Hey everyone, and welcome to TopThink. Today, we will learn how to lucid dream
in just three minutes. Now, let’s begin.
Have you ever wondered what it would be like to explore the world of your subconscious
mind? Most of the time, when you dream, you’re a passive observer, uncontrollably pinging between
disjointed thoughts, images, and ideas. You are at the mercy of your subconscious as your
conscious mind surrenders all awareness and drifts into a dreamscape full of colors and sounds.
However, in some dreams, your consciousness has the power to “wake up” and identify that the world
around you is not actually real. In this unique state of awareness, known as lucidity, you, the
dreamer, can exert some degree of will over your dreams. You may gain control over the elements of
your dream, like the people you see and the places you go. In other words, your conscious mind has
the freedom and awareness to act independently within a world created entirely inside your mind.
Once you achieve lucidity, you are no longer bound by the laws and limits of reality. It
takes practice to control the content of your dreams, but eventually, you may learn
to manifest things, people, and experiences you could never encounter in the real world.
You may choose to visit long-lost kingdoms. You may explore the depths of outer space. You may
transport yourself into fantastic environments where everything and anything is possible.
If lucid dreaming is something you want to experience, you are not alone. For thousands
of years, philosophers, spiritual leaders, and many others have cultivated self-awareness
within their dreams. The term lucid dream was not coined until the 17th century,
but lucid dreaming techniques date back to Ancient Indian yogis, who practiced lucid dreaming through
a technique called Milam or dream yoga. In the thousands of years since humans
discovered lucid dreaming, scientists around the world have tested and confirmed its potential many
times over. Though we have ample scientific data to prove the occurrence of lucid dreams,
the exact cause and purpose of lucid dreaming remain controversial. We do not know exactly why
humans can have lucid experiences. However, with practice and the proper techniques, anyone can
experience all that lucid dreaming has to offer. If you’re never had a lucid dream before,
you may be wondering: how can you reliably stimulate lucid dreams night after night? Is
there a reliable technique that triggers these profound lucid experiences? Over the years,
a handful of techniques have emerged as successful methods of stimulating regular lucid experiences.
Among those techniques, one prevails as a quick and easy method for lucid dreaming available to
anyone interested in having a lucid experience. To practice this technique, you do not need to
learn challenging rituals or spend years honing your dreaming abilities. In fact, this technique
requires only a few minutes of your time and no necessary training or experience. If you don’t
believe me, give this technique a go over the next few days. There’s no guarantee, but if you follow
the exact method you’re about to learn, there’s a strong chance you will have a lucid dream,
not in a few weeks, but as early as tonight. This simple but effective technique is called
Wake Back to Bed or WBTB. It’s one of the most practiced lucid dreaming techniques
used in the world today. Other approaches rely heavily on pre- or post-sleep exercises
designed to increase the likelihood of achieving lucidity. WBTB, on the other hand, concentrates
on seamlessly blending your conscious reality with the world of your dreams. In other words,
it encourages your mind to slip into a vivid lucid dream without ever losing consciousness.
Understanding how WBTB triggers lucid experiences requires an understanding of when your mind is
most likely to dream. Throughout a typical night’s sleep, which lasts about eight hours,
your brain undergoes natural sleep cycles, called REM cycles, in which your brain
experiences four different stages of sleep. The first two stages qualify as light sleep,
during which your brain becomes less active, your body temperature decreases, and your
heart rate slows down. It’s not until the third stage that your brain falls into a deep sleep.
Most of the physical benefits of sleep, including muscle restoration
and bone growth, occur during deep sleep. However, lucid dreamers are most interested
in stage four, known as REM sleep. This is when your brain is most likely to experience vivid
dreams. REM stands for rapid eye movement. During REM sleep, if you looked behind your eyelids,
you would notice your eyes racing from side to side. In stage four,
your heart rate also increases, your breathing becomes irregular, and, most importantly,
for lucid dreaming, your brain becomes highly active, almost as if you are wide awake.
The first period of rapid eye movement occurs about 90 minutes after you fall asleep. Over
the course of one eight-hour sleep cycle, you experience 3-5 REM cycles, which get progressively
longer throughout the night. The first REM cycle lasts an average of ten minutes, while the final
REM cycle lasts about an hour. The final REM cycle is when the most detailed and memorable dreams,
giving your mind the maximum amount of time to get lost in a vivid dreamscape. For this reason, WBTB
targets the final REM cycle, which has the most potential for lucid experiences. This technique
triggers lucid dreams by interrupting your sleep cycle right before the final stage of REM sleep.
If you want to practice WBTB, step one is to set an alarm approximately 5-6 hours into your sleep
cycle. If you typically sleep at midnight and wake up at 8 AM, set your alarm for 5:30 or 6:00 in the
morning. Around that time, your brain should be finished with the second to last REM cycle and
moving into the final period of light sleep. Once you’ve set your alarm, you don’t need to
do anything else. No pre-bed exercises. No reality checks or writing in a dream
journal. Simply go to sleep and allow your brain to begin its natural cycling.
To make the most of WBTB, there’s really only one thing you need to do. Five to six hours later,
when your alarm finally goes off, you must prevent yourself from immediately
falling asleep. If you’ve timed it right, you will wake up at the beginning of your
final REM cycle during this critical window for lucid dreaming. When you do fall asleep,
your brain will pick up where it left off, meaning your next REM cycle will be your longest.
As groggy as you feel, you must resist the urge to fall back to sleep. Your tired brain
will try to convince you to close your eyes and drift back into a quiet slumber, but WBTB only
works if you can stay awake for at least three minutes. During that time, try not to stray too
far from your original sleeping position. You may be hungry or thirsty. You may be tempted to
walk to the bathroom or flip on a light. But it is critical to keep your body in the same position.
Here’s why: WBTB causes your body and brain to do different things. When your alarm goes off,
your conscious mind wakes up. It recognizes the sound of your alarm and starts functioning as if
you are awake. Your body, on the other hand, remains inactive and stationary. If you stood
up and walked to the kitchen or the bathroom, your body would become active and mobile. As
long as you remain in the same position, your body mistakenly believes you are still asleep.
This is your chance to seamlessly enter a lucid dream. By keeping your physical body inactive,
you can stimulate a vivid dream state in which only your conscious mind is alert and aware.
But there’s a catch. If you fall asleep too quickly, your conscious mind will not
have enough time to wake up and process your situation, significantly reducing your chances
of entering a lucid dream. However, if you can keep your conscious mind alert for at least three
minutes — or more, if possible — you have a much better chance of triggering a lucid experience.
During this three-minute window, you can take steps to keep your mind active and alert. Some
experts believe certain early morning activities make you more likely to achieve lucidity. For
example, reading a few pages of a book may activate your imagination to enhance your dreaming
abilities. Several more activities, like solving puzzles or listening to music, have been proposed
as potential dream enhancers, but the activity you choose is not as important as your mental state.
In other words, whatever you do in those three essential minutes, ensure that it
activates your mind without demanding too much energy from your body. Some of the best results
have been found with mental exercises, known as mnemonic techniques. For at least three minutes,
imagine a specific environment, as if you are picturing the dream you are about to enter. When
you finally do fall asleep, you may slip directly into the world you created inside your mind.
If you’re one of the thousands of people using WBTB to induce lucid dreams, there
is one important thing you should keep in mind. When you enter your first lucid dream, try to
stay calm. Many new lucid dreamers become overly stimulated when they realize they have achieved
lucidity. All that energy and excitement may wake up the rest of your body, bringing your lucid
dream to a sudden and disappointing conclusion. If you stay calm, however, you can finally explore
the infinite possibilities of a lucid dream. At first, you may find it challenging to control
your environment or remember the exact details from your dreams. But with practice and patience,
lucid dreaming can become an enlightening ritual that opens your eyes to the hidden
world of your subconscious mind. Thank you for watching TopThink and
be sure to subscribe because more incredible content is on the way.