Dreams are our everlasting sources of inspiration and guidelines on our spiritual being development. Dreams are often considered reflections of our soul and real life, as well as our unconscious thoughts, desires and actions. They represent a realm of both things hidden and things we know. Images we get dreaming would often seem illogical and confusing to our mind.
However, even if it seems a dream is completely irrelevant to our real life, it has its purpose. With a little practice, we could learn how to understand and interpret them.
Moreover, we could even learn how to control our dreams and how to dream what we want to. Human brain is an amazing ‘device’, to say so. Although it is still a great enigma to scientists, there are great achievements that can help us get more control over our brain’s actions.
Dreams have been considered treasuries of wisdom since the ancient times. In many great civilizations, dreams were intentionally induced in order for an individual or people to get some valuable information, guideline or interpretation. Intentional inducing of dreams was common in ancient Greece and Rome. There were even rituals of collective dreaming.
Lucid dreaming
Lucid dreaming is a form of dreaming we think of when we speak of intentionally designed dreams. To put things simply, it means you could literally dream what you want. It may sound difficult or even impossible you have the ability to stay conscious during your sleep, but it is not so complicated. Everyone can learn how to have lucid dreams; it only requires a lot o practice and patience.
The first thing you need to do is to make a strong decision you’ll stay conscious during your sleep. Think of it and get concentrated over the decision for several days. Get concentrated during the day, just before you go to sleep and every time you awake during the night, if so. It is important to be completely relaxed and calm. You could use some relaxing techniques, such as meditation, warm and aromatic bath and so on.
If you want to have lucid dreams, you should sleep at least five to regular eight hours. Get ready for bed calmly and without tension. Make sure you have enough time to get relaxed before bedtime; it applies to getting up in the morning, as well. Don’t get discouraged if it doesn’t work from the first try or next. You should stay calm and keep trying. There are many ways to learn to control your dreams.
In the first place, you should treat yourself with car and tenderness. You should practice your overall concentration and planning skills. Your ability to plan your dreams would improve over time.
Techniques of planning dreams
Lucid dreams are planned and controlled dreams. There are techniques to improve your dream control skills and actually dream what you really want. Lucid dreams appear during REM phase of sleep. There are about three to five REM phases in one row. Dreams that occur during the REM phase are the dreams you remember the following day.
Some scientific studies had shown gamers have greater chances to dream regularly, meaning to clearly recall their dreams and control them. The explanation lies in their routine to manipulate the virtual reality. However, even if you are not so passionate about virtual video games realms, you could still learn how to manage your dreams. Here are the steps of the dream control training.
- Remembering the dream
This step could be quite difficult for beginners, since our dreams often appear completely pointless and irrational. Sometimes it is very difficult to remember the exact pattern of the dream, but regular effort to recall it could help you learn to control it in time. Well, how could you control something you are completely unaware of?
- Writing it down
This is logical step after the first one. Bring a notebook and a pencil to your bedroom and keep it close to your bed. That would be your dream journal. After you wake up, write down all the details you can recall. What happened in your dream, how did you feel? Where was it happening, what were the colors, smells, sounds..?
- Repetition
Recalling and writing down the confusing scenario of your dreams should became your routine. After some time passes, your dream would probably appear more meaningful and it would be easier to remember them. You’re on a right path to become a lucid dreamer.
- MILD technique
MILD technique is a technique of dream controlling. MILD stands for Mnemonic Induction of Lucid Dreams, meaning inducing the dream by getting aware you’re dreaming. So, how you do that? Set your alarm clock to wake you up four and a half, six or seven and a half hours after you got asleep. When you wake up, try to memorize the dream the best you can. When you’ve memorized it, go back to sleep imagining you’re in the dream you’ve previously had. Don’t worry if you get random thoughts while trying this or if it doesn’t work the first couple of times. After practicing this technique for some time, many people eventually got their first lucid dreams.
- WBTB technique
According to some claims, this is the most successful technique for lucid dreaming. It stands for Wake then Back to Bed. Set your alarm to wake you up after five hours. When it gets you out of your bed stay awake for one hour trying to remember the dream. Go back to sleep using MILD technique.
Lucid dreams may seem complicated to achieve, but once you’ve mastered the techniques, they would become your routine. Once you get aware during your sleep, you could start to improve your dream control skills. When lucid dreaming becomes common for you, you can literally manage your actions in a particular dream. Getting better in this amazing skill, you’ll eventually find you can even induce the subject you want. Don’t get upset if you’re constantly waking up during your first lucid dreams, it is very common for beginners and it will most certainly cease over time.