Lucid dreaming is simply being aware that you are dreaming while you are in a dream. Learning how to do lucid dreaming intentionally is a personal growth tool. It may help you resolve personal problems because you’re able to consciously take an active role in your dreams. It can also be a lot of fun!

Lucid dreaming is a challenging art to master, but there are steps that can be taken to help you achieve the state.

As you go to sleep, use the suggestion: “As I am dreaming tonight, I will realize I am dreaming” (use your own words).

It’s important to do this as you are drifting off to sleep, but you can do it throughout the day as well. Sometimes as you are making this suggestion you may actually have a memory of a previous dream come to mind! Your attitude should be one of positive expectation, but gentle inviting rather than insisting or applying any type of pressure or anxiety.

Next, work on remembering your dreams after you wake up. By getting the mind used to remembering your dreams, you are creating a more deliberate connection of awareness between the conscious and unconscious mind. In fact, it’s possible that you may already be having lucid dreams, but you aren’t remembering them!

The final step is to attempt to stay in the twilight sleep state for as long as possible upon awakening. You will often have a dream just before you awake in the morning so if you can stay still and keep your eyes closed, you may be able to enter back into the dream, but with more conscious awareness, thus creating a type of lucid dream as you balance between the sleeping and waking states.

A common problem some people encounter with lucid dreaming is that they wake up as soon as they realize they’re dreaming. This is because the work of making conscious choices while sleeping causes the conscious mind is rise from its slumber, thus arousing the wakening state.

This can be overcome with practice, but there is a technique that can help. Before you go to sleep, plan on what you will do in your lucid dreams. This removes an element of conscious choice during your dreams, which may help you stay in the dream state.