Lucid Dreaming Steps

Lucid Dreaming Steps for Beginners

While our “techniques” and “tips” sections may be very helpful, we wanted to present things in a different way by going over these lucid dreaming steps, in order and with a clear purpose in mind.

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Lucid Dreaming Steps to Start Out

1. Remembering Your Dreams: The Most Important of the First Lucid Dreaming Steps

You cannot go very far without remembering your dreams.  We even wonder whether some people have more control over their dreams than they know, but they may not remember them.  People want to rush into lucidity, and they often skip several lucid dreaming steps to get there, especially the one that involves making sure they are remembering their dreams in general – this is perceived as boring and a distraction because it does not involve lucidity directly.  But unless you remember the dream, you may have no idea whether you are successful with the lucid dreaming steps here and elsewhere.  You have to make sure you remember your experiences of lucidity, so this is what we call the most important of the lucid dreaming steps!

So the first of our lucid dreaming steps involves taking a little while and using simple techniques to remember your dreams.  This can include suggestions made to yourself before you go to sleep, the use of a journal first thing in the morning, and even waking yourself up in the early morning hours during the time you are likely dreaming of making it easiest to remember.  These simple techniques will help you more routinely remember them, and only then will it be worth investing time.

2. Lucid Dreaming Steps During the Day

The second of the lucid dreaming steps, once you have been reasonably successful with remembering your dreams, is to truly make lucid dreaming a part of your life.  Think about your goals, wonder about the possibilities, talk to others with similar interests, etc.  You want your pursuit of lucidity to be a part of your life.  The reason for this step, and why it is such a vital part of our overall lucid dreaming steps, is that almost anything we think about a lot or do quite often during the day often makes it into our dreams at night.  You want to move dream control up that list so that you might be wide awake in a dream.  Ask yourself such questions as “What would I be doing now if this was a dream?  Or I wonder if I will have one tonight.

Joining a group, whether of people in your life or a forum online, can be a great part of this entry into our lucid dreaming steps.  Engaging with others about lucidity can not only teach you new techniques and ideas but also immerse you in the world of lucid dreaming even more deeply.  Even just reading up on techniques or tips, such as those found on this website and elsewhere, can help.  And generally, anything you do to bring your goals into focus as often as possible can help.  Again, what we often do or think about a lot during the day comes back in our dreams, which is exactly the goal here.

3. Watching for Signs

Let’s assume you are now remembering your dreams and have made thinking about and considering lucid dreaming a large part of your life.  Now you want to do the quickest and easiest thing possible to learn how to have lucid dreams.

Look for signs

One way to jump-start the process is to use the power of visual cues to trigger you to know when you are dreaming and when you are not.  This is the third of our lucid dreaming steps.  For example, make it a point to look at your reflection whenever possible today – through the obvious means, like when you are in a bathroom, and there is a mirror, to less obvious, like looking in reflective store windows, your spoon at lunch, or your smartphone.  Stare at the reflection and look at the details…and while you are doing so, ask yourself, “Am I dreaming?”  Get in the habit of using any and all opportunities when you are awake to look at your reflection or the reflection of any part of yourself, and make there an automatic trigger that makes you look for your reflection while asking yourself if you are dreaming.

Why are we making such a big deal about noticing reflections in your waking life?  In a dream, you will not be able to see your reflection, or your reflection will be distorted.  So one of these times, you will look for your reflection, asking yourself if you are dreaming, and the image will become distorted…congratulations – you’ve done it!

Use verbal cues

The first of our lucid dreaming steps was noticing your reflection daily.  But what if that does not lead to lucid dreams, or your experiences are not frequent enough?  The next in our lucid dreaming steps is to add a verbal reminder that can spark lucidity.  Throughout your day today, at least 100 times, ask yourself: “Is this a dream?”  Make it so that you ask that question no matter what you are doing.  Accelerate this towards bedtime, asking the question constantly.  Look around you when you do – does this look and feel like a dream?  Keep at this wondering, and this entry into our lucid dreaming steps can be a spark during your dreams.  This may be the most tried and true of the lucid dreaming techniques.

This technique has become one of our core lucid dreaming steps because it will lead you, when you are dreaming, to ask questions.  It has become such a part of your day (and how many times have aspects of your day been incorporated into your dreams!) that you may also do it in the dream.  And you will quickly notice that things are not as they should be – the difference this time will be that the answer to the question is “yes”!

4. Try out Passive Reactions

We have a suggestion that may be difficult to follow, given how excited you will be to be experiencing lucidity.  Yet this excitement can present a problem, causing you to wake up to quickly when you are first learning home to be awake in your dreams.  This, the next of our lucid dreaming steps, involves passive lucidity.  During this initial phase of lucidity, do not rush into the dream world; instead, relax and consider the distorted reflection for a minute.  Enjoy the fact that you have achieved lucidity!  Then, slowly look around and see what there is to see…even if the dream does not last much longer, you know you are capable and know this technique worked.  What is great about this one of our lucid dreaming steps is that even at the beginning, if you cannot fully take control of your dreams, you can still learn a ton from where the dream takes you and still have fascinating experiences while lucid.

5. The Most Important of the Lucid Dreaming Steps: Keep Trying

The last entry into our lucid dreaming steps is to keep trying.  You might not achieve lucidity right away, but it will be worthwhile when you do.  Do not stop trying, vary your techniques, and add some not specifically listed on this lucid dreaming steps page.   You might want to alternate between wake-induced and sleep-induced techniques. Also, keep a journal of what you eat and how much activity you have during the day to see if there are patterns in your experiences of lucidity.  Keep at it, and as we mentioned in the second of our lucid dreaming steps, make thinking about lucidity a large part of your day.  When you experience lucidity, share your lucid dreaming steps with others!

Forums and blogs are often a great way to find out which lucid dreaming steps worked for others.  We hope you will also return here to describe which lucid dreaming steps worked for you.  Lifehack.com has a nice article about the 7 steps to Lucid Dreaming.