What is Lucid Dreaming?

The basic definition of lucid dreaming requires nothing more than becoming aware that you are dreaming. However, the quality of lucidity can vary greatly. When lucidity is at a high level, you are aware that everything experienced in the dream is occurring in your mind, that there is no real danger, and that you are asleep in bed and will awaken shortly. With low-level lucidity, you may be aware to a certain extent that you are dreaming, perhaps enough to fly or alter what you are doing, but not enough to realize that the people are dream representations, or that you can suffer no physical damage, or that you are actually in bed.

Wednesday, February 16, 2011

3.7 HOW CAN I PREVENT WAKING UP AS SOON AS I BECOME LUCID?

Beginning lucid dreamers often have the problem of waking up right after becoming lucid. This obstacle may prevent some people from realizing the value of lucid dreaming. Fortunately there are ways to overcome this problem.
The first is to remain calm in the dream. Becoming lucid is exciting, but expressing the excitement can awaken you. It is possible to enjoy the thrill that accompanies the dawning of lucidity without allowing the activation to overwhelm you. Be like a poker player with an ideal hand. Relax and engage with the dream rather than withdrawing into your inner joy of accomplishment.
Then, if the dream shows signs of ending, such as a loss of detail, vividness, and apparent reality of the imagery, the technique of "spinning" can often restore the dream. You spin your dream body around like a child trying to get dizzy. LaBerge developed this technique after experimenting with the idea that relaxing completely might help prevent awakening from a dream. When in a lucid dream that was fading, he stopped and dropped backwards to the floor, and had a false awakening in bed! After a few trials he determined that the essential element was the sensation of motion, not relaxation. The best way to create a feeling of movement, especially in the dream scene has vanished, leaving nowhere to move to, is to create angular momentum (or the sensation of it), by spinning around your axis. You are not really doing it, but your brain is well familiar with the experience of spinning and duplicates the experience quite well. In the process the vestibular and kinesthetic senses are engaged. Presumably, this sensory engagement with the dream discourages the brain from changing state from dreaming to waking. Note that dream spinning does not usually lead to dizziness. Be aware that the expectation of possible awakening sometimes leads to a "false awakening" in which you dream of waking. The vividness of the spinning sensation may cause you to feel your spinning arm hit the bed. You think, "Oops, I'm awake in bed now." Think now--your physical body wasn't really spinning, it was your dream body--therefore, the arm is a  dream arm hitting a dream bed! To avoid being deceived, recite, "The next scene will be a dream," until a scene appears. If you are in doubt about your status, perform a thorough reality test.
Research at the Lucidity Institute has proven the effectiveness of spinning: the odds in favor of continuing the lucid dream were about 22 to 1 after spinning, 13 to 1 after hand rubbing (another technique designed to prevent awakening), and 1 to 2 after "going with the flow" (a "control" task). That makes the relative odds favoring spinning over going with the flow 48 to 1, and for rubbing over going with the flow, 27 to 1.

34 comments:

  1. The best tip that I know. In your dream look straight down. Start spinning in circles. It calms you down and makes you dizzy. You stay in the dream.

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  2. This sounds fascinating...ill be trying this out tonight lol

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  3. thanks for the post, I'm going to try this as soon as I get a chance for some sleep! :)

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  4. Awesome man, I've been anting to this along time, but I was never devoted enough... I'm going to go back and read the rest of your blogs, but thanks alot man

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  5. Awesome blog. I've been interesting in lucid dreaming for years now, but never experienced it. Following so I can read your other posts, and new content.

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  6. Sick blog, dude. I've tried lucid dreaming before and it is some crazy stuff. Your subconscious knows as much as your conscious brain!

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  7. That was great stuff.

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  8. awesome, love to learn about this

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  9. Intresting. I naver managed to have a liquid dream. This might help.

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  10. I'm really interested in lucid dreaming, but I'm too terrified to try it. D= I had a lucid nightmare when I was like 5 years old with the whole being awake and frozen and helpless, trying to scream, and thinking about it still gives me th heebie jeebies. =/

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  11. Ive tried to lucid dream a couple times by everytime i open i door i question if its a dream or not. THis resulted in a single night where i was able to turn around in my dream and thats all that happened lol. Added to morning coffee...I can have coffee too?

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  12. Honestly, practice makes perfect with lucid dreaming. Not waking up is one of the most annoying things to learn.

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  13. What works well also is a 5 senses check, where you do something for each one of your five senses one at a time.

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  14. Good read. Gotta try this some time

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  15. This blog is very interesting I've always thought it would be cool to have a lucid dream, I must try it soon

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  16. I wish I could do this! Good stuff. I will definitely be back.

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  17. Ooo something that I would like to do, thanks for sharing!

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  18. I always look at my hands twice when something is off. When dreaming you frequently have the wrong number of fingers.

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  19. Nice blog, Lucid dreaming is amazing once acheived.

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  20. Cool blog, when i was a child I used to have lucid dreams all the time, its harder to have them now
    Following for more!

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  21. Interesting... But i guess im too afraid to even try lucid dreaming ( altho ive tried once - there was a collection of audio files that would give you this experience, but you would have to sleep with your high quality headphones on lying on your back. my problem was i couldn't fall asleep lying on my back :( )

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  22. Thanks for the tips, I already kind of knew about the "spinning technique" but it's good to get confirmation.

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  23. i can't remember what i was dreaming

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  24. Lucid dreams kinda spook me out...

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  25. I have never succeed in the attempt of trying lucid dreaming.

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  26. Damn! Today i fell asleep on the sofa. At a certain moment, i dreamed that i was lucid dreaming. Never happened to me.

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  27. are lucid dreams really worth the effort? i don't think i spend enough sleeping

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  28. gah, I had it happen today (I've been trying to learn recently). All of a sudden I realized I was lucid dreaming, and I did a nose check, it worked, then I woke up :(
    Thanks for the tip! I'll try it next time.

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