Also called lucid dreaming, conscious dreaming is a state where you are aware that you are in the middle of a dream and can then start to control the goings-on of the experience. You can do anything that you can imagine while having a lucid dream, as soon as you understand that you are dreaming.
Many people think that this is something which could only happen in the context of a science fiction novel, but conscious dreaming is something within the reach of every person. With some practice, you can begin having the amazing experiences available to you through lucid dreaming. You can start by using some tried and true conscious dreaming techniques.
Before you get started, you should decide why it is that you want to enjoy lucid dreaming. Do you want to use your conscious dreams to help you achieve goals in life, or just as a way of enjoying your dreams more?
With your goal in mind, the next thing to do is to start learning and practicing the methods which can help you to begin conscious dreaming. A lot of people find the best way to begin to be dream recall. Dream recall is just the process of practicing recalling the details of your dreams.
This will force your mind to focus on your dreams and begin remembering them easily as time goes by. You can always use your dream record to refresh your memory. As soon as you get used to recalling your dreams you are ready to go to the next level, which is to know when you are in a dream. You may in fact be in a dream and suddenly realize it.
Another way besides keeping a record of your dreams is to use hypnosis. It will get you to the mindset necessary to have lucid dreams. Hypnosis is a powerful tool that can get you to remember details in your dreams very quickly. Just a few sessions are all it takes. As with the other method, once you have dream recall, you are ready to have a conscious dream.
Hypnosis also helps, whether in conjunction with a dream diary or on its own. This can get you into the right state of mind for conscious dreaming ? and in as few as a few sessions of hypnosis, most find that they can remember the minutest details of their dreams! Once you can do this, lucid dreaming follows quickly.
Yet another conscious dreaming method is to force yourself to awaken earlier than usual, such as two hours or so. After you have awoken, go ahead and fall back to sleep. This has the effect of making you more aware of your dreams. You may have the illusion that you are lying in bed daydreaming but you are actually asleep and dreaming. Lucid dreaming is very likely to occur if you do this consistently.
Another useful technique to induce lucid dreams is to wake up a few hours earlier than you habitually do and then going right back to sleep. In these hours before your usual waking time, lucid dreaming is much more likely to occur. You may not even be able to tell if you were lying awake or dreaming!
Figure out your sleep patterns, as this will help you to figure out when the best times for you to have conscious dreaming experiences are. Don?t short yourself on sleep too much though; being sleep deprived makes it harder to have lucid dreams.
Those afflicted with insomnia and other sleep disorders may be pleased to hear that conscious dreaming can help them to get a better night?s sleep ? it makes it easier to clear away the worries which can keep you from getting to sleep at night.
Many think of lucid dreaming as something which takes years of practice to learn; but in fact, it isn?t that hard. It just takes a little practice to become a conscious dreamer.
If you are asleep and aware you are dreaming, this means you are having a lucid or conscious dream. This means you can control what happens while you are in this state. You will know you are dreaming so you can decide what happens next.