How to Lucid Dream Tonight – 8 Ways To Hack Your Sleep

By Marzena Bielecka

Posted 9 years agoGROWTH

lucid-dreaming

Do you ever wonder what it would be like to control your mind and influence your dreams? To experience things during sleep that you’re afraid of or unable to in real life, like kissing your favorite actress, flying, being a hero, or simply evaluating different solutions to your real life problems? Maybe you just want to remember your dreams better?

It’s understandable if you do. Assuming you sleep 8 hours every night, you’ll spend a third of your life sleeping! Wouldn’t it be great if you were aware of how your brain uses this time and knew how to control the process to experience new things and bring positive outcomes to your life? Lucid dreaming is what you need.

Lucid dreaming is being aware of dreaming during deep sleep. This usually happens when the dreamer experiences something strange that causes them to question their reality; they realize they’re in a dream. The more the dreamer becomes aware that he or she is dreaming, the more he or she can consciously influence the dream’s content.

However, learning have lucid dreams takes some practice. If there is a fast route, it is by raising your acetylcholine levels – it regulates the REM sleep and allows you to become aware of your dreams. Onnits Alpha Brain supplement does a great job of doing just that. But more on that later…

Benefits of lucid dreaming

• Live out your fantasies • 

Your dreams will become more vivid if you practice lucid dreaming. By “vivid” I mean more lifelike and easier to recall. You could fulfill your fantasies such as flying over your hometown, kissing Jessica Alba, talking with deceased relatives or any number of things. The only limit is your imagination, and you can do whatever you want in your dreams. Isn’t that AMAZING!?

• Fall asleep easier • 

Lucid dreaming can help insomnia. When you’re able to control your dreams nightmares occur less frequently, which can improve your sleep quality

• Feel revived throughout the day • 

After a relaxing lucid dream, reality becomes easier to face. You’ll also tend to be more courageous when facing challenging situations in your life.

• Find solutions to real life problems • 

You can test different solutions to problems in your dreams. For example, you might test how you’ll feel after you’ve had a difficult conversation with someone who is important to you or even practice giving a speech in front of an audience. You can practice anything that’s stressing you out.

How do our dreams work?

Our dreams are a combination of verbal, visual and emotional stimuli developed into a story line, which is often broken and nonsensical but is always fascinating. When you sleep, your brain passes through five stages of sleep, which takes about 90-110 minutes, comprising a sleep cycle.

I Alpha phase

Alpha phase occurs during the moments just after you lay down, when you start falling asleep. Your body temperature lowers, heartbeat slows and breathing becomes heavy. You can experience involuntary muscle contractions during this phase if you’re under stress.

This short phase, which lasts around 10 minutes before we fall and sleep and just before we wake up is like daydreaming, between sleep and wakefulness. During this stage several minutes of sleep and wakefulness is programmed, storing important information that from now on will be in your energy field. We also enter the alpha state during meditation or when we let our imaginations free – ex. during painting, writing, making music.

II Theta phase

Is the stage of sleep we can easily be aroused from. In fact, we may not be aware that we’re even sleeping. It’s also easy to fall asleep again. We can still remember our dreams between the alpha and theta phases, and they have a direct relationship to the dreams we design in the alpha phase.

III, IV Delta phases

It’s the state of deep sleep that takes 30 minutes to enter once we lay down, and we don’t remember our dreams during this stage. 30 minutes into this phase we fall into an even deeper phase of delta, where it becomes very difficult to wake up. We are completely unaware of our dreams during this stage. Our hearts begin to beat more slowly, breathing slows down and our brain shows low activity, similar to being in a coma.

V REM phase

We typically enter REM (Rapid Eye Movement) approximately 90 minutes after falling asleep. This is why we need long periods of sleep each night. During the REM phase our muscles weaken and we lose our ability to react, but our brains and spinal cords remain active. EEG readings during this stage appear similar to those recorded during wakefulness. Waking up from this state you will remember your dreams exactly. Once REM is over, we usually return to Stage Two sleep.

If you get only short periods of sleep, you can’t really get through the stages you need to heal and stay healthy. If you feel like a dream is taking a long time, it is. Dreams take as long as they seem. So how can you make better use of the sleep stages your brain and body pass through during each night and start lucid dreaming?

8 Ways You Can Lucid Dream Tonight

 Tip 1 : Keep a dream journal

Keep a journal and pen next to your bed so you can immediately record your dreams. Each morning spend a few minutes writing down your dreams and write every single detail you remember before you woke up. It will help you identify patterns in your dreams and better realize when you’re dreaming. Look for things that appear on a regular basis in your dreams. When you learn to notice these dream signs it’ll be easier for you to recognize when you’re dreaming.

After you’ve kept your journal a while you’ll notice that your dreams will recall more easily and their intensity will increase. You’ll experience more spontaneous lucidity..

Tip 2: Try supplements that boost acetylcholine levels for more vivid dreams

Studies performed on acetylcholine boosting supplements reveal an interesting side effect: vivid, often lucid dreams. Researchers studied the results and found that acetylcholine is responsible for regulating REM sleep. The higher your acetylcholine levels, the more persistent and broad the REM cycle becomes.

My favorite supplement is Alpha BRAIN from ONNIT. It is one of the most potent and high quality acetylcholine-enhancing nutrient based supplements available, and the results I’ve been getting are amazing!

Tip 3: Boost your Melatonin levels

A tiny organ in the brain called the pineal gland produces melatonin, and melatonin regulates our sleep-wake cycle. It links information about our environment to different parts of our bodies and makes it easier for us to fall asleep during the night and stimulates our awareness during the day. High melatonin levels positively effect the quality of our dreams and influence the success of lucid dreaming.

You can increase melatonin by:

• Sleeping in complete darkness

• Going to sleep and waking up at a similar time every day

• Eating more foods that stimulate melatonin production such as: light and dark mustard, almonds, sunflower seeds, flax seeds, and cherries. Also, but in less quantity: rice, oats, red radish, bananas, tomatoes.

Tip 4: Meditate before going to sleep

There is an important link between meditation and lucid dreaming. In both cases you aim to reach a pleasant self-awareness. Meditation is thoughtless; just feeling, sensing, watching, and listening.

You can meditate anytime and in any position you feel comfortable. To achieve lucid dreaming I recommend meditating several minutes in your bed, just before going to sleep.

Close your eyes and make sure your body is relaxed. Lie very still and allow your mind to drift. Now feel your breath entering and exiting the body. Don’t interact with it or think of anything else. Feel the vibrations as it enters your mouth, notice your stomach rising and falling with your breath. Just enjoy your own existence with a full presence.

You might experience interesting hypnagogic sensations such as floating, auditory hallucinations or emerging dream scenes.

Tip 5: Tell yourself to remember your dreams before going to sleep

Tell yourself clearly that you want to dream; you want to be aware that you are dreaming and you want to remember it. Repeat like a mantra before going to sleep, “I will lucid dream tonight”. You instruct your brain to realize when you’re dreaming, especially during the pre-sleep phase.

Tip 6: Do reality checks

Reality checks are related to activites that you can only perform in real life. The most common reality check is trying to pinch yourself while dreaming. When you pinch yourself while dreaming you feel no pain. You can also put your finger through the palm of your opposite hand. If you can it means that you’re dreaming.

My favorite checkup is to write a word on my hand. Write down any word on your hand. For example your name and look at it on a regular basis. When you develop this habit in your dreams you won’t see this sign, and you’ll know that you’re dreaming. At first, noticing that you’re dreaming might be scary and wake you up, but later it just make you aware that now is time for ‘surfing’ your dreams.

Tip 7: Be aware of special objects

When you are dreaming pay attention to mirrors, book titles, watch face. They are usually blurry in dreams, so looking at them during a day will help you to recognize when you are dreaming. To evolve a habit of paying attention of these special objects, look at them a lot when you are awake.

Tip 8: Set your alarm half an hour earlier than normal

Set you alarm a bit earlier than you need to, so you can go back to sleep because you more likely interrupted the REM phase of sleep.

Make sure your body gets good diet, regular exercise a lot of relax and a proper, quality 7-9 hours a day devoted just for sleeping. There are many useful methods to achieving lucid dreams, but without living a healthy lifestyle these methods will never work to their full potential.

About the author Marzena Bielecka

Marzena Bielecka is a Berlin based surrealist painter, self-development writer, nature lover and travelling addict. In her free time she mostly likes lying on the grass and looking up at the sky. At Wingman Magazine she cares about the self-development section. You can follow her Instagram @Berlin.Surrealist or her website a Marzena Bielecka .

22 thoughts on “How to Lucid Dream Tonight – 8 Ways To Hack Your Sleep

  1. Thanks.

    Good things to remember:

    – Keeping a dream journal; to remember dreams better and improve overall recall. (How good is your recall?)
    – Motivation.
    – Techniques (which you have been trying, good).
    – Patience; an ability to lucid dream usually isn’t learned very easily, it requires time.
    – Good amount of sleep
    – Noticing dream signs

    I personally highly recommend The Lucid Dreaming Fast Track. if you plan on lucid dreaming without tedious methods and wish to apply it every time you fall asleep whether it be a nap or a sleep. I, as a user of this product a long time ago learned a lot and I wish to share “how it all started” for me. Learning how to lucid dream is one of the greatest things in life and soon you’ll truly realize things that are important in life.

    Try out The Lucid Dreaming Fast Track: http://smarturl.it/ThelucidDreaming?IQid=.blc

    1. Hey I need help lucid dreaming. I want to see how it feels and how lucid dreaming can help me out as some people say.

  2. I’ve almost become lucid once, I knew I was dreaming, but excitement surprisingly wasn’t what ruined my chance, it was I couldn’t control my movements. I keep a dream journal, and it helps.

  3. Great guide. Lucid dreaming requires focus and a lot of practice. Thank you for the tips. One thing I also used was this guide and it helped a lot: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6ubxBjqdSeM . The thing I love about lucid dreaming is the freedom when astral projecting or having a OBD guide. Really does take away the stress of the day. It is also helpful to join a forum or find a local group. You don’t have to do by yourself.

  4. I went into a dream knowing I was dreaming and once I noticed I was dreaming I had to focus really hard not to blink so I don’t wake up because I had an urge to wake up after I noticed I was dreaming.After that I ran to my school and kissed the girl I liked,no joke,lol.

  5. I have done this since I was a kid. I still do. Me st of the time I know I’m dreaming and can control what happens. It’s really interesting. 😉

  6. I had a really fun lucid dream where I was being hunted by murderers. And I would run and hide in various settings except I could control where I hid. I could also control if they found me. If they found me I would either fly or put a bubble around myself. I even was able to tell myself that “you’re dreaming.”

  7. Is tip 2 skippable, I really can’t afford those pills but everything else is doable.

  8. There is an imperative connection amongst lucid dreaming and meditation. In both cases, you intend to achieve a lovely self-awareness. You can meditate at whatever time, and in any position, you feel good. http://lucid-dreaming.us

  9. I’ve seen a couple times the “finger through the hand” trick, but last night I noticed I was dreaming and yelled it out in my dream, and the person I was talking to started to argue that I was not dreaming. I tried to push my finger through my hand and it didn’t go through. The person than shoved me, making fun of me, and it hurt. I often feel pain in my dreams. Because the mind can create pain, it is not the craziest idea that someone could feel some degree of pain in their dreams. Our minds can make us believe we feel many things.

    I was pissed about the hand trick though.

    1. Its true ikr i was dreaming about me becoming a warlord it was war
      Someone stabbed me with a sword it frikin hurt but i didnt die i just fu*kin pull of the sword and slice him om half

    2. You didn’t have any expectation that it WILL go through, right?
      You don’t practice this with absolute expectation that it WILL go through, right now, when I do it.
      And if you have legitimate expectations, you will be legitimately shocked that it didn’t.

  10. I’ve tried the dream journal method but it’s too much of a commitment. You have to set your alarm earlier than usual and it eventually messes with your sleep. Don’t get me wrong it does work… but it takes a long time and you have to be committed every single day.

    To those impatient and lazy folks like me, check out Rebecca Turner’s ‘Fast Track’ course. Probably the fastest and easiest method to lucid dream on the internet. Here’s a link to her course: tinyurl.com/FastTrackMethod

    Flying around in your dreams will never get boring!

  11. … I dreamed I was having s** sadly I didn’t and im still a virgin 🙁 I suggest you don’t lucid dream

    1. You’re probably a 10 year old kid.
      Just because you didn’t do the stupid thing you imbecile wanted to do doesn’t mean that you should suggest we don’t lucid dream. Fucking idiot.
      Burn in hell.
      Also you contradicted yourself.

      adam abbott • 5 months ago
      I had sex with a spider in my dream
      I recommend lucid dreaming because it was amazing seeing what it was like being a spider
      You ARE a 7 year old kid.

  12. I had sex with a spider in my dream and I was a male spider it was weird how we were in this really white space and she was with another spider who was a docter, I recommend lucid dreaming because it was amazing seeing what it was like being a spider

  13. Some good tips although not all of these are essential.

    I believe information overload is why a lot of people don’t have any success with lucid dreaming and eventually give up. Which is a massive shame because lucid dreaming is even better than you can imagine (Seriously) – With enough practice you eventually feel like you’re in a different world every time you go to sleep.

    I highly recommend joining the Lucid Academy which makes the entire process extremely easy to understand. It was the only method that ever worked for me. Here’s a link to the guide: tinyurl.com/TheLucidAcademy

    Lucid dreaming > Virtual reality.

  14. Some good tips although not all of these are essential.

    I believe information overload is why a lot of people don’t have any success with lucid dreaming and eventually give up. Which is a massive shame because lucid dreaming is even better than you can imagine (Seriously) – With enough practice you eventually feel like you’re in a different world every time you go to sleep.

    I highly recommend joining the Lucid Academy which makes the entire process extremely easy to understand. It was the only method that ever worked for me. Here’s a direct link to the guide: tinyurl.com/TheLucidAcademy

    Lucid dreaming > Virtual reality.

  15. Oh my gosh! i love this great article, I think i’m going to use it tonight! i’m in love with the thought of being able to control anything, because in my real life i’m feeling like i don’t belong, exist, or im just not useful. Even though im only 11, i feel like i could run the world in my dream or even fly, go out naked in public, see what it would feel to even be older! Thanks SO much!!!!

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