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I first became excited by the potential of lucid dreaming over 10 years ago after going to a talk by world renowned lucid dreaming teacher Charlie Morley.
Since then I’ve read quite a few books on lucid dreaming, done several courses and had quite a few lucid dreams. There are many different lucid dreaming techniques but in this post I’m going to share with you what has worked for me.
First though, it’s important to know why you want to lucid dream
Why lucid dreaming? Get excited
My first lucid dream was honestly one of the most mind blowing experiences of my life. My dream actually felt more real than real life. I got to fly, go through solid objects and interact with other dream characters.
It was such a profound experience yet I’d only just scratched the surface. Lucid dreaming can give you so much more…elite athletes are using lucid dreaming to help them prepare as the mind and body can’t tell the difference between you practising your sport in waking life and dreaming life.
There are also so many mental health benefits from potentially helping you with PTSD, depression, as well as confronting fears and demons.
If you’re a mediator, you can use lucid dreaming to go deeper into your practice.
It can also be used to ask questions you need answers to. For example, ‘What is my life purpose?’ ‘What is the key to a lasting relationship?’ ‘What is my greatest talent?’
You might also simply want to have fun and explore as I did in my first lucid dream. The key is to get excited. Read some interesting articles, watch a movie about lucid dreaming (I highly recommend the Waking Life), or take part in a free Charlie Morley Lucid Dreaming Masterclass.
At the end of this article, I’ve compiled a list of lucid dreaming resources that I’ve found useful.
Transformative benefits of lucid dreaming
How to lucid dream for the first time tonight
A lot of people will tell you that you need to do lots of reality checks in order to lucid dream, such as turning a light switch on and off or turning your hand over and asking ‘Am I dreaming?’
Although I’ve spent months doing reality checks, they’ve never actually worked for me to trigger a lucid dream, but this is what has – The MILD technique.
I should also add that it does help to record your dreams in a dream journal because it’s important to be able to remember them. After all, you don’t want to have a lucid dream only to forget it before you wake up.
The next thing to do is to set the intention or give your brain the task of letting you know that you’re dreaming. For example, I knew I was dreaming in my first lucid dream because the dreamscape suddenly started to change. Everything became pixelated as if my current dream was changing channels. All the pixels then dropped to the ground like glistening cube like raindrops to reveal the lucid dream – which was mind blowingly vivid. I remember having to stop myself getting too excited.
In another lucid dream, a tunnel appeared – which felt like a portal that would help to transport me to a new dimension.
In both these examples, my brain had created scenarios where I knew I was dreaming and about to go into a lucid dream. This is now how I recognise I’m dreaming as opposed to using reality checks. The same idea might work for you and I believe it to be less work, because you simply need to set your unconscious to the task of creating a trigger to get you to realise your dreaming.
How to practise the lucid dreaming MILD technique
I’ve tried all the lucid dreaming techniques out there and the easiest one for inducing a lucid dream fast, was the MILD technique.
This is how it works.
- Early to bed. Set your alarm
I’ve found that I have more dreams when I go to bed a bit earlier, so if you can, try to go to bed an hour earlier than usual. You then need to set your alarm two hours before you would normally wake up. So, if you plan to get up at 7.30am set an alarm for 5.30am. It also helps not to drink any alcohol or caffeine that evening.
- Wake up two hours before you normally would
Wake up about two hours before you’d normally wake. Don’t look at your phone screen and don’t turn on any bright lights. Keep the lighting dim and get up out of bed and do something simple for between 30 minutes to 45 minutes. For example, read a lucid dreaming book, go for a walk across your garden, water the plants …
- Go back to bed
When you go back to bed, try not to overthink it or try too hard. You now need to fall back to sleep but have the intention of having a lucid dream. You might like to repeat the affirmation ‘This morning I will have a lucid dream’. Another thing you can do is try to remember the last dream you had before you woke up and then imagine yourself back in that dream.
This is the essence of the MILD technique. Here’s a recap of everything we’ve covered
- Keep a dream journal
- Get excited about lucid dreaming and have a reason for wanting to lucid dream tonight
- Ask your brain to give you a unique trigger when your dreaming so you know you’re about to go into a lucid dream
- Practise the lucid dreaming MILD technique
Lucid dreaming resources
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