Want To Lucid Dream Tonight? 9 Tips & Techniques To Get You Started

Have you ever been in the middle of a dream and realized you were, in fact, dreaming? This is called lucid dreaming, and most people experience it every once in a while, seemingly at random. However, there are also a few things you can do to encourage lucid dreams if they sound appealing to you. Read on for sleep and dream experts' go-to tips for starting a lucid dreaming practice.

And according to Ellis, you'll want to bear in mind that lucid dreaming on demand usually takes patience and perseverance. "Even those who regularly experience lucid dreams can't always do so at will," she says.

Lucid dreams can happen naturally, but there are a handful of ways you can make them more likely. Some of these involve waking yourself up in the middle of the night—but since we're such big sleep fans here at mbg, we're choosing to focus on the ones that let you sleep through the evening:

"Most times, you will quickly realize this is waking reality and you are not able to become airborne at will, but it will get you into the habit of questioning your state of consciousness—which makes it more likely you will do so while dreaming."

Avoid alcohol and other substances before bed that can inhibit dreams, keep your sleep schedule consistent, and so on.

"When lucid dreaming first became scientifically validated," Waggoner says, "using the power of suggestion seemed one of the most common practices to induce a lucid dream." To do it, simply clear your mind, relax, and repeat one of the following statements to yourself until you start to believe it:

 "It may also help to imagine yourself happily writing down your lucid dream in the morning," Waggoner adds.

As Ellis explains, "Those with excellent dream recall typically find it easiest to become lucid in their dreams." And one way to get better at dream recall is to keep a dream journal, in which you record everything from your dreams that you can remember upon waking up.

Do you have a recurring dream character or theme that's always showing up? If so, Ellis says you can use it as a trigger to become lucid. "As you are falling asleep, you can tell yourself, the next time this well-known dream event happens, or I see this dream character that shows up often, I will become aware that I'm dreaming."

According to Ellis, naps are typically lighter sleep than what we experience at night, so they can help promote lucidity. As you're falling asleep, "try to keep your mind awake and present to the dream world as you start to enter REM sleep," she says.

Waggoner developed this technique after reading Carlos Castaneda's seminal book, Journey to Ixtlan. Here's how it works:

Waggoner notes it helps to do this practice consistently each night before sleep. "I believe it works by establishing a simple stimulus-response associational link, or what psychologists call a 'conditioned response,'" he explains. "Practicing repeatedly develops the association between the stimulus (the sight of your hands) and the response ('This is a dream')."

Heads up: MILD does require good dream recall, but here's how it's done:

And lastly, as Ellis and Waggoner both note, if your desire comes true and you do become lucid in a dream, don't freak out. "When you do become aware that you're dreaming, getting too excited can wake you up," Ellis explains.

According to Waggoner, the name of the game is to simply "wait until you feel relatively at peace with your waking state experience before beginning a lucid dream practice."

Lucid dreaming is an undoubtedly fascinating, and for many, eye-opening, experience. While there are some who would do best to avoid it, if you're at peace with your life, you should be fine to give the practice a go by setting the right intentions. Happy dreaming!