Conscious or Lucid Dreaming - a Discussion

Lucid dreaming, also called conscious dreaming, is the process of being asleep while maintaining awareness of your dreams. While you're in a dream state, you actually know that you're dreaming. That can even allow you to control your dreams consciously.

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.

To get there, you'll have to know what you'd like to achieve. Do you just want to enjoy your dreams in a way you couldn't before, are are you looking for a way to use your dreams to help you in other areas of life. No matter why you want to learn how to become a conscious dreamer, you should know your goal and be determined enough to get there.

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.

If you want to begin conscious dreaming, you'll need to be able to recall all the details of the dreams you have each night. There are a number of ways to do this, but the most common is keeping a dream diary. Place it by the bed, and every morning, enter all the details you remember from your dreams as soon as you wake up. It's important to make sure you do this right away, because you start to lose information the longer you're awake.

Slowly, you'll begin remembering more and more about your dreams, and you can use your dream diary to jog your memory. Since your mind is already primed to remember your dreams, becoming aware that they're happening is an easy next step. Many people simply "wake up" suddenly in a dream,...