How to lucid dream

A lot of people ask how to lucid dream, and a lot of people give radically different answers. While I doubt it really matters which method you do, here's my opinion thrown into the bunch.

Awareness
The best way to become more aware in your dreams and realize you're dreaming, is to become more aware in your waking life as well. While I'm not Buddhist I do heavily recommend Tenzin Wangyal Rinpoche's book The Tibetan Yogas of Dream and Sleep if you want to get better at that. A quick google search of the book leads to the top result being a pdf of it. Still do buy it if you find it helpful however.

If you're able to still go asleep afterwards, try drinking a cup of tea or coffee - or any other caffeinated beverage - as it will make you more awake in your dreams. Plus, coffee tastes delicious.

When walking around, try noticing your surroundings. Is the air a bit chillier today? How does the ground feel pressed against the soles of your shoes? Paying attention to everything would of course be best, but as unfortunately that's impossible. Try to lend most of your attention to the appearance of writing, the look of your hands, shape of buildings, and the identities of people around you. A big tip off that you might be dreaming is seeing someone you haven't in a while. Being aware also overlaps with another useful tool:

Reality checks
Reality checks are quick ways of telling if you're dreaming. There are tons of methods out there, and whether a method will work or not depends purely on the performer, so try doing a lot of methods and stick with what works for you. My personal favorite is counting the number of fingers on my hand, as for some reason that seems to be very difficult for my brain to keep track of.

Try doing reality checks every once in a while and whenever you notice anything unusual going on. If you suddenly think you may be dreaming, a reality check wont be necessary to be lucid; but do still do it as you could just be experiencing derealization. That did just give me the idea that I think I'll write an article on some side effects that come up from lucid dreaming. I'll link it here once I write it.

Keep in mind that reality checks that used to work for you could stop working at any moment, so they're not infallible. I used to be fond of the sticking-thumb-through-palm method until it stopped working whilst my surroundings were flashing colors, so if one reality check fails, try a few more.

Screwing up your sleep
While you'll pay for it in the morning, something that always works for me is changing my sleep up as much as I can.

Try sleeping in a different place, in a different position, facing a different angle, at a different time, with a different level of sound and light, in an uncomfortable temperature. The thing that works best for me is waking up multiple times in the middle of the night. This ties into awareness, as if you wake up and fall back to sleep fast enough, your sleep cycle will jump off where it left off, but you'll be more aware since you had just been awake. Waking up and going back to sleep when you were just dreaming is best, and while it's different for everyone I think it normally peaks about three hours before you wake up. While all this is useful, the thing that will help the most is:

Repetition
The first time lucid dreaming is the hardest, and with each successive time it gets easier. Having your first lucid dream is like finally breaking a small hole in a massive dam. Before you know it you wont have to try for a sip and the water will drown you.


I don't really have anything else to say, but just keep trying and you'll get one eventually. Don't get your hopes up too much however, as while it is fun, they are still the same dreams you've had your entire life, just a bit more interesting.