Conscious Dreaming - Consider The Possibilities!

By Allan Matacan

Lucid dreaming, also called conscious dreaming, is the process of being asleep while maintaining awareness of your dreams. While you're in a dream state, you actually know that you're dreaming. That can even allow you to control your dreams consciously.

It may sound like something out of science fiction; but conscious dreaming is very real and is something that you can do with a little practice. Lucid dreaming is not hard to do " and being able to control; your dreams can help you to find out more about yourself and serve as a valuable place to express yourself. There are some techniques which are tried and tested for bringing about lucid dreams.

To get there, you'll have to know what you'd like to achieve. Do you just want to enjoy your dreams in a way you couldn't before, are are you looking for a way to use your dreams to help you in other areas of life. No matter why you want to learn how to become a conscious dreamer, you should know your goal and be determined enough to get there.

After you've discovered why you want to start conscious dreaming, you'll begin to learn the techniques to get you into the right frame of mind. Lucid dreaming requires a particular mental state. Most people learning how to do this start with dream recall. This is a simple matter of remembering the dreams you've had.

If you want to begin conscious dreaming, you'll need to be able to recall all the details of the dreams you have each night. There are a number of ways to do this, but the most common is keeping a dream diary. Place it by the bed, and every morning, enter all the details you remember from your dreams as soon as you wake up. It's important to make sure you do this right away, because you start to lose information the longer you're awake.

Slowly, you'll begin remembering more and more about your dreams, and you can use your dream diary to jog your memory. Since your mind is already primed to remember your dreams, becoming aware that they're happening is an easy next step. Many people simply "wake up" suddenly in a dream, becoming aware that what's happening isn't real.

Hypnosis also helps, whether in conjunction with a dream diary or on its own. This can get you into the right state of mind for conscious dreaming " and in as few as a few sessions of hypnosis, most find that they can remember the minutest details of their dreams! Once you can do this, lucid dreaming follows quickly.

You might find at first that you tend to suddenly wake during your lucid dreams; this is natural. In order to make a return to the dream, concentrate on the details of the dream as you drift back to sleep. This should enable you to quickly return and start controlling the events once again.

One other method of inducing conscious dreaming is waking up a few hours earlier than you usually do, then trying to get back to sleep. During this period, the dreams you'll have are a lot easier to stay aware in. You even be unsure about whether you were really asleep, or if you were merely thinking while lying in bed. Do this on a regular basis, and lucid dreaming is a lot more likely.

Be aware of your sleeping habits. Youll be able to determine when you are most likely to have lucid dreams. However, dont lose too much sleep " fatigue and conscious dreaming dont mix.

However, you may be glad to find out that lucid dreaming can help to alleviate insomnia and other sleep problems. When you learn how to use the ability of conscious dreaming, you can train your mind to stop the worries which keep you up.

Many think of lucid dreaming as something which takes years of practice to learn; but in fact, it isnt that hard. It just takes a little practice to become a conscious dreamer.

Conscious dreaming is an ability which everyone has. By practicing these techniques, youll find yourself in control of your dreams in pretty short order; and enjoying all of the benefits of lucid dreams!

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