When I was in the sixth grade I did a science fair project on Lucid Dreaming which ended up being incredibly frustrating for a couple of reasons: (1) the internet wasn’t then what it is now so I only had info from library books and the Encarta Encyclopedia to work with and both were skeptical, and (2) The only good book I had had instructions on how to become a lucid dreamer which failed miserably.
To this day I long to dream lucidly which is why this article caught my attention. Does it work? I’m not sure I can deal with the disappointment I felt in the sixth grade, so you will have to let me know. The original article can be found at cleverinput.com:
Guaranteed to work, but you have to stick with it. Sometimes it takes a person only a week to have their first lucid dream from this method. Sometimes it takes months. Either way, it works.
Get a pen and mark a dot on your hands. It can be on your palm or anywhere that you will notice it throughout the day.
Throughout the day, ask yourself if you are dreaming whenever you notice the dot.
This technique is called a “Reality Check”.
Each time you see the dot, don’t just say “Of course I’m not dreaming”. Really think about it and analyze your surroundings. Otherwise, you’ll dismiss the question in your sleep.
The way to check if you are dreaming is to look at any text or numbers around you (eg. a book, sign, clock face, etc), then look away for 5 seconds. Then look back. If it changed, then you are dreaming.
What happens is that you are essentially testing your environment to see if you are dreaming. This habit carries over into your dream world after you have fallen asleep. If you do this enough and it becomes a daily routine, then eventually you will begin asking yourself if you are dreaming while you are in the dream. This is what sparks the lucidity.
Important:
Start keeping a dream journal. Keep it at your bedside and write down any dream you have the minute you wake up from it. When you keep a dream journal, you will notice that you begin to remember more dreams and you remember them more vividly. A lucid dream is a pretty exciting experience, but what good are they if you forget you had one when you wake up the following morning. Improve your dream recall by always keeping a dream journal!
I will have to try this sometime. I always have vivid dreams that I have a tough time recalling, though some of them felt incredibly real. I’d like to test the reality check process. I suppose it is all muscle memory, even for the brain.
Sounds interesting. It has happened to me a few times, accidentally of course, that I knew I was dreaming. It’s usually at the last stages of a dream.
This has happened to me too. I wonder why it occurs in the last stages.
That’s totally cool!
Definitely gonna try it…and congrats on freshly pressed!
Check mine too?
Cheers
Great post.
Did you happen to see the movie called ‘Waking Life’ by Richard Linklater from 2001? It’s pretty interesting….
No, but I love the concept. I absolutely will give it a go and let you know.
yes, you must see “Waking Life”… it is absolutely brilliant.
Now I want to try it! Does it matter I am at work? I may start dreaming of better places, haha! Cool post
I completely endorse doing this at work!.. Then again, I completely endorse doing anything other than work at work, but this is especially irrelevant. Make it so, keep us posted!
Congratulations on being on Freshly Pressed!
Interesting article. I genuinely find this differentiating between reality and dreams a funny business sometimes. I’ll make sure I try this.
Did it try it yet?
*Did you try it yet?
…kind of… it’s very much a work in progress. Have you?
Interesting …need to give it a shot!!
I heard about lucid dreaming at a local Buddhist centre I go to and the topic interested me then. I’ve not had lucid dreams before, but reading your post has piqued my interest again. I’ve painted two dots on my palm and I’ve bookmarked your post so I’ll be in touch with any results. Thanks
Interesting…should give it a shot!!!
Great post. I’ve always been fascinated by lucid dreaming. I don’t sleep well and have frequent nightmares – do you know if lucid dreaming can be used therapeutically to reduce nightmares?
Unfortunately I set a terrible example for healthy sleep habits, but it looks like “dourscot” did something similar as a child to deal with night terrors. Maybe check out how it worked for him…
Interesting..an going to give it a shot!!
Gonna try this some time.
I used to attempt to lucid dream and succeeded a couple of times. It was amazing. It seemed hard to do so regularly and took lots of time & energy to make it happen. It is interesting that people can do it regularly after a week of reality checks.
Interesting! I dream vividly and have kept a dream journal for years. Haven’t tried lucid dreaming though.
AWESOME BRILLIANT post. Loved it. I have a dream journal already, even though I don’t write down my dreams in it very often (too lazy to get up and start writing when I’d rather go back to sleep). Thank you so much for the technique! I’m going to start right NOW! Congratulations on being Freshly Pressed!
Can you even change your dream once you realize that you’re dreaming?
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This technique worked for me. After about 2-3 weeks of doing the reality check, I had a couple lucid dreams that were very nice (I decided that I could fly in my dream, and in another I decided I could be invisible), then a few days later I had an extremely uncomfortable experience which sort of scared me away from lucid dreaming. It’s a great thing to try but be careful, it’s not always as fun as you’d think.
Please share your experience. A nightmare you couldn’t escape?
I’ve done a great deal of research on Lucid dreaming but haven’t been able to pull it off personally, I did manage to have one once by pure randomness and although I don’t remember much about it I remember being on this street in the city and thinking how I was going to wake-up but shortly after I did, it was fun.
As for doing a reality check, I don’t think it’s such a good idea for someone to get in such a deep habit like that unless you figure out how to have a lucid dream and do it like every night. The reality check would probably be a confusing and bad habit, one that’s also hard to break.
I’ve read in several resources if you want to stay awake in your dream then it greatly helps to spin the word around you, apparently this is suppose to keep you asleep and lucid dreaming longer although I’ve never had the opportunity to practice it.
I have to agree, there could be adverse affects in your waking life if you train yourself to repeatedly question reality. I tried the “look at your hands” business during the day, and it never carried over into my dreams, but it did mess with my head. Even without making it a habit, I was unsettled by the possibility of driving myself to madness just by imagining, “what if this *is* a dream?”
And there are other ways to create a Lucid Dream that are faster and better, people who meditate regularly have a slightly higher control over their brain and can “suggest” for one before they go to sleep. You also have the plenty of sleep method where you catchup on all your sleep, take several naps throughout the day, when you go to bed at night you won’t be very tired and it’s much easier to get a lucid dream as you’ll only be half-sleep.
You also have the faint noise trick where you set an alarm to wake you up in the middle of the night, but very very softly, I mean really softly and turn itself off after a time. After your fully asleep and the alarm goes off (softly) You’ll partially wake-up but not fully, this gives your conscious mind a chance to realize it’s dreaming.
Dream journals re-wire your brain to see dreams as being important, that’s why you start remembering them better since your brains wants to save them rather than trash them, If your keeping a dream Journal with the intention of seeking out lucidity in your dreams then it’s also possible that your brain will see lucidity as important and might make it more possible and easier.
On a final note, you never have to worry about it being “real or not” if you do get in a habit of lucid dreaming every time. Many parts of your brain shutdown during sleep so try to read something in Lucid dreaming, that part of your brain is shutdown and it will feel all wrong and awkward/weird to read something not to mention very difficult, this isn’t true in the real world. Don’t follow the movie Inception either, it’s wrong on many parts such as time being faster, since scientist have proven time is relatively the same as the real world not faster, and troubling your self with things being real or not.
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What if we can’t deal with the disappointment if it doesn’t work? Will you be able to post instructions to help us manage that state of mind?
i’m going to test this out. my dreams are very powerful. and i often have premonitions. how exciting!
Now there’s something I might have to try!
Dream journal… I guess I should give it a try
I started keeping a dream journal two years ago. My dreams have always stuck with me, but now they’re sooo vivid…almost fantastic.
Anyway, a trick suggested to me is to look for a light switch. If you flip the switch and the lights turn off, you’re awake. If not you’re dreaming. This worked for me once, but the lucid dream itself only lasted a few seconds after.
Also, really attempting to lucid dream can sometimes lead to experiencing a hypnagogic hallucination. This is when someone is awake during REM sleep. Your body is consequently paralyzed, you can experience auditory hallucinations, feel pressure/textile sensations, you can see things etc. It sounds cool, but the sensation is actually kind of terrifying.(When I was trying to lucid dream, this happened to me twice) A lot of psychologists think people who report being abducted by aliens, really just experienced a hypnagogic hallucination. Hence, I gave up trying to take over my subconscious. Haha
This is fascinating! I’ve always had lucid dreams since I was a little kid. I have frequent nightmares, also since I was a child, but I “talk” my way out of a bad situation. Some how I realize I’m dreaming, but that I want to wake up. So usually I start a dialogue with the “bad-guy” in my dream. I know exactly what to say and persuade them to change their mind about harming me or someone else, and then I tell myself to wake up. I never realized that this wasn’t something that everyone can turn on. Best of luck!
Well, this is super exciting! I’m going to try this, and hopefully, it’ll work soon!
Thanks for writing this post.
http://www.rifatmursalin.com
I did this successfully once! I need to practice. I used to keep dream journals, but then I started to have really terrible dreams, so I stopped. Then when we moved, I needed to purge a lot of stuff, and unfortunately, I chucked them
Now I only have a few scattered, random dreams written down throughout a couple of notebooks.
As a Piscean, I’m a big dreamer…. and lucid dreaming has been a part of even before I realized the meaning. Now i’m able to control my dreams, realize it and enjoy it if its a good one. Eg- flying dreams
When I was about 12, I used to have recurring nightmares so severe they were nearly categorized as night terrors. Working with a psychologist, I very gradually learned to take some control over the dreams. The technique I used was very similar to the one described, though I used a bracelet, rather than a marked dot on my hand, as a cue. It took many weeks, but I learned, first, how to wake myself up before the bad part of the dream, then, over time, I began to learn to re-direct the events of the dream – to change the outcome. In time, I learned to dream about specific things that I wanted to dream about. These latter dreams were never very clear, but I could use them to sort of focus my mind on a problem I was trying to solve (I was a programmer, at the time, working on game software). I never woke up with ‘The Answer’, and, often enough, I woke up no wiser than before I’d slept – but sometimes, I’d wake up with a new approach to the problem, one I hadn’t considered before, even though I thought I’d considered everything … when this happened, the experience was exhilarating!
I had a dream that I was being eaten by a crocodile. It must have been at least partly lucid because as it happened, I thought to myself, “This is stupid. Crocodiles aren’t even native to this region.”
I have always thought that lucid dreaming was interesting even though I have never done it.
I will definitely have to try it.
Sounds like a really good exercise, I will give it a try.
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I think I might try this sometime. For giggles.
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Nice article… I am also a big fan of lucid dreaming. Infact I had achieved it once. But could not make it happen more often… May be i was not trying enough. This article will definitely help a lot. Thanks
You should read what Carlos Casteneda has to say about dreaming…
I grew up in another country (American), but I used to lucid dream all the time when I was about 7 to about 15. I did it less and less, so now I’ve lost the ability. But I was shocked to find out at about 16 that everyone didn’t do this. I actually used to sink through these colored layers of atmosphere and when I was at the very bottom – I knew I was in a dream. Then I’d see all these little bubbles of dreams floating along in my room (and know what they were about), then somehow I’d pick one, put myself in and go through it. But sometimes in the middle of the dream, I’d pause it, wake myself up, go use the bathroom, come back, sink myself back in and pick up where I left off. In my dreams I would also give myself powers at will if it was that kind of adventure, like being invisible or flying or throwing fire balls or freezing the other person. Do you think I could do this then because there were less mental distractions back then or something? Now I am trying to teach myself how to do it again but how weird, I don’t have the focus to achieve it and I’m older!! Lol.
I never had a lucid dream when I was a child, but did teach myself to have them using the reality check method. (the dot is a good idea; I used a wristwatch with an alarm that i set for 10 minutes throughout the day!) For me it takes great effort and practice to lucid dream. If I stop the work, the dreams stop. I wish it came as easily as it did for you in your youth! Sinking through the colored layers is amazing.
very interesting topic this…but you know what…ive been having lucid dreams..or maybe that should be dreams which foretell whats gonna happen the next day or a few days after…and, yep, you guessed it…on the day its was going to happen, you forget all about it….and it happens anyway! afterwards, i kick myself! frightening!
by the way, masanotherway mentioned carlos castaneda…he has been proven to have been a fake…the story about him and the mexican shaman was made up….i know, i got taken in by it first time around, too!
It would be the funniest thing to find all kinds of people with a dot marked on their hands. Of course I’ll draw mine, but I will also keep my eyes open for any other person wishing for lucid dreams while walking down the street.
Awesome point,
LOL thats funny
PPL.. just dont get too hooked on it…I tried before and couldnt get back to normal..
What happened? What do you mean, “back to normal?”. What was wrong?
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I’ve always wanted to lecud dream, and I tried it a lot of times, I had studies this fact tho.. Sometimes I get lucky and sometimes not! it’s all depends on the way u manage ur dreams..Thanks!
Didn’t have a chance to comment earlier, but this is a GREAT topic and piece. Very interesting, definitely going to have to try this one out.
I once read up on Lucid dreams. I think it’s really interesting how we can control our dreams in that way. You’ve sparked my interest again
I think I once had a lucid dream because I remember realising that I could fly and had a great time haha 
But my sleeping pattern can be quite bad sometimes so I don’t want to start getting too deep into anything like this, although I might try it out a few times. Great post! Congratulations on being freshly pressed 
Wow, great article. I’m going to try this method tomorrow! I’ve been interested in lucid dreams ever since I first heard about them.
Well done, a great post!
Kieran
Encarta! That’s so old!
Anyway, thanks for the tip!
Lucid dreamer all my life. Love this piece. I’ve even had the same exact dream as many loved ones on the same night. It’s a crazy thing to think we can control something happening in the subconscious like this but we can. I change them, end the movie, etc whatever it takes. Freudians would say we all do it anyway, some of us just don’t realize that our dreams are our creations. Thanks for the nice share.
I want to try this technique. I haven’t had very many lucid dreams because my dreams and reality are too similar to tell the difference.
A pleasant article you have written here, I’ll tweet it right up.I find that the right diet is also important for lucid dreaming.
I’ve been trying this on and off for months now, but I just can’t seem to commit! I got as far as remembering my dreams rather vividly (dreams such as bludgeoning people over the head with a prosthetic leg), but like everything I’ve tried to commit to, my motivation ends up nosediving. I’m going to have to give it one last push I think.
Great post here, I love it and it’s helpful! I recently posted my confusion about lucid dreaming (link below). Your article explained some things for me… thanks
http://thesirenstale.wordpress.com/2012/07/19/lucidity/
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I’ve totally been keeping a dream journal too! I learned that I tend to dream about food or soemthing to do with eating things a lot. Thanks for the dot tip, gonna try it over the next couple of weeks.
read your post, sob. thanks for share
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This looks like something to try!
Practice is very important! Lucidity should be attainable and enjoyable by anyone and everyone!
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I naturally lucid dream, but only faintly – this might be just the technique to clarify those dreams! Wish we did that sort of project, I’m in sixth grade. Check out http://www.thoughtorchardblog.wordpress.com for a geek-chic blog like this.
Keeping a dream journal works well, too well for me after a while. I get to the point I can remember 4-6 dreams every time I wake up. However I notice I get a lot of dreams where it seems I’m half lucid. Where I know I’m dreaming yet I still worry about little things, like putting on my seat belt! I might have to give the dot trick a go.
A technique I’ve been using since 1979 when I read about it in OMNI magazine: During your waking hours read something look away and read it again, Anything, it just has to be a few words, Do this several times a day. In your waking state, try to read something and look away and try to re-read it. It won’t be the same. This will help trigger your mind to know it’s in a dream state. The same technique can be used with clocks/watches, check the time, look away then do it again. Repeat the process in your dream. It might take a few weeks, but eventually your mind will become accustomed to the “reality” check and lucid dreaming will be possible.
I can’t remember the book I read that had the same technique, but the “reality checks” were: to touch the lintel of every door you went in or out of and look at street signs or any watch or clock, look away and then look back again and say “am I dreaming?” The logic being that every time you see a doorway, sign or clock in your dream, you will have trained yourself to do the same thing. The signs or time on the clocks should never read the same thing if you look away and look back so you know you are dreaming in the dream and can begin to interact with it. It does work in case you’re wondering…If you train yourself to do these things for a few weeks and you succeed in having a lucid dream, I’d love to see a follow-up blog the first time it works!!!
I am very fascinated by dreams and rarely remember them. I keep telling myself that I need to write it down when I do remember them because those ones are usually incredibly interesting. Thank you for sharing!
Great post! I love learning stuff about dreams.
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