 Have you ever wanted to escape into the world of the dream? All of us are capable of dreaming, but sometimes it feels like our dreams are controlling us. For those of you who aren't familiar with the term, lucid dreaming is when an individual is fully aware that they are dreaming while they're asleep. Consequently, this allows you to have a certain degree of control over what happens in your dream when you know you're in one. Lucid dreaming can especially come in handy when you have reoccurring nightmares, have a desire to speak to a loved one who's passed away, or when you want to problem-solve creatively. Sounds cool, right? Here are seven steps that can help you lose a dream. Keep a dream journal. Even if you don't fully remember all the details of your dreams, it's good to get in the habit of writing what you can recall. You can start off by jotting down fragments of sensory information that stood out to you. Who was in your dream? What were they wearing? Were there particular scents or fragrances that you remember? What was the environment like? Did you hear any music? What emotions did you feel? One perspective that may be helpful to adapt is to consider your dreams as a memory that you're stepping back into. When you get in the habit of writing down what you remember, you can start to look for dream signs or patterns, which can be a tool to analyze your thoughts. Auto-Suggestion Auto-Suggestion is when the dreamers suggest to themselves that they will have a lucid dream right before they fall asleep. This serves as a self-fulfilling prophecy. The more you expect yourself to participate in lucid dreaming, the stronger the likelihood is. During auto-suggestion, the dreamers suggest that they will lucid dream while they are relaxing and work on clearing their mind before they fall asleep. You are what you think, after all. Pneumonic induction of lucid dreams, M-I-L-D Pneumonic induction of lucid dreams is done right before the dreamer falls asleep. The sleeper rehearses the dream and imagines what they will be in it. Then you can say phrases such as, The next time that I dream, I want to remember that I'm dreaming. It's similar to auto-suggestion with the aspect of self-fulfilling prophecy, but includes a mantra that they repeat right before they fall asleep. According to a study of the University of Adelaide, researchers found that participants who used the M-I-L-D technique and said their mantra five minutes prior to falling asleep had the best rates of lucidity. Participants who took longer to fall asleep were less likely to lucid dream using this method. Wake Up Back to Bed WBTB Wake Up Back to Bed involves the dreamer waking up in the middle of the night before their usual wake-up time and having them stay awake between a half-hour to two hours before returning to sleep. This technique increases your alertness and due to your natural sleep pattern, you will enter an REM cycle faster than you typically would. This, in turn, will help you lucid dream because lucid dreams occur the most during REM sleep. From the sleep study, researchers have concluded that combining the techniques of both WBTB and M-I-L-D is most effective at generating lucid dreaming in a one-week period. But we're not sure if you want to sacrifice your sleep to test this out. Reality Check When the dreamer does a reality check, they ask themselves whether they're dreaming while they are awake and look for signs in their immediate environment that indicate they are, in fact, awake. For instance, you can jump up in the air or check the clock. In real life, when you jump up, you will immediately come back down, but in dreams, you may stay in the air or float. And when you check the clock, the time will barely move in real life. But in dreams when you check it, the time may be drastically different each time. The intention of using reality checks is to help you recognize reality from dreaming more easily. But researchers from the sleep study discovered that it's least effective when used alone. To ensure a stronger likelihood of lucid dreaming, we recommend combining it with other techniques. Intention Intention involves the dreamer imagining that they're in a dream-like situation and recognizing the dream right before they fall asleep. This technique can be helpful for those who experience reoccurring nightmares. When you use this method, it can help you switch over to a more favorable dream. By setting up what you wish to dream of with visualization techniques, you're more likely to experience that dream when you do fall asleep. External Stimulation External stimulation used during REM sleep can influence one to participate in lucid dreaming. This is because the dreamer can rely on the external cue to remind them that they are asleep and dreaming. The most popular external cue people often use is a sleep mask. This is because it's directly in contact with one's skin to remind the dreamer that they are asleep. By investing in a good sleep mask, you can increase your likelihood of lucid dreaming. Have you ever been able to control your dreams? Did you use any of these steps to make it happen? Let us know in the comments below and as always, thank you for your continued support.