Conscious Dreaming

Also known as lucid dreaming, conscious dreaming is the state of being aware and in control while you are dreaming. That is to say, you know that you are dreaming while you are in the middle of a dream! When you are conscious that you're dreaming, you can control the events of your dreams.

The power of completely controlling your dreams might seem like something out of a fantasy novel, but it's actually quite possible for anyone. Lucid dreaming is actually fairly easy, and offers you a wonderful way to express your inner desires and feelings. There are even tried and tested methods to get you into a lucid dream state.

Before you get started, you should decide why it is that you want to become a lucid dreamer. Do you want to use your conscious dreams to help you achieve goals in life, or just as a way of enjoying your dreams more?

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.

Learning to remember your dreams will help you to begin conscious dreaming. One thing which works for most is keeping a dream diary. Keep this beside your bed so that as soon as you awake (before your dreams can start melting away in the sun as they tend to do), you can write down all of the details you remember.

Before long, you'll find yourself able to remember more of your dreams " and your dream diary can help refresh your memory. Once your mind is trained to remember dreams, the ability to recognize them while they are happening will follow easily. You might, like many do, come to the awareness suddenly that you are dreaming!

Other than keeping dream diary, many find hypnosis helpful. Hypnosis can help you to quickly reach the appropriate state for conscious dreaming. In fact, hypnosis can help you to recall every detail of your dreams in only a few sessions! Conscious dreaming is easy once this is accomplished.

At first, you may wake suddenly while having lucid dreams. Don't get discouraged, this is very common. You can often get back to your dream by focusing on the dream as you go back to sleep.

Another technique is to set your alarm for two or three hours earlier than usual then going back to sleep once awoken. It is a lot easier to have lucid dreams in the hours before you usually awake. It may even be unclear to you if these were dreams or you were just thinking as you lay awake. With practice, this technique will lead to conscious dreaming.

Be aware of your sleeping habits. You'll be able to determine when you are most likely to have lucid dreams. However, don't lose too much sleep " fatigue and conscious dreaming don't mix.

Thankfully, conscious dreaming can be a good remedy for insomnia and other sleep disruptions! Once you develop lucid dreaming, you will be able to put a halt to the thoughts which keep you awake at night.

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.

In fact, conscious dreaming is something that everyone can do. Just practice and use these techniques to develop your own lucid dreaming abilities " you'll find that it has a lot to offer.