There Are Many Benefits to Lucid Dreaming

I'm a lucid dreamer. Lucid dreaming is where you wake up inside your dream and are able to control the location and the outcome to a certain extent. About three percent of the adult population lucid dream naturally and it is more common in children. Lucid dreaming takes place in the REM, or rapid eye movement, stage of sleep.

There are ways to learn lucid dreaming. Stephan LeBarge, one of the pioneer researchers in lucid dreaming, has written several good books on the subject. The first thing that one needs to do if they want to become a lucid dreamer is to think about it right before you go to bed. It's also really important to keep a dream journal.

I used to have a notebook where I would write all of my dreams down as soon as I woke up. Some people like to have a tape recorder that is voice-activated near their bed. That way you can record your dreams before you move around in bed.

Moving around right after you wake up can cause you to lose some 90 % of what you were just dreaming. Some will tell you that they don't dream, but it's just that don't remember them.

After you keep the dream journal for several months, then start focusing on waking up within your dream. Try to look for clues that will tell you that you are dreaming. I once dreamed that I was at work, but wearing the wrong kind of shoes. This tipped me off that I was in a dream. Then do some kind of test to prove it. I would usually try to put my hand through a wall. If it worked, then I knew that I was dreaming.

Then the sky is the limit once you learn how. Your dreams then become what I call "the Nintendo game of the brain." It's a wild psychedelic trip without the drugs. You can fly, jump off of buildings, swim underwater, and even take a trip inside your own body.

You can get in touch with your own subconscious and fix any mental problems that you may have. You can even rewrite the ending of a bad dream and make it more pleasant. If someone is chasing you in a lucid dream you can turn around and ask it why and it will tell you, after all, the characters in your dreams are all aspects of you anyway.

But are there negative aspects to lucid dreaming? The only ones I have had is a worry if I'm going to wake up or not after a particularly long dream. But according to CNN:

"It appears that Jared Loughner, allegedly responsible for the shooting at a supermarket in Tucson, Arizona, on Saturday, took a keen interest in the phenomenon. In a YouTube video, he talks about conscious dreaming and reflects a blurring between waking life and reality."

But most of the effects of lucid dreaming are beneficial. The Buddhists practiced "dream yoga" thousands of years ago and the American Indians believe that lucid dreaming is just like what you experience when you go on to the "other world". They believe that lucid dreaming is sort of like practice for that event.

So if controlling your dreams is something that you might be interested in, then check out one of the many books that show you how to do it. But the most important first step is keeping a dream journal.

Source: http://www.cnn.com/2011/HEALTH/01/12/loughner.lucid.dreaming.arizona/index.html?hpt=Sbin