Hey everyone, and welcome to TopThink.
Today, we are going to learn about 4 easy steps to lucid dream every night.
Now, let’s begin.
For decades, dreams have fascinated psychologists, writers, and philosophers alike.
These chaotic combinations of sensation, emotion and memory give our subconscious mind the
chance to speak.
Dreams can tell us stories and teach us lessons.
They can transform everyday information into something truly extraordinary.
But the problem is… we’re rarely aware of our dreams until after they’ve passed
us by.
Even then, we struggle to recall anything more than a face or a feeling.
You try everything to remember that fantastic dream you just had, but the details seem to
slip through your fingers.
The fleeting nature of our dreams is one of the main reasons why people are so captivated
by them.
They’re mysterious and challenging.
Many have speculated that they contain much more than just random emotions and memories.
Our dreams may harbor secrets about who we are and what we want.
But how do we access our dreams if we can never remember them?
In 1913, a Dutch psychiatrist coined the term “lucid dream.”
Lucid dreaming is when you become aware of a dream while it’s happening.
You gain the ability to consciously explore your unconscious mind.
Some have even discovered techniques to manipulate a dream’s content while inside of it.
This term didn’t come about until the 20th century, but the concept is significantly
older.
Over a thousand years earlier, Buddhist monks in Tibet used dream yoga to access and control
their dreams.
They introduced a three-step process to perform Wake Induced Lucid Dreams or WILDs.
Many of these monks could move in and out of WILDs with ease.
But that took them years of intense practice and meditation.
Luckily, you don’t have to be a master of Tibetan Dream Yoga to lucid dream.
In fact, almost anyone can do it under the right circumstances.
Lucid dreams might seem like something out of a movie or novel, but they’re right at
your fingertips.
So here are 4 easy steps to explore the worlds you create while you sleep.
1.
Dream Memory Because so many people have experimented with
lucid dreaming, there are a number of different methods to make it happen.
Some, like Dream Yoga, trigger lucid dreams while you’re still awake.
You enter a meditative dream state, which lets your mind wander into your unconscious.
Other methods, like Senses Initiated Lucid Dreaming or SSILD, rely on your sensory engagement
with the world around you.
The goal here is to prepare your body and brain to enter a new type of sensory environment.
These techniques can be challenging for beginners, so we’re going to start with something simpler.
In this video, we’ll cover the Mnemonic Induction of Lucid Dreams or MILD.
This surprisingly effective process stimulates lucidity using mental preparation and self-talk.
The name MILD stems from the word mnemonic, which means “to help with memory.”
You probably used your fair share of mnemonic devices in school.
Phrases like, “Please Excuse My Dear Aunt Sally” help us remember more complicated
information like the order of operations.
As you might have guessed, memory plays a major role in your ability to lucid dream.
Before you can dive in, you have to train your brain to remember the content of your
dreams.
Don’t worry, it’s a lot easier than it sounds.
All you have to do is start keeping a dream journal.
When you wake up in the morning, immediately write down everything you can remember.
People, places, feelings, it’s all useful.
Little by little, each detail will strengthen your dream recall rate.
Eventually, you’ll be able to remember one or two dreams every single morning.
So why is this so crucial for lucid dreaming?
First of all, you need to be able to remember a lucid dream when it happens.
Otherwise, what’s the point?
You might be lucid dreaming way more often than you think.
But you’ll never know until you improve your dream recall.
More importantly, this technique will show you how vivid your dreams are.
Not every dream has the potential to be lucid.
Some are vast and extremely intricate.
Others are brief and superficial.
But when you wake up in the morning, it’s hard to tell the difference.
You can use your dream journal to stimulate more sophisticated dreaming.
It’s not just because you remember your dreams.
They become more complex, because your brain is learning to dream bigger.
Like any other behavior, you get better at it the more you practice.
No matter how bland or vivid your dreams are now, this method will help them grow.
If you’re consistent, they’ll develop enough to achieve complete lucidity.
2.
Speak It to Life Now that you’ve built your dream recall,
the next step is to practice lucid affirmations.
Normally, people use affirmations to change their perception of themselves or the world
around them.
To be feel more secure or motivated, you might repeat statements like, “I am aware of my
potential” or “Challenges are opportunities to grow.”
This repetition slowly but surely persuades your brain to believe what you tell yourself.
But why does this work?
On a conscious level, affirmations aren’t all that helpful.
The conscious part of your brain can easily tell the difference between what is real and
what is imaginary.
If, for example, you pretend you have confidence, your conscious brain isn’t going to fall
for it.
But your subconscious will.
Your subconscious, which controls about 95% of your brain, can’t distinguish between
real and imaginary stimuli.
Say you’re walking down a dark alley at night.
What’re the chances a monster pops out and attacks you?
Pretty low, right?
Yet, your subconscious brain still interprets this imaginary creature as a legitimate threat.
You’ll start to sweat.
Your heart rate will go up.
You’ll panic even though you know, consciously, that it’s impossible.
Affirmations work the same way.
Your subconscious begins reacting to these positive messages like they’re real, which
changes your behavior.
This can create confidence, empathy, and even lucid dreams.
You should use lucid affirmations right before you go to sleep.
You need to convince your subconscious that what you’re saying is about to happen.
When you’re feeling drowsy, begin repeating phrases like, “I will remember that I’m
dreaming.”
As you get closer to falling asleep, transition to affirmations like, “the next thing I
see will be a dream.”
The goal is to verbally usher your brain into a dream-like state.
In other words, you convince your subconscious that you’re about to dream, so you do.
3.
Visualizing Trajectory It’s critical that lucid dreaming is the
last thing you think about before knocking out.
But when you’re laying in bed, feeling relaxed and cozy, it’s easy to let your mind wander.
This step takes advantage of that natural inclination by aiming your creativity.
In most cases, loosing focus before falling asleep lowers your chances of achieving lucidity.
But what if you’re losing focus by immersing yourself into a dream?
Just like affirmations fool your subconscious, visualizations create the illusion of entering
a dream state before it actually happens.
You can often convince your brain that you’re dreaming before you’re even asleep.
Start by re-imagining a previous dream.
Of course, it helps if the content is fresh in your mind.
While getting ready for bed, take a few minutes to skim through your dream journal.
Ideally, you should choose a dream that was particularly vivid or powerful.
After finishing your affirmations, try to place yourself at the end of that dream.
Imagine the scenery.
The characters.
Are you going somewhere?
Are you doing something?
The more detailed you are, the better.
If you can, try to create a dream environment that’s developed enough to support a lucid
dream.
Ultimately, your objective is to fall asleep in the middle of that daydream.
It won’t happen every time, but there’s a chance that the daydream will transform
into a lucid dream.
Sometimes, this happens so quickly and naturally that you don’t even notice.
Your body falls asleep, but your conscious mind is so engaged that it stays awake.
At this stage, you need some way to distinguish between reality and lucidity.
Most people assume it’s easy to tell them apart, but it isn’t.
Before you’re lucid, your brain will automatically assume everything you’re seeing is real.
It’ll feel like an incredibly vivid dream, but not a lucid one.
You won’t have autonomy or control until you know, for certain, that you’re dreaming.
That’s where reality checks come into play.
A reality check is any physical object or action that only works when you’re dreaming.
You might, for example, try pushing your hand through a table.
Obviously, this would never work in real life, but it’s very possible in a dream.
Whenever you suspect you’re in a lucid dream, give your reality check a try.
If it works, you have free reign to explore your dream however you want.
4.
Wake-back-to-bed If you’re having trouble using MILD to stimulate
lucid dreams, there’s another simple step you can take.
It’s called the wake-back-to-bed method.
All you have to do is set your alarm two hours before you’re supposed to wake up.
When it goes off, lie awake for about 20 to 30 minutes.
During that time, you’ll feel groggy and sluggish.
But that’s a good thing.
This method is designed to help you enter REM sleep faster.
REM sleep is when most lucid dreams happen.
So the goal is to minimize the time between REM sleep and your lucid affirmations.
The combination of MILD and wake-back-to-bed was tested in 2017.
Researchers divided 170 participants into three groups.
One used just MILD.
The second used wake-back-to-bed, while the third practiced both.
Nearly 60% of the third group had at least one lucid dream during their first two weeks
of practice.
And that number will only increased over time.
So don’t wait.
With these four easy steps, you can see this one-of-a-kind experience for yourself.
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