It’s rare that I have an exciting or fun dream. Two-headed monsters or the ability to breathe underwater rarely come up when I’m sleeping. The most interesting dream I’ve had recently involved me returning to my college job as an ice cream scooper and muttering to a coworker, “Man, this sucks!” It sure did.
Yet many of my friends tell me fantastic nighttime tales of flying all over the world or of scandalous encounters with Clive Owen on a train. I’ve heard that it’s possible to control the course of our dreams via lucid dreaming, but I always assumed that it was an innate ability. In fact, anyone can learn to take the reins from the subconscious and alter dream situations. Using a variety of techniques, we can turn mundane dreams into fantasies that make it even more exciting to crawl into bed.
1. Dream Journaling
A good place to start the lucid dreaming process is to keep a record of previous dreams. There are numerous ways to remember your dreams, but one of the easiest and most popular is to keep a dream journal. Put a notebook and pen next to your bed and immediately upon waking write down everything you can remember from your dreams. If writing is too much effort so soon after snoozing, try a voice recorder instead. The point is to keep track consistently so that your dream recall improves over time. After all, what’s the point of lucid dreaming if you can’t remember it in the morning?
2. Mnemonic Induction of Lucid Dreams (MILD)
This technique, created by psychophysiologist Stephen LaBerge, stresses the recognition of dreaming while it’s in process. Begin by making it a goal to wake yourself up when you notice that you’re dreaming and chronicle everything you can remember about the dream. As you’re falling back asleep, focus on re-entering your previous dream, but this time direct yourself to explore the dream instead of waking yourself up. Keep that awareness as you fall into REM sleep (the sleep stage during which lucid dreaming most commonly occurs). It might help to state aloud, “I am aware of my dream state,” as you drift off.
Look for indications—also called dream signs—that alert you to the fact that you’re dreaming. These could be anything that are out of the ordinary or would be impossible in real life (the previously-mentioned two-headed monster, for example). This technique can take a while to master, but with steady practice, you can learn to recognize dream signs while still in the dream state, thereby putting yourself in control of the situation.
3. Reality Testing
Reality testing requires constant attention to the world around us—both in dreams and in real life. When going through your day, perform small checks to determine if what you’re seeing is possible in reality. The answer will usually be yes since you know you’re awake (and it’ll probably feel silly at first), but the repeated questioning will set your mind up to take the same actions in dreams. For example, something simple like a car not starting is often overlooked in a dream because that’s something that could happen in real life. But if a spouse’s hair is blonde instead of brown, that’s a clear signal for someone using reality testing that he or she is actually dreaming, and this knowledge allows more control over the course of the dream. To get into the habit, set an alarm or make it a goal to do reality checks a certain number of times per day. The checks are a way to teach yourself to notice out of the ordinary occurrences in dreams so that you can reach that coveted awareness without fully waking up.
