Even the thought of having controlling dreams is thrilling, to say the least. The freedom to absolutely anything you want and go onto the craziest adventures fall in the hands of the dreamer in such a state. It is, however, not an easy task for a beginner to achieve. Although, there are certain tricks to help you reach this goalpost with less effort. Let’s explore some of them.

  • Sleep well

This might sound obvious, but it’s not really. In the rapid passing of our daily lives, we often overlook the importance of our sleep quality. In the context of lucid dreaming, it’s an even more significant factor. Dreams most frequently occur at the REM sleep stage. During the first few sleep cycles, the REM stage is relatively short, and it enters this stage for extended periods only when it has rested enough. So, make sure you get at least 6 hours of sleep and are in a sleep-friendly environment when you do so.

  • Record your dreams

Keep a journal as close to you as possible when you got to sleep. Whenever you wake up, be it in the morning or the middle of the night, immediately write down everything you’ve dreamed about in as much detail as you possibly can. We usually forget up to 90 % of what we dream in the first minutes after waking up. But forgetting dreams is not something you want to do if you wish to have conscious dreams. Having a textbook full of your nightly adventures helps to recognise the patterns of your dream state and increases your chances of controlling dreams tremendously.

  • Perform reality checks

Whenever you find yourself in a dream, you may notice how the usual rules of physics or logic do not apply to it. So, when going about your daily life, you should get into a habit of doing “reality checks” to find out if you are dreaming. Just be sure to restrain yourself from jumping off a rooftop to check if you can fly. You can check if you’re dreaming in a much safer way. For example, look at a nearby watch, then look away and check it once again. If you are in a dream, you’ll notice that the time has jumped an hour or so in mere seconds. You could also look at your hands, as they look very weird when you are dreaming, and you’ll have no problem figuring out that you’re actually sleeping. Do these checks often enough, and you will sooner or later do one of them in a dream.

  • Try to stay calm

When you succeed in controlling dreams, it is important not to get too excited. It is expected that you will either freak out or get excited to the point of waking yourself up. This experience can be rather frustrating, especially if you were trying to lucid dream for weeks or months. So, whenever you have a conscious dream, try to stay calm and relaxed. And don’t be sad if you fail – with time, you will get better and better at controlling your dreams!