How To Lucid Dream TONIGHT: [New 6-Step Guide For Beginers]
In today’s article you’re going to learn everything you need to know about how to lucid dream tonight.
What is lucid dreaming? A lucid dream is a dream that one has, in which they’re aware that they’re dreaming.
Early 20th century Dutch writer Frederik Willem van Eeden coined the term ‘lucid dream,’ indicating a sense of mental clarity; as the word lucid comes from the Latin lucidus “light, clear.” It is also called ‘conscious dreaming.’
The unconscious mind and dreaming
The unconscious mind is part of consciousness that lies under the conscious mind.
It is affected by subliminal stimuli (“below threshold”), which is any stimuli incapable of being perceived as it’s below one’s threshold of consciousness.
To put it easier, your unconscious deals with thoughts, beliefs, memories, skills, experiences and images that it has stored in your mind without you being aware of it ever having done so.
The thoughts that are most prominent are thoughts that you continuously feed.
Dreaming is the process of your conscious mind taking a rest as your unconscious mind takes over. Your unconscious simply recollects you’re most prominent thoughts or memories, which could be memories from years ago, and arranges them into a dream.
The thoughts you consider most are the ones you put the most importance on and vice versa.
This is why your dreams will sometimes seem utterly random, not knowing that that random part of your dream could’ve been something your unconscious stored and you weren’t aware of it.
Your unconscious mind stores everything but needs practice in recalling.
Why lucid dream?
Other than the undeniable fact that lucid dreaming is actually fun and thrilling, lucid dreaming can benefit you in many ways.
Lucid dreaming can relieve stress, guilt, social pressures, fear, and it also boosts creativity, problem solving skills and practical skills.
Because you aren’t limited in any way physically or creatively in a dream, you can play out scenarios in a dream to help deal with problems you are experiencing in reality.
For example, a person who fears heights can lucid dream to play out a scenario where they’re falling from a considerable height but they’ve complete control, manipulating boundaries and going outside the restrictions of reality, thereby allowing themselves to feel more comfy about and dissolve their fear of heights.
A person with a fear of public speaking can create a setting where they’re publicly speaking and, because they know it’s just a dream; will feel utterly comfy in the situation and will overcome their fear.
In a dreaming state your brain can make connections out of the things you experience, allowing for muscle memory, which can be carried on into the state of wakefulness.
This lets you experiment with and enhance your creativity (music, arts, ideas etc.), practicality (physical skills) and logic (reasoning, mathematics etc.).
While dreaming your imagination has no limitation; you can do whatever you want in a lucid dream. Why not take control of it?
How to lucid dream tonight:
Because your dream is run by your unconscious, you can incorporate subliminal stimuli into your everyday life which will recur in your dreams.
How do you utilize this to help lucid dreaming? Well, you can make a habit of doing reality checks throughout the day.
Reality checks
A reality check is a straightforward ritual that you can create in which you question whether you’re in a dream state or not. The simplest reality check you can do is to ask yourself; “Am I dreaming?”
Other reality checks can include gestures that will make you question whether the world you’re in is real or not.
For example; you can stick your finger of one hand into the palm of the other and imagine it going through your hand, the idea being that in a dream your finger can undergo your hand.
The more you repeat reality checks, the more your unconscious will pick up on them and form a habit of it, incorporating them into the dream world.
You can repeat the truth check as many times as you like. Remember, the more you repeat your reality checks, the easier your unconscious will pick up on it.
Dream journal
The most significant way of increasing your ability to lucid dream is to keep a dream journal (1).
A dream journal is a journal you keep by the side of your bed so that when you wake up, you can write (or draw) in the journal, in as much detail as you can in hopes of remembering your dream.
Doing this increases your ability for dream recall and tells your brain that dreaming is important.
It’s best to add a date to each dream to help you keep track of which dreams you had when and to see the change in your dreams and experiment with them.
The best method of remembering your dreams is to stay in the same position you wake up in and try to remember, not thinking too hard, as much as you can of the dream, then write or draw it in your journal.
Don’t worry if you don’t remember your dream, it comes with practice. The more you do it the more you’ll start remembering.
Meditation
Meditation helps an incredible deal when trying to accomplish lucidity. You can meditate during the day, for a half hour or so, or before you fall asleep.
While meditating, keep your mind focussed on achieving lucid dreams. Listen to binaural beats while you meditate as they can help achieve a state of relaxation.
Some binaural beats also contain triggers that will assist you in performing your reality checks.
Methods of accomplishing lucidity
There are a few other ways you can induce lucid dreams.
The dream-initiated lucid dream (DILD)
This method makes use of reality checks most importantly. Fall asleep as you normally would. While in the middle of a dream your unconscious will perform a reality check, if it already has become a habit, which will induce lucidity.
The mnemonic induction of lucid dreaming (MILD)
- Set an alarm to wake you up 2/3 of the way into your sleep
- Remember as much as you can of your dream
- Get into a relaxed state
- Repeat to yourself, “I am aware that I am dreaming”
- Repeat this until your unconscious picks it up, around 10 minutes
- Go back to sleep
The wake back to bed (WBTB)
- Set an alarm to wake you up 2/3 of the way into your sleep
- When you have woken up, meditate for 30-40 minutes, focusing on only lucidity Go back to sleep using the last half of the MILD method
The wake initiated lucid dream (WILD)
- Lie down on your bed
- Get comfy and relax
- Put headphones on and listen to Delta binaural beats to help you fall asleep Repeat to yourself, “I am aware that I am dreaming”
- When you feel yourself falling asleep hold on to your awareness, which should then carry over into your dream
How to lengthen lucidity
The first time you have a lucid dream, you can get too excited.
This can cause you to wake up right after becoming lucid. However, there are a few ways to keep yourself from waking up after achieving lucidity. The most significant thing to remember is to keep absolutely calm.
Use these methods to lengthen lucidity;
- Repeat your reality checks
- Spin around
- Fall backwards
- Do math problems
- Rub your hands together
- Stare at your hands, focusing on the details of your hand
- Yell something relevant i.e. “Clarity now!”
One of the best methods to use is the anchoring method; which is creating a habit out of a gesture that has certain intent. This will anchor you in your dream.
The anchoring method
During the day, while meditating, create some easy gesture that you repeat when you’re feeling utterly calm and assured, and tell yourself that that gesture means you are utterly calm and assured.
Feel that you’re calm and assured.
After doing this a few times, repeat the gesture every time you do your reality checks, be sure you tell yourself and feel that you’re utterly calm and assured every time.
Here’s an example;
- Achieve a state of relaxation through meditation
- While utterly relaxed, think back to a time when you were utterly calm and assured As this is occurring, gently rub your fingertip of one hand against the palm of your other hand Visualize yourself being utterly calm and assured and tell yourself that this gesture means that you’re calm and assured
- Pour the energy of those feelings into the gesture
- Do this for enough time, about 10 minutes, and your unconscious will pick up on it.
- Repeat this process as many times as you want, daily.
Guide for the beginner
For those who are just starting on the way of lucid dreaming, I have put a guide to follow each day, which will help kick start your experiences.
Follow this guide and when you became comfy enough, you can create your own reality checks, your own methods and your own techniques to induce lucid dreaming.
Here are the steps to follow;
Step 1 – Dream Journal
Upon awakening, write down everything you can remember about any dreams you had during your sleep cycle.
If you don’t remember, don’t give up. It takes time and practice when trying to accomplish lucid dreams.
Sometimes, during the day, you might randomly remember parts of a dream. Write down anything you can remember or make notes on an electronic device that you keep with you so that you can fill in your dream journal when you arrive home.
Step 2 – Meditation
Begin the day with 10 minutes of meditation (2). Be sure to focus only on achieving lucidity in your dreams. Repeat to yourself, “I am dreaming,” to stimulate your unconscious.
Step 3 – Reality checks
Include more than one reality check to repeat throughout the day. A good combination would be;
- Ask yourself, “Am I dreaming?”
- Rub your palms together to create a small amount of heat and friction Repeat, “Am I dreaming?”
- Count to five with your fingers, doing so on each hand.
- Repeat, “Am I dreaming?”
- Try a solving math problem
- Repeat, “Am I dreaming?”
- Place the tip of your pointing finger into the opposite hand’s palm. Push as if you plan for your finger to undergo you hand. Tell yourself, “If I am dreaming, my finger will go through my hand,” this will make your finger undergo your hand in a dream.
Repeat this 50 times throughout the day.
Alternatively, you can draw a symbol or make a note on your hand, or someplace you look repeatedly, to remind you to do your reality checks.
Step 4 – Meditation
Find a time during the day to do some meditation. You won’t need any more than a half hour; maybe you can do this during a lunch break.
Sit in a comfy position where there won’t be any distractions with a device that has internet connection. Plug earphones in and find a video on YouTube of binaural beats with a lucid dreaming induction.
If you don’t have internet connection, you can find a quite spot where you can do your meditation.
Breathe deep, focussing only on lucidity and performing a few reality checks throughout you meditation.
This is the time you’ll want to use the anchoring method. While in a relaxed state, try to think back to a situation you were utterly calm and assured in.
Let that feeling absorb you as much as possible; feel the feeling.
As you visualize and feel the emotions, rub the tip of your index finger on your thumb in gentle, circular motions. Do this on both hands. While doing this, tell yourself that that gesture means you are utterly calm and assured.
Focus on pouring the energy of your feelings into the gesture. Feel that the gesture makes you calm and assured. Repeat this 2-3 times. After having done this, include this gesture with your reality checks you do throughout the day.
Remember to tell yourself you are utterly calm and assured every time you do it but most significantly, feel utterly calm and assured when you do it.
Step 5 – Sleeping
On the first few nights trying to accomplish a lucid dream, perform the WBTB or MILD method to help achieve lucidity. This step is not necessary but will help you in achieving lucidity, particularly if you’re a beginner.
Step 6 – Repetition
Repeat the cycle of steps 1-5 daily.
Summary:
Thank you for reading this article about how to lucid dream tonight and I actually hope that you take action my advice.
I wish you good luck and that I hope its contents have been a good help to you.
