Lucid Dreaming

Taking Control of Your Dreams, One Step at a Time

by Vincent Huston (Contributor)

The dreams you have as a child are usually a lot more vivid and terrifying than the ones you get when you’re older. In fact, once in adulthood, many believe that they do not dream at all. Here is some insight on what happens.

After about 70 minutes of being asleep, your mind enters the REM (rapid eye movement) sleeping stage, which is when dreams happen. This first stage lasts just a few minutes, since you will constantly bounce back into what is known as dreamless sleep. As the night goes on, the brain can finally leave that state and once again enters the REM stage, which is basically the real moment for dreams and eventually lucid dreams to occur. These types of dreams happen when you are able to live inside the world of the dream and be consciously aware of it.

In the 1970s, Dr. Keith Hearne proved scientifically that you can become lucid at will and truly take control of the world around you. If you learn to calm yourself once in this state, it could last for over 30 minutes depending on your experience level. Usually the problem beginners have is that they get too excited, which causes the dream state to crumble in just a matter of seconds. A way to become lucid is to perform reality checks during your normal day such as staring at your hands, looking at the time, reading something, pinching yourself and more. If you do these things while thinking about the context of lucid dreaming, your reflex will be to perform them in your dream, making you become lucid.

To start tough, I suggest keeping it simple and writing down your dreams to help develop your recall memory as it is hard to remember what goes on during your sleep.