said is what he mentioned to try, especially the constant reality check "Am I awake? Is this real?". That way when you're dreaming, you'll still do that, and realize very quickly that you're in a dream. From there you just take control.

[Fri]

One thing I've heard from a good friend who trained to do this, is to not do it long-term. After a while you start questioning whether or not your awake/dreaming all the time, often confusing reality with dreams and vice versa, which can negatively affect your life pretty quickly(Oh hey, I'm dreaming. Let's go run this little old lady over with my car for funsies). He had to quit because of this, and it took him months to get back to normal. Even lost a job over it because he was doing weird stuff(he refused to elaborate) at his workplace.

Other then that, everything that's been said is what he mentioned to try, especially the constant reality check "Am I awake? Is this real?". That way when you're dreaming, you'll still do that, and realize very quickly that you're in a dream. From there you just take control.

Nah, I can see that's happening, but if that happens that means you already have some other problems. You really should see psychiatrist if that starts to happen.

Anyway, that's the point of reality check. You should question all the time whether you're in a dream or not. You try to breathe from closed nose, and you can't, and that means you're in reality and you shouldn't run that old lady over. Seriously, the reason why I keep mentioning that nose breathing trick is because it's so simple and vivid. You can't mistake it.

I stopped my lucid dreaming days because it's tiring. I don't want to just wait for it to randomly happen, so I do all the active stuffs like wake-back to bed and trying to keep my mind awake while drifting to sleep etc. It's actually quite effective, but really tiring, and after a while, I decide to just go to sleep.