Hey you bunch of sad sleepy hooligans, lookie here

Here’s my step by step complete guide on how to lucid dream. The most effective way to lucid dream (based on my research and personal experience) which may give you a lucid dream tonight!

This will be a combination of some already known lucid dreaming techniques which are WILD, WBTB, MILD, and FILD. Look it up on Google.

1. Want it.

Yep. Power of the mind. You have to really want it and intend to do it. Try reading a lot about lucid dreaming during the day before you go to sleep at night. Tell yourself that lucid dreaming is easy,everyone can do it, and that you will lucid dream tonight. “Tonight I’m gonna realize I’m in my dream and I will control it.” or something like that.

[Note: visualizing and focusing on the general scenario you wish to dream about (if you have a concrete goal) while you fall asleep the second time can also help, and focusing as solely as you can on that can help to distract from harsh impulses to toss and turn in the bed that you need to ignore in order to enter lucid paralysis- a topic touched on later.]

2. Go to sleep

Just go to sleep normally. Don’t attempt to induce lucid dream straightaway, it might lead to insomnia. Mind that you might have to have a good sleeping pattern first.

3. Wake up 2 hours before your normal wake up time

Set your alarm clock. If you usually wake up at 6 am, set the alarm at 4 am. I found that 4 am is best for me (after going to bed at 9.30 pm that night)

[Note: some sources claim that it’s better to directly attempt to go lucid the first time you fall asleep, and that may be true for a select few but it is actually far less successful. Just make sure you don’t have any urgent activities to attend next morning as it may be difficult to gauge time in the dream-world and wake yourself up in time without another alarm or outside stimuli to remind you, etc. etc.]

4. Stay up for 30 minutes

Try not to look at your phone or laptop screen. Sometimes I don’t know what to do to spend those 30 minutes either. Drink a glass of water, go to the toilet, I don’t know, anything to keep you from falling back to sleep.

5. Go back to sleep

Now you can do this in 2 ways.

-> The first is just to simply go back to sleep.

-> The second is to induce lucid dream using WILD technique. We’re going to trick our body to think that we’re asleep eventhough our mind is actually still awake.

Go to bed and lie down on your back. Arms on your sides and feet not touching each other. Don’t move. Don’t scratch (unless it’s unbearable, go on and go back to position), don’t swallow (there’ll be an illusion of a building saliva and that you should swallow it, try not to. Swallowing will tell your body that you’re still awake. However, it’s not that prohibited. I found that swallowing is kind of alright. The key is to let it pass and not to concentrate on it.).

Sometimes it’s hard staying awake, because you may not think too much but may not fall asleep as well. If random thoughts pop up, just “look” at it but don’t interact with it. To stay awake, I usually do FILD (Finger Induced Lucid Dream) by imagining movements of my middle fingers and then my index fingers, like playing two keys on a piano. Middle finger pressing on the bed; middle finger lift. Index finger press; index finger lift, and so on.

Then these will happen:

1. You will enter sleep paralysis. In which you can’t move your body but you’re still awake. Breathing gets heavier. Some people find this scary, so I suggest thinking positive and remembering that sleep paralysis is normal and it happens every night. Your body does it to prevent you from moving and injuring yourself during sleep.

2. You will hear hallucinatory sounds (or even images). I usually hear music or birds tweeting. Mind that these sounds will be very very real, vivid, and sometimes loud.

3. You will enter the hypnagogic state. You’ll see colours and shapes through closed eyelids. Just watch it but don’t interact with it.

And there’s a missing link in which I assume I simply let myself fall asleep altogether.

6. You will enter the lucid dream

There are 2 ways :

1. Out Of Body Experience (OBE)

In which you wake up in your bed, do a reality check (pinch your nose and try breathing through it, if you can breathe means you’re in a dream [again, pushing your finger through your palm or trying to see through your closed eyelids also work great!]). Yep you’re in a lucid dream now. I usually go and fly from my balcony after the reality check.

2. Visualization

You’ll see shadows which will become more and more vivid, turning into a whole dream scene. Yep you’re in a lucid dream now.

6. Explore

Enjoy. Try to control your dream using the power of your mind.

[Note: There’s a few methods to getting your “cosmic” and real body to separate- one being sitting up, and another more reliable one is using false “magnets” created by your mind and placed above your chest and limbs to kind of hoist you upwards out of your bed, with less risk of actually sending messages to your real body to try and move. Pretty cool, huh?]

Some tips to stabilize your lucid dream when it’s fading:

– Rub your hands together

– Spin around

– Touch things, from your shirt to anything around you.

Updates:

1. If All Else Fails

If you have tried everything above but keep failing,try this way that works for me all the time. So, after you wake up naturally, go to the toilet etc. Then go back to sleep and attempt to do WILD (Wake Induced Lucid Dreaming). You must be in a comfortable state and (as much as you can) not hearing noises from outside. And while usually you try to concentrate on staying awake, this time try to concentrate on falling asleep. Fall asleep conciously.

[Note: certain positions are also better to relax the body quicker and fall asleep easier, but you may not need to use these. Also, if you have long hair, putting it into a ponytail, braids, or a bun might help with potential itchiness or discomfort caused by it that could snap you out of relaxation.]

2. The (Not) Scary Part

So I recently found why some people are scared during sleep paralysis. I once saw a giant metal creature like the combustion villain in the movie Thor. And I once experienced feeling dragged down by vines during sleep paralysis. Now the key, is to stay positive. Everytime you feel or see anything disturbing or scary during sleep paralysis, calmly tell yourself that it’s all not real. Relax and say in your heart, “Pfft, this isn’t real. Stop it. Imagine beautiful flowers and focus on other things. Peaceful thoughts.” using a badass tone as if you don’t care. It’s all in your head so keep a positive attitude. Don’t panic and take control.

3. How To Resume

Sometimes while you’re in the middle of the dream it just fades to black. The easiest way to resume it is to stay in position and imagine the last scene/view before the blackout. Usually the scene will emerge from the darkness and poof you’re back.

4. Tips & Tricks

I found that it’s easier to induce LD during naptime. Or when you’re taking a nap while being sleep deprived.

I wrote about eating in a lucid dream here

That’s all from me. Have a nice dream.

[Oh, and fun fact: dreams are created by a powerful drug released deep in the center of your brain- and is actually a highly illegal substance if used as a recreational drug bought from a dealer (who I’m afraid to ask the source of their merchandise). Basically whenever you dream, you’re on drugs but can’t face any legal charges, lmao]